casionally we may find a Socrates, a Plato, or an Aristotle, a Cicero, a Seneca, or an Epictetus, breaking through the dark cloud in which society is naturally enveloped, soaring into a purer atmosphere, and expatiating in the light of Heaven. But these are rare instances,- -exceptions which only confirm the general rule. Nothing can be more true or more important, than the conclusion which was forced on the wisest of these philosophers, that a revelation from heaven was necessary, to remove the ignorance and correct the evils which prevailed in the world.

Such a revelation has been vouchsafed to us; and in its whole spirit and tendency it is remarkable for nothing so much, as the manner in which it is framed for the counteraction of that selfishness, which is the besetting sin of our nature. Its leading principle is love. It represents the Eternal as a God of love, sending his beloved Son to save an apostate world. The character and offices of the Saviour Himself are peculiarly calculated to inculcate the same principle. He not only came with an errand of love, but his own heart was full and overflowing with the same sentiment. His life of voluntary humility and suffering, his death of ignominy and torture, were most heart-affecting indications of love; and these indications were heightened by every possible enhancement. The dignity and purity of His nature, the extreme degradation of ours, the immensity of his generous sacrifice, contrasted with the ingratitude and enmity of those for whom it was made, all are so inexpressibly transcendent, that the mind is overwhelmed in the contemplation; and while we desire to know "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of this love, we are forced, with an apostle, to confess, that it "passeth knowledge."

For favors generously conferred, gratitude and affection are the natural return; and the effect of these labors of love, when duly appreciated, is to excite a corresponding feeling in the human heart. Not only, however, are our dispositions perverted, but our perception of Divine things is obtuse, and it is not till our understandings are illu

minated by the light of Heaven, that the Divine blessings are "spiritually discerned." When that faith, which is "the evidence of things not seen," takes possession of the soul, the whole scheme stands revealed, and the Christian principle is implanted. We then come not merely to understand but to appreciate the dying injunction of Him by whose holy name we are called,—“ A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

With this sentiment in the heart, the whole operations of society acquire a new aspect, and seem regulated on a new principle. It is a remarkable part of the providential arrangement of human life, that every transaction has a bearing on the interests, not only of the individual, but of his fellows. No man can, by his lawful industry, benefit himself, without at the same time benefiting the community in which he dwells. His personal profit or enjoyment adds to the general stock, not merely because all communities are composed of individuals, but, in a still more extended sense, as contributing something to the welfare of others. The agriculturist tills his ground, and raises food not merely for himself, but for those who follow other occupations; he introduces improvements into his plan of operations, and these improvements not only bring a greater quantity of food into the market from his own farm, but are the means of advancing the whole agricultural wealth of the country, by giving rise to imitation and rivalry. A similar observation may be made regarding any other profession. The schoolmaster teaches; the manufacturer converts the raw material into clothing; the mechanic constructs machinery,—all not · more for themselves than for others; and every improvement made in these arts advances the general welfare.

There is here a deep foundation laid for the operation of the benevolent principle; and although this principle, in all its fulness, may not be naturally felt, yet when once enlarged by the power of that "wisdom which cometh from above," it discovers a vast and constantly expanding field for its exercise. The labor is the same, but the

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motive is purified and exalted. The Christian still, indeed, follows his lawful occupation, because he thus "provides for his own, and specially for those of his own house;" but with the pleasing consciousness dwelling on his mind, that he is at the same time advancing the prosperity, and contributing to the happiness of the communiHe cherishes this benevolent sentiment in his heart. He modifies his operations, so as constantly to keep in view the beautiful arrangement of Providence, and to cause the current of his own business to coincide with the stream of Divine bounty. This motive ennobles his mind, and gives a higher character to all his operations. From being the mere selfish artificer of his own fortunes, he has become a generous benefactor of his species, "a fellow worker together with God."

THIRD WEEK-SATURDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-ITS SUPPLY NOT INADEQUATE.

If the principle of the geometrical multiplication of the human race be not altogether false in theory, it has assuredly never been realized in actual experience. In looking at the actual condition of the world, in relation to food, at different periods of the human history, we do certainly find that the immense power of reproduction has always been an important element in the question; but it is far from having been the sole element. The whole complicated framework of society would require to be taken into consideration, before it could be possible to solve the problem. The habits and manners of the community; their modes of thinking; their moral condition, and intellectual pursuits; their ideas of comfort, and their views of happiness; all tend to modify the tendency to multiply the species, as well as the necessity of possessing the means of subsistence. There can be no doubt, indeed, that, in reference to all these circumstances, this necessity is a powerful, modifying, and constraining princi

ple; and that there is not one of them which would not be most materially affected, if that necessity did not exist. It might be curious, but would not be very profitable, to speculate on the probable state of human society, were the stimulus to exertion removed, which the demands of food constantly supply. It is, however, of greater importance to our present argument, to inquire to what extent it is true that the population actually exceeds the means of comfortable subsistence.

There are some curious speculations in the recent volume of Turner's Sacred History of the World,' from which I extract the following facts and reasonings, bearing directly on this subject.

"At this moment, in what has been deemed the declining years of our world, its powers of produce have been superior to its powers of popular multiplication. Our food exceeds, in its existing quantity, the present demand for it. We have more corn than we consume, and more is coming up than will be required by the present generation. On what is the urgency of some-of several-political economists, who uphold the Malthusian hypothesis, to have our corn-laws abolished,-founded? On the vegetable produce of the earth being as inadequate to the supply of the living numbers, as the opposition of the contrasted geometrical and arithmetical laws must have long since made it? No! They require the repeal of the restrictive regulations which keep foreign corn from our shores, on their perceiving and knowing that there is more corn in the earth,-now on hand, and certain to be produced, than its inhabitants will need.

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Coinciding with this fact, of the mercantile solicitations for liberty of free importation, are also the circumstances which I will mention, from the periodical journals of the day, as the best practical authorities. The foreign dealers, in 1833, complained of the diminution of their trade, and of the value of corn, and of its fall in price, because there was no demand for it elsewhere, to take off the superfluous produce which had been accumulating among them. The countries of Europe had on hand so much more than their population wanted, that bad weath

er was even deemed advantageous, from the hope that, by injuring the shooting vegetation, and preventing a good harvest, it would raise the prices of the stocks on sale. Because war had long ceased, there was no more that extraordinary consumption, which had made subsistence dearer; the superabundant productions of corn and wine, from their ordinary cultivation, were so much beyond the ordinary use of it, that the wine in 1834 was unsaleable, and the corn had become so cheap, that the landowners in Germany were much distressed. The German farmers sent abundance to foreign dealers; but other nations having enough of their own produce, it found so small a sale as to sink in its money-worth. The effect of our cornlaws, which prevented Prussia from sending its superfluity to market, is represented, in 1834, as causing its land to fall in price, and as destroying the agricultural trade of Poland, from its superabundance. So far was the population in Europe from overrunning its subsistence in 1834, that a great part of Poland was not in cultivation; and, of the land in actual husbandry, though only a third part was raised from it, which that portion could produce, yet even this was more than its own consumption required; so that their wheat was given to the cattle, because it had produced more than its people consumed.

"The same state of things, between population and produce, existed also in America in 1834, both in the United States and in the Canadas, though each was so surprisingly multiplying in their numbers, from emigration. Here, also, the demand was so much less than Nature's supply, that the price of it sunk too low to meet with the rate of wages, and to return a profit on the capital employed.

"This over-produce,-its exuberance beyond the consumption of the population,-was not in any one country, or in the most fertile regions, but equally so in the less favored ones; for we find Sweden, though so far in the north, and so near gelid Lapland, and so full of heaths, lakes, and mountains in herself, yet had so much more wheat than she wanted, as to be urging her government, 1833, for leave to export it.

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