guidance of infinite wisdom and goodness, to such glorious results as are worthy of the supreme perfections of its Sovereign. It follows, from this grand view of the extent of the Divine kingdom, that whatever arrangements have a place in that portion of it with which we are more immediately connected, are not to be regarded as terminating in themselves, but as related to more distant and future combinations for the evolution of which they are but means;—that whenever, consequently, we consider the objects and dispensations that more immediately affect ourselves, and fall more directly within the field of our view as something cut off from the entire dominions of God, or as capable of being rightly understood by confining our view to their more obvious effects, we must necessarily form a very limited or perhaps a very erroneous estimate of their true meaning and character;—and that it is only by keeping constantly in mind this great relation in which they stand as parts of one immense whole, and as means conducive to its future and more perfect evolution, that we can speak or think with any propriety of their relations, -at least whenever we rise above their most obvious uses, and presume to indulge in more general and extensive speculations respecting their character or tendencies. -- But then it is equally true, on the other hand, that the distinct view of man is bounded by the actual arrangements that more immediately surround him in life;—and, however he may be satisfied that this earth is but a portion of one immeasurable domain, or however he may occasionally delight to expatiate, in general speculations, on the grandeur of its connexion with higher and future manifestations of the interminable works of God,-his ordinary and daily view of his situation in existence presents it to him as an insulated portion of the Divine empire, which seems to be regulated by laws peculiar to itself, and the arrangements of which may be considered as terminating in themselves, or in their immediate effects, without having any necessary connexion with the peculiar combinations of other systems, either in space or in duration,—on which the eye of man is certainly not fitted to look, -and which even his imagination but imperfectly conceives. It is implied in this insulated aspect of our world, that its objects and events seem, as we have now said, to be to a great degree complete within themselves; they present themselves to our imaginations not only as means but as ends;—not as portions of one vast, and, in many of its parts, yet invisible whole,but as a system finely and conclusively adjusted within itself,—and only fitted occasionally to suggest the possibility of some higher connexion in which it stands, without indicating that its whole aspect would be changed by the admission of the actual existence of this higher relationship. It hence happens, that the actual appearances on the face of Nature, and in the dispensations of Providence, assume to us a very different aspect or character, and are fitted to awaken different sentiments by the contemplation of them, from what they would assume if viewed in their true relation,-not as ends, but as means;-as subordinate arrangements to higher and grander evolutions;―as transient events leading to more enduring manifestations, which, in periods destined by Divine wisdom, they are hereafter to generate, from their relation to which their true character is derived, and by which, consequently, our sentiments regarding them ought to be determined. We are thus like men placed in an insulated val ley, or within the confines of a bounded field, on the face of our earth;-objects strike them as characterized by different forms,—and seem to stand to them in a quite different relation from that in which they would appear to an eye that could view them as but constituent parts of the entire landscape of which they form a portion;-and if, in the first case, they assume an importance to the spectator from their direct influence on his perceptions, -from the magnitude in which they offer themselves to his notice,—and from their apparently exclusive relation to his operations and interests, which fit them for more effectually modifying his feelings and conduct,—it is also obvious, that, from the very same causes, they are apt to be completely misunderstood in their relative character, or at least to awaken a different order of feelings from those which they would excite, if viewed on a more comprehensive and wider scale. It has, accordingly, been finely observed by an enlightened expounder of the laws of the moral system,-that " our views of Nature are like the map of an inland country,-where you see rivers without any sources, continually discharging their waters without a sea to receive them ;-roads that you know not from whence they come, nor whither they conduct ;-mountains, forests, and plains, cut off in the middle by the marginal lines of your paper. In like manner, we are forced to divide the plan of Providence into many little plans, proportionable to the scale of our imagination, or extent of our discernment, each whereof we contemplate singly at a time;-taking whatever lies at the top of them for original causes, and all we find at the bottom for ultimate ends." It is of great importance, however, to be kept in mind, amidst such speculations, that though Nature, or the arrangements of the Divine kingdom, thus present themselves to us under aspects different from those which they would assume if our extent of view were more unlimited,—these narrower views, and more direct aspects, are by no means to be considered as, with respect to us, altogether illusory, or worthy of being disdained, as founded in error.-The aspect, indeed, which they actually assume is different from the reality; but it is an aspect accommodated to our limited station,-to the peculiar sphere of duties we have to fulfil,—and to the valuable sentiments we are called to entertain, as occupiers of that station. The husbandman, whose place is |