the greater will be my capacity for excellence and happiness, and that the whole of my happiness must be more important than any passing moment of it, it employs the present in the interests of that more important future. The benevolent affections have their objects multiplied indefinitely. Self-love obeys the command, "Thou shalt love thyself." Benevolence is under the wider law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In common with self-love, it contemplates the distant future; but, forgetful of self, it opens its arms to embrace the interests of that vast whole, of which it forms a self-oblivious part. While conscience, having to recognize the rightness of objects, has an especial affinity for everything bearing the impress of the Divine will. The appetites, indeed, and self-love, and the benevolent affections, are as much Divinely-originated parts of our nature as conscience itself. And, therefore, it is, that conscience can unite with and sanction them, within their appointed limits; or they can all act together. But regarding a man as acting on only one of these principles at a time, the force of conscience must be admitted to be more sacred and commanding than either of the others, in proportion to the loftier character of the sphere which belongs to it.

9. Hence, though the same act may be performed from motives drawn from each of these classes, there is no comparison between the rightful strength of the other motives, and of that drawn from the will and character of God. The sight of a piece of bread, for example, may awaken in a man the sensation of hunger, and he may eat it simply to gratify his appetite. Or, though not hungry, he may take it, from a prudent self-love, as offered to him by one whom he is loth to disoblige, because he is looking to him for some future advantage. Or he may eat it as the means of strengthening himself for a journey undertaken for some neighborly purpose. Or he may partake of it preparatory to some great conflict in which the authority of God, and the paramount claims of rectitude, are at stake. Now, who does not perceive that these motives are drawn from an ascending scale of importance; and that the last, based on obligation, is so much more authoritative than the others, that it ought to be obeyed, even though it were opposed by the combined force of the other three?

10. In harmony with these views, man exercises an influence over the mind of his fellow-man proportioned to the rank of the truth and of the faculty which he employs, and of the principle, and the intensity of the principle, by which he is actuated.

Mere physical force effects little. The most exterminating persecution defeats itself. Any apparent exception to this rule owes its existence to the force of public opinion, and not to persecution itself, and as such serves to illustrate the power of that opinion. The mightiest machinery is moved by mind. Every revolution was once a thought. The great changes of society are produced, not by laws, kings, or armies, as is generally supposed; but by the operation of a power stronger than all these -a power which no fires can burn, no armies destroy, but which is able itself to extinguish the one and to annihilate the other-the power of thought, opinion, principle. These are the true sovereigns of the world. By the constitution of the Divine plan, the empire of time has been given to them; and all other forms of power are only their creatures. In the domain of mind, metaphysical ideas are supreme. Their power is not limited to the minds which conceive them. It extends next to the larger circle of minds which comprehend them. These popularize and diffuse them to a wider circle beyond. Thought propagates itself by a law of its own; and in proportion as it loses its metaphysical or scientific form, it becomes a centre of feeling and force, and gains in its influence on the general mass. The débris of the mountain-range, though inac cessible and useless in its Himalayan heights, when triturated and commingled by the streams which bear it down into the valleys, is destined to form the fertile plains on whose produce nations live. While the earth was resounding with Alexander's exploits, Aristotle, his tutor, was silently achieving the mightier conquest of the human mind. The Macedonian empire was soon dismembered and extinct; but the mental empire of the philosopher continued vigorous and entire for more than two thousand years, moulding opinions, affecting creeds, and indirectly guiding the popular intellect; nor is it anything like destroyed yet.

11. It may be expected, however, that of all the thoughts or theories which move men, the mightiest will be those which partake of a moral nature. And it is so. A moral truth is greater than a throne, and subverts thrones. It has a throne of its own, "in the spirit and souls of men." Mighty is he to whom such a truth first comes, or by whom it first speaksmightier than all men that have it not. Based on all that is

most profound and central in our nature, it draws to itself the whole depth and mass of our being. And as it enlists in its cause the spiritual and untiring part of our nature, it needs no

pause, allows no truce, entails its quarrel from generation to generation. Hence religion is ever struggling for its right place and influence among a people where it has not yet obtained them; and where it has, that place is found to be the centre and summit of power, where it becomes the bond of their unity and their strength. To the idea of God, society is ever unconsciously aiming to adjust itself, and to be assimilated.

12. We have seen that man is actuated by principles differing in value and importance; and we may expect, therefore, that his influence on others will be proportioned to the rank of his moving principle. Accordingly, we find that the man who surrenders himself to his animal appetites, passes on himself a sentence of isolation and insignificance; and his fellow-men ratify the doom with averted face. Self-government is the primary condition of all relative influence; and in proportion as a man displays this, even in the pursuit of his own interests, he rules the spirits of others. "Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself." The man who, under the force of a well-regulated self-love, keeps his eye steadily fixed on some point in the future, and tramples on every present obstacle in the way to it, influences those around him by his example at every step he takes. The benevolent affections tell more powerfully still. They surround a man with an atmosphere, which whoso breathes becomes like him. The open heart is a key to open other hearts. Compassion melts and warms the icy to its own temperature. Love begets love, and "is stronger than death." Actuated by these affections, a man goes out of himself only to find that others are coming to him. A sense of duty still further augments his power. The force of a higher will is then added to his own. He "cannot but speak the things which he has seen and heard." 66 Necessity is laid on him." He is an agent of heaven. Every great force enters into his character; sincerity, which all confide in; self-denial, which makes room in his heart for God; faith, which sees horses and chariots of fire," and which can hourly remove a mountain; and an energy which moves with face and step direct towards its object; qualities which all hearts bow down before and reverence.

13. When the being moved by such principles, proposes to himself a lofty end, he still further augments his power. He can, we have said, design for eternity. If the design which he sets before himself be coincident with the great designs of God, he assimilates his nature to the Divine nature, and shares in its greatness. A political necessity has sometimes compelled the

vicious to identify themselves for a time with great interests; and the effect has been to charm them temporarily from their degradation, and to raise them to an elevation of character which has shed a dignity on our species. But he who surrenders himself intelligently and voluntarily to a great object, lifts his whole nature at once and for ever. He no longer needs particular rules and detailed prescriptions. He is a law to himself; rather, he is obeying all laws at once, without feeling that he is subjected to any. By aiming at the highest end, he carries with him the influence of every object and being, moving in the same direction. He is made free of the universe, and admitted into fellowship with all goodness. Time yields up to him her treasures, and eternity lends him her sanctions. Already he speaks as from the distant future.

14. To be influential in the highest degree, a man must be not only actuated by the highest principles, and aim at the highest end, he must be undivided and entire. Just so much friction as takes place in the internal working of a piece of machinery, is so much power lost to the application of the machine. Let it be supposed, then, that the man is internally united and selfpossessed, that his principles and passions harmoniously combine, that no part of his nature is wanting, no part exercising a counter-influence, that the whole man is bound and braced up as if devoted to the grand experiment of seeing how much a single human agent can effect: let it be supposed further, that this had become his fixed character, the growth and habit of years; and that he had acquired it as the result of indomitable perseverance in a path filled with allurements to beguile, and with dangers to deter, and in such a man we have a combination of the noblest influences operating in the most intense degree. He himself may be unconscious of his power, but the evidence, even of this, would only add to it. He may be great enough to be misunderstood; but his influence is not to be measured by moments or miles; though disinherited of the present, he will possess the future. "Being dead, he will yet speak," speak as from heaven; and even his enemies may come to think of his face "as it had been the face of an angel." His weight is felt even where he is not intellectually comprehended. The fearful trust in him; the doubting believe in him; the evil secretly admire and stand in awe of him. His presence is felt like nature; and the multitude open and make way for him, and then fall into his train. He belongs to the party which has ever ruled the race; and which has given to the world its sages, and martyrs, and heroes,

and benefactors; men whose memoirs are traditional, to whom statues are erected, and whose names become titles. But suppose him in favorable circumstances, and among those by whom he is appreciated and beloved, and his life is a perpetual benefaction, and a diffusion of real power. The mere forms of power humble themselves before him. Wealth and glitter are impoverished by his presence. Everything good tends to yield up its whole nature to him, and he imparts it to others. The last effort of his own power is, to bring them under "the power of the Highest."

15. Now, it was as a being charged with intellectual and spiritual influence, and capable of exercising it, that man became the subject of moral government. That government did not create his superiority; it only recognized his moral powers, and held him responsible for their proper exercise. He came into a grand scheme of things, all the objects of which were Divinely classified before he came. Here, the Providence which "feeds the young lions," notes the "falling sparrow," and "taketh care for oxen," had apportioned its regard according as its objects were of lesser or of "greater value;" and this value was determined according to the measure of the capacity which an object has to receive and to exhibit the proofs of the Creator's perfections, and so to answer the end of creation. On this principle of classification it is that, on man's appearance, he was placed at the head of animated nature. He was "of more value" than all that preceded him, not only as a being of greater capacity for exhibiting the proofs of the Divine care, but chiefly as being capable of the Divine government. A new aspect of the Divine character was now brought to light; and man, as the being in whose nature it was to shine forth, took precedence of all that had gone before him, and passed into the higher sphere of moral government. His powers enabled him, to a certain extent, to be a providence to himself, and a governor of himself, and for this he was to be held responsible. Every faculty within him, estimated by the Divine scale of valuation, had a worth of its own; and he was to appreciate and cultivate each accordingly. Every object without him, according to the Divine classification, had its own place. No two, differing in character, occupied the same rank. For the same reason, therefore, that God is to be the object of his supreme regard, everything else is to be regarded by him according to the nearness of its relation to Him. Every differing object in creation is calculated to affect him, and to affect him differently from every other object; but still the