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nature, we shall there find, that that arbitrary dominion which this supreme principle is perpetually endeavouring to exercise over all the inferior parts of nature, is restrained by that law ; and that he will continue to be restrained by it, until the purposes for which the Almighty created this world are completely fulfilled. when the time which God has ordained for the general consummation of all things shall come, we shall find from that part of our Inquiry that that law which he has established for the preservation of all his works, will then be repealed; and that this great principle will then become his instrument for the destruction of this material world, by drawing in all these other great bodies of matter of which it is composed into. his own body.

OBSERVATIONS

On Mr. Malthus's Essay on Population.

IT is impossible to conceive, and it is certainly as impossible for Mr. Malthus himself to define, the meaning of his terms, the Principle of Population, and the great Law of Necessity. It has been already stated, in our observations on Mr. Leslie's Inquiry into the Nature of Heat, that these speculative philosophers, for the purpose of giving some plausible appearance to their vain and impious speculations, and thereby deceiving the rest of mankind, have invented certain names to which they have prefixed the term principle; such as Mr. Leslie's celebrated principle of the conservatio virium vivarum; the principles of law, the principles of physic, the principles of trade, the principles of language, &c. &c. &c. But although this term makes at present such a conspicuous part of our language, it will be found, upon due examination, that it is in most cases utterly undefinable. And it is, perhaps, on account of the multiplicity of these undefinable terms, which have been inė

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vented and introduced into the English language by speculative writers, that these terms render it so very difficult for foreigners to acquire a knowledge of it. For it is perfectly obvious, that, when undefinable terms are commonly made use of in any language, it must necessarily render that language the more difficult to be understood. When a speculative man wishes to write or speak upon any subject that he does not understand, he has only now to invent a parcel of names, and prefix the term principle to them; and this term makes his speculative undefinable nonsense pass as current coin

That indiscriminate use of the term principle, which at present so universally prevails in the English language, will be found, upon proper inquiry, to be of no very long standing, and that it has been chiefly introduced into it during the last, and the short period of the present century. The term principle of attraction as defined by Sir Isaac Newton, who it is supposed was the first person who made use of that term, is now, and was by him, understood to denominate the cause of that general or elective attraction of particles of matter towards each other, whether they be fluid or solid, which is found to prevail throughout the

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whole of this material world.

And this cause

being altogether invisible to the senses of mankind, this justly celebrated inquirer into the works of creation, seeing from the effects which these principles of attraction produced throughout the whole of this material world, and that the power with which they were invested is universally proportionable to the bulk of the body in which they are placed, and seeing that the influence of that great principle of attraction which is placed in the sun, extends over the whole of the natural world, he very naturally and justly concluded, that these principles of attraction must necessarily be some order of intelligent spiritual beings whom the Creator had invested with these extraordinary degrees of power.

In the beginning of the proposed Inquiry into the Origin of Government and Law it will be shown, that besides these principles of attraction, there is another order of spiritual agents or principles directly opposite in their nature and disposition, and immensely more powerful than these principles of attraction, which the Creator employed at the beginning, as well as the principles of attraction, and which he still continues to employ as his instruments for the execution

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of his will in the formation and preservation of all material bodies; and that these two orders of principles are the immediate causes of all the phænomena which we behold in the natural world. It will also be shown, that the Creator has placed a moral principle or soul in the body of man, and that he has invested this moral principle with dominion over that principle of attraction or natural mind, which he has also placed in his body, and that this moral principle is the immediate cause of all his moral actions ; and that, being invested with this dominion over the desires of the natural mind, and endowed with perfect freedom, this moral principle becomes thereby accountable to God, for all the actions of the body.

The author of these observations has much reason to believe that these three orders of spiritual beings or principles are the only true principles that can be found, and that they alone are the immediate cause of all the phænomena which occur both in the natural and moral world. He has also reason to believe, that the term principle where it is not employed to denominate one or other of these three orders of spiritual beings, will be found, upon examination, to be mere indefinite terms. If this shall appear

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