nature, that they require an open field, a free, unencumbered circuit; and they cannot well exist in their higher degrees of intensity without this opportunity of expansion and of unencumbered action. Shut them up, therefore, in the bosom; enclose them amid the dim shades and the walls of the penetralia of the soul, and they will necessarily wither and die. When they are thus enclosed, they will not be more likely to live and flourish than the tree will that is shut out from the light of the sun and from the genial airs of heaven.

This is a principle of great practical consequence in the government of the passions, and, of course, in the discipline of the will. Never give to the passions (of course, it will be understood that we have no reference to the mild and benevolent passions, but to the evil, and malignant, and angry passions) an outward expression, either verbal or physiognomical, with the exception of those cases where the actual state of things does undoubtedly require it. We may suppose a case, where we may not only be angry with a person, but where also it is desirable that he should know it; but in a vast majority of cases, it is exceedingly better that they should be known only to the bosom where they originate. In one of the well-known Resolutions of President Edwards, which are worthy of the attention of the mere philosopher as well as of the Christian, after resolving against uneasiness and fretfulness in a certain case, he resolves further, never to suffer the effects of such uneasiness or fretfuness," so much as in the least alteration of speech or motion of my eye." A strong intimation, to say the least, how unbecoming he considered the outward expression of the unamiable passions, and how injurious, in ordinary cases, he deemed such an expression to the subject of them.

§ 199. Of enlightening the intellect in connexion with the discipline of the will.

But, in order to give the will a suitable opportunity of action by removing the obstructions in its way, and

especially in order to furnish an adequate and ample basis for its operations, we must go further back than the Sensibilities, which are in immediate proximity with it, and consider it in its connexion with the Intellect. This is a prominent and leading view of the whole subject of the discipline of the will. It cannot be doubted that, among the most available and decisive methods of aiding and regulating the action of the will, we must include the illumination of the intellect. As a general thing, the voluntary power will act the more decisively in reference to any given object, in proportion as such object is the more fully understood. We do not mean to say that the perceptions of the intellect alone, and without anything further, will furnish a basis for the action of the will. The Intellect and the Will are not entirely separated from each other; but they have only an indirect connexion. The intellect reaches and operates, and, we may say, powerfully operates, upon the will through the medium of the sensibilities. For instance, we are required to pursue a certain course, but it certainly cannot be expected that we should have any feeling in the case, or that we should put forth any action in respect to it, until we understand what it is. Why is it that men are so inactive, so supine on subjects of the greatest moment to the welfare of the whole human race? It is, because, wholly taken up with their own private affairs, they do not give their attention to them; they do not investigate and understand them; of course, they do not feel, and, being destitute of feeling, they do not act. Hundreds of millions of the human race are living and dying without any of those aids and consolations which a knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ is calculated to impart. And yet it is universally admitted, both in consideration of the reasonableness of the thing and of the commands of Scripture, that it is a duty incumbent on Christian nations to see that blessed Gospel sent to them without delay. But why is it that so few feel in heart what they acknowledge speculatively, and that almost

none are found to offer themselves as personal labourers in this great and glorious work? It is because (at least this is one great and prominent reason, if it be not the only one) their inquiries have been too limited; they have been satisfied with generalities and abstract truisms, without carefully and seriously estimating, even in a single instance, the extent of that degradation and suffering which are incidental to the state of heathenism.

We would illustrate the prominent idea of this section by another topic. One of the greatest evils which has ever afflicted the human race is that of war. But still only a very few individuals appear to be fully awake to its dreadful atrocity, and are seriously, and with an earnestness proportioned to the importance of these movements, arraying their efforts and their influence against its continuance. The great mass of mankind are indifferent and inert. And how can we account for it? In the same way we account for their indifference to the spread of the Gospel. It is owing (we do not say wholly, but in a great degree certainly) to inattention to the subject, and consequent ignorance of it. They dwell upon a few general and often erroneous conceptions of skill and heroism, as they are detailed in the pages of a government Gazette, but they do not bring distinctly and fixedly before their eyes the burnings, and the devastations, and the famine which overspread the country; they do not behold the wounds, and the protracted suffering, and the horrid forms of the battle-field; they do not listen to the mourning and the lamentation of the bereaved father and mother, whose gray hairs go down with sorrow to the grave. If they would but once consider the subject in all its facts and in all its bearings, they could not fail both to feel and to act; they would at once lift up a note of remonstrance which should reach their rulers, and compel them to stop in their ministrations of blood.

§ 200. Further remarks on the same subject.

A multitude of similar illustrations might be brought forward. In almost any case whatever, if we can induce a person to examine a subject with a view to action, the work is half done. And what is true of others is true of ourselves. If we propose to act, we must think seriously upon that, whatever it is, to which the proposed action relates. The proper, and, we may add, the indispensable preliminary to action, is investigation. We are so constituted that it is impossible for us to put forth a volition without a motive, without some antecedent feeling, without some appetite, some desire, some moral feeling already existing in the mind. But it is equally impossible, as has already appeared in the chapter on the Relation of the Intellect to the Will, that the various emotions and desires should exist, without some specific object perceived by the understanding, to which such emotions and desires relate. It is a fundamental law of our nature that there can be no action of the will without feeling, and that there can be no feeling without intellection. There is, therefore, an indirect, but a very intimate and important connexion between the intellect and the will. If we would will, we must feel; and if we would feel, we must understand. As a general thing (it will be noticed that we do not lay down the proposition as one admitting of no exception whatever), the will corresponds to the intellect; the action of the will is in a line with the action of the intellect; and changes in the intellect will almost necessarily induce corresponding changes in the sentient and volitional parts of the mental constitution. And hence it happens, that what is desired at one time, will soon cease to be desired when presented to the mind in some new light. What is warmly approved at one time will suddenly become, on further examination and knowledge of all the circumstances, an object of disapprobation. And, on the other hand, objects of disapprobation and aversion may soon become, on further inquiry, objects of approbation and desire. In

this way, by exerting our powers of inquiry and reasoning, and by presenting new facts to the mind, we are continually presenting new motives, and are indirectly, but very effectively, operating changes in the action of the volitional faculty; and (what is an important circumstance in this connexion) these inquiries are made, and these changes are brought about, under the direction of the will itself. And thus, in the wonderful constitution of the human mind, there are wheels within wheels; effective springs of action operating upon each other; motives regulating the will, and the will taking a different direction and regulating the motives; a reciprocal action and influence of each part without detriment to its appropriate na

ture.

§ 201. Of aiding the will by a reference to the regard of others. We may sometimes give strength to the action of the will, in those numerous cases where we find ourselves vacillating, and uncertain what to do, by various aids external to ourselves. As our Creator never designed that men should live isolated from each other and alone, so he has admirably fitted them up with those mental capacities and tendencies which are precisely adapted to a state of society. While he has implanted within them a strong desire for each other's company, which brings them together in communities, he has, at the same time, so constituted them, that they naturally exercise a regard and esteem for whatever is kind, honourable, and upright. And it is altogether suitable and just that they should avail themselves of this arrangement of things in whatever way it can be made subordinate to the discharge of their personal duties, and to the general perfection of their character. In a single word, they are at liberty to sustain themselves in any proposed course of action by taking into view, and by receiving, as an encouragement to them, the favourable estimates of public opinion.

We would not, however, be understood to say that II.-G G