them, depend on reasons, and without those reasons, would not be performed. They are instances, therefore, of the subjection of the will to the dominion of motives, and establish the theory of its dependence. § 507. The dependence of the will is argued by Edwards and others, from the foreknowledge of God. The argument from this source is as follows: 1. No actions can be the objects of God's foreknowledge, which are not certain; 2. Moral and other voluntary actions are objects of God's foreknowledge; 3. Therefore, Moral and other volutary actions are certain. 1. No actions can be certain which do not depend on pre-existing causes and conditions ; 2. Moral and other voluntary actions are certain; 3. Therefore, Moral and other voluntary actions depend on pre-existing causes and conditions. Jouffroy and others have endeavored to evade the force of this argument, by admitting the fact of God's foreknowledge, and denying it any rational foundation in the nature of voluntary actions. But this hypothesis is inadmissible. All knowledge must have rational objects, and nothing can be an object of knowledge, which does not exist at the time, or is not capable of being inferred from something that does exist. Knowledge is experimental or inferential. All knowledge of future actions is inferential, and the supposition of a peculiar kind of Divine foreknowledge, which is not inferential, is absurd, and such knowledge impossible. The great importance attached to faith in the Scriptures, and its prominence as a principle of holiness in the Christian religion, are in beautiful agreement with the doctrine of the dependence of choices on ideas, and afford strong additional evidence in its favor. Believing is described as the first principle of true religion, and as the essential condition of holiness. All piety is imputed to belief, and all impiety to unbelief; and all goodness is described as having its origin in faith, and all wickedness in unbelief. If the will is determined by ideas, these representations are correct. According to this hypothesis, correct ideas are the cause, and holy actions and holy dispositions the effect. But the opposite doctrine is inconsistent with the Scriptures, and reduces the whole scheme of Christianity to a system of despotism and absurdity. § 508. The general concurrence which has been evinced of late, in the speculations of the principal German and French Metaphysicians on the subject of the will; and the elaborate arguments which have been put forth in defence of their absurd theory, are facts which deserve the consideration of reflecting men, and which demonstrate both the imperfect state of mental science and the extreme liability of the human mind to delusion in respect to the essential nature of its own exercises and powers. It is generally supposed that science is progressive, and many interesting facts in the history of the human race are in favor of this hypothesis. But though this is true of science generally and on the whole, it is not without remarkable exceptions in respect to particular times and particular truths. În the dark ages there was a long and dismal retrogression, through the influence of prejudice and systematic errors; and there seems to have been a partial retrogression in respect to the doctrine of the will in modern times. may Edwards taught the doctrine of reason and the Scriptures on this subject, with a force of argument which for a time seemed conclusive and irresistible, and was supposed by many to have put the question at rest forever. But the question is not at rest; and the advocates of the erroneous theory which Edwards refuted, have been multiplied by thousands since his time. The same theory which he overthrew is still held, and appears to be in the ascendency with only a slight change in the terms by which it is usually expressed. But delusion is temporary, and truth eternal. Truth may be bound and imprisoned, it be misapprehended, and slandered, and clothed to the mind's eye with ghostly terrors, and horrid deformities, but it cannct be killed It survives the death of its defenders, and lives under all its possible abuses and injuries. It lives till its prisons decay, and the iron chains of its bondage are consumed by the silent waste of time, and till its enemies perish in their delusion; and then, in its own time and its own ways, it comes forth immortal and glorious, blooming in all the freshness of its youth, and clothed with the might and majesty of its manhood. Nations are moved at its coming, and rise up to do it homage. Earth brightens under its smiles, strews its pathway with flowers and evergreens, and shouts from her mountain tops its boundless praise. Even God looks down well pleased, and seraph choirs re ceive new and large accessions to their unutterable joys. O, the brightness of that coming! The glory of that triumph! Heaven speed the day! Then will the sighing of the prisoner cease, and the slavery of sin be overthrown. Truth is the destined regenerator of man. God has appointed it to this work and sent it forth on its mission, and it will not return or desist for a moment from the prosecution of its sublime schemes until the last sinner is converted, the last victim of delusion redeemed. It is extremely unfortunate that the love of truth is not more predominant, and that other passions are allowed in so many cases, and to so great an extent, to array themselves against this object. The love of system is good, subordinated to the love of truth; the love of time honored opinions is good, subordinated to the love of truth; the same is true of the love of wealth, power, and every possible object of rational enjoyment. But truth is the highest possible object of regard, and cannot be disregarded with impunity. It is the highest instrument of God's purpose, and under him the omnipotent dispenser of happiness and misery to his creatures. The apostles of truth are the apostles of God, and the ministers of delusion are servants of Satan and ministers of death. A respect for truth is rising in modern times, and is the morning star of that millennial day of holiness and happiness which is at hand. Rise to the zenith, thou son of the morning! Shed on all earth's children thy beauteous ray; and bring after thee that glorious orb of day, which is the hope of all ages and nations! Holiness follows hard after truth. In their principle and end they are one and indissoluble; and intimately associated with them is glory and happiness. Truth is the condition of holiness; and holiness the condition of happiness. Happiness cannot exist without holiness, nor holiness without truth. Truth, in the aggregate, is the fountain of the river of life, and sends it forth to water all the celestial plains. The river of life is holiness, and when traced to its termination loses itself, and is absorbed in the boundless, fathomless ocean of glory and happiness, an ocean without a bottom and without a shore. PART FOURTH. PHILOSOPHY OF DISPOSITIONS AND PROXIMATE ELEMENTS OF CHARACTER. CHAPTER I. NATURE AND VARIETIES OF DISPOSITIONS. § 509. Disposition denotes a capacity to act or be affected in a particular manner, as a disposition to be honest or dishonest, to work or play, to do good or to do evil. The theory of dispositions has greatly puzzled philosophers, and has been the subject of many absurd speculations. The fact is unquestionable. Very considerable diversities of disposition appear in the same family, and among persons in similar conditions, and still more among persons of different conditions and of different nations. Dispositions are partly natural and partly acquired. Men are naturally disposed to seek happiness and shun misery; and acquire dispositions to seek happiness and shun misery in particular modes. As our action and suffering are, to a great extent, under the control of our wills, dispositions are powers of mind, which have respect mainly to the will. What we habitually will to do we are disposed to do, and what we habitually will not to do, we are disposed not to do. Dispositions, therefore, in their ultimate analysis, are generic faculties of the will, and are subject to all the laws of the will. The general faculty of the will comprehends all the varieties of dispositions under it, as species or subordinate genera. Thus, a disposition to do good embraces the faculty of exercising one kind of willing; a disposition to do evil, another; and so on. § 510. The variety of dispositions is almost unlimited, and depends immediately on ideas, and remotely on the predominant affections and desires. The principal division of dispositions is that which resolves them into sinful and holy. All dispositions to do wrong are sinful; and all dispositions to do right are holy. Each of these generic classes of dispositions admit of numerous sub-divisions. Wrong dispositions comprehend dispositions to love creatures supremely and to hate God, dispositions to lie, to steal, to commit high crimes, to exercise selfishness, injustice, and cruelty, and the like. Right dispositions comprehend dispositions to love God supremely, to exercise kindness and justice towards men, to be temperate and chaste, to speak the truth, and to do good in all possible modes to the utmost extent of our powers. It has been held by some that we are not responsible for our natural dispositions, but only for such as are acquired, and by others that we are not responsible for any of our dispositions, but only for our actions. The doctrine of responsibility for our actions, however, involves that of responsibility for our dispositions; because our dispositions are the causes of our actions. If it is to our prejudice to perform wrong actions, it must be to our prejudice to have dispositions to perform wrong actions, and if it is to our advantage to perform right actions, it must be to our advantage to have dispositions to perform right actions. § 511. The Phrenologists have discussed several important dispositions under the titles of the propensities and sentiments, and, though laboring under the disadvantage of an extremely cumbrous and artificial theory of ideas, have given a practical direction to this branch of philosophy which is much to their honor. Their practical doctrines on dispositions embrace a wide range of truth, and constitute a noble and almost redeeming trait in their otherwise erroneous and pernicious system. So far as these doctrines are concerned, Phrenology teaches many of those great truths which belong to all sound philosophy, and a knowledge and application of which are destined to produce vast improvements in the character and condition of mankind. It is of § 512. Man is a creature of dispositions. It is of little consequence to a man to know in what particular locality of the cranium they have their seat and how large a portion of it they are supposed to occupy, but it is of vast importance that he should know that he has them, and that they are integral proximate elements of his character. vast importance that he should understand their principal varieties and their modes of operation in determining the conduct of their subjects, and in contributing to increase the aggregates both of human happiness and misery. This knowledge the Phrenologists have undertaken to give, and |