would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say, that a future state had been discovered already :—it had been discovered as the Copernican system was ;-it was one guess among many. He alone discovers, who proves; and no man can prove this point, but the teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine comes from God." Pædianus says of Virgil,-Usque adeo expers invidiæ ut siquid erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gauderet ac si suum esset. My own heart assures me that this is less than the truth: that Virgil would have read a beautiful passage in the work of another with a higher and purer delight than in a work of his own, because free from the apprehension of his judgment being warped by self-love, and without that repressive modesty akin to shame, which in a delicate mind holds in check a man's own secret thoughts and feelings, when they respect himself. The cordial admiration with which I peruse the preceding passage as a master-piece of composition, would, could I convey it, serve as a measure of the vital importance I attach to the convictions which impelled me to animadvert on the same passage as doctrine. APPENDIX. A SYNOPTICAL SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME OF THE ARGUMENT TO PROVE THE DIVERSITY IN KIND, of THE REASON AND THE UNDERSTANDING. SEE P. 157. THE position to be proved is the difference in kind of the understanding from the reason. The axiom, on which the proof rests, is subjects, which require essentially different general definitions, differ in kind and not merely in degree. For difference in degree forms the ground of specific definitions, but not of generic or general. Now reason is considered either in relation to the will and moral being, when it is termed the * practical reason = A: or relatively to the intellective and sciential faculties, when it is termed theoretic or speculative reason = a. In order therefore to be compared with the reason, the understanding must in like manner be distinguished into the understanding as a principle of action, in which relation N. B. The practical reason alone is reason in the full and substantive sense. It is reason in its own sphere of perfect freedom; as the source of ideas, which ideas, in their conversion to the responsible will, become ultimate ends. On the other hand, theoretic reason, as the ground of the universal and absolute in all logical conclusion, is rather the light of reason in the understanding, and known to be such by its contrast with the contingency and particularity which characterize all the proper and indigenous growths of the understanding. I call it the adaptive power, or the faculty of selecting and adapting means and medial of proximate ends = B: and the understanding, as a mode and faculty of thought, when it is called reflection = b. Accordingly, I give the general definitions of these four: that is, I describe each severally by its essential characters: and I find, that the definition of A differs toto genere from that of B, and the definition of a from that of b. Now subjects that require essentially different definitions do themselves differ in kind. But understanding, and reason, require essentially different Therefore understanding and reason definitions. differ in kind. THE END. LONDON C WHITTINGHAM 21 TOOKS COURT CHANCERY LANE |