their influences and effects can they ever converge. No human language, therefore, can adequately describe, much less exaggerate, the variation. The opinion that the Supreme Being has left his offspring to be regulated by the inflictions of this Manichean principle, and that which places them in the hands of a kind and superintending Providence, are "contrarieties at war." In no stage of human existence can they be confounded. At the very portal of life the one stands with" aspect malign," measuring, with sinister hand, the exhaustless numbers; perpetually preaching and prophesying against the redundant stream of human existence, and, doubtless, not in vain: the other hails the effluence of life and immortality in strains which gladden all nature, and gratify heaven itself. Further onwards in the pilgrimage of life, the former principle, like the murderous spirit of Macbeth, sees, with fearful and frenzied eye, every place in life's great feast pre-occupied and full; and would, therefore, scourge from "the temple of nature" the poor, the wretched, and the destitute, who are disturbing her bidden guests, the patentees for food. The latter, on the other hand, sees in the same entertainment, whether as it respects" room or food," after the privileged classes are fully satiated, "enough and to spare," and it therefore bids the universal family of man to the banquet of nature; yea, calls the poor and the lame, the halt and the blind; and those that have no money, no "patents for food," it kindly constrains, compels them to come in. Seen in the haze of futurity, their characteristic differences seem enlarging: the one threatens future, and still increasing, miseries, as the inevitable lot of human beings, if the holiest laws of nature are not insulted and outraged; when 'See Malthus's Essay on Population, p. 531, &c. 2 Ibid., p. 398, &c.

a swarm of unnameable offences would doubtlessly ensue, and add indescribable pollution to universal misery: the other points to coming days of unexampled prosperity and peace, promised indeed in the anticipations of philosophy, as well as in the prophecies of religion, when the increasing prevalence of all the social virtues shall augment the numbers, and heighten the happiness, of mankind, till the human family shall more fully occupy the earth, and the benevolent purposes of the Deity become more plainly unfolded, and more perfectly accomplished. Nor does the rivalry of these principles end here, nor terminate even with time itself. To man is not only confided the custody of his own existence, he is the trustee, if I may so speak, of that of all future generations; both are guaranteed by the strongest laws that are impressed upon organised life; let him take heed how he rashly violate his trust!

What myriads wait in Destiny's dark womb,
Doubtful of life or an eternal tomb!

'Tis his to blot them from the book of fate,

Or, like a second Deity, create!

To dry the stream of being in its source,

Or bid it widening win its restless course;

While, earth and heaven replenishing, the flood
Rolls to its ocean fount, and rests in God!

The theory for which I shall contend, prescribes obedience to those natural and moral laws which are too clearly enunciated to be mistaken, and leaves the event to Him in whom are the issues of life and death. That which I oppose would extend its influence beyond even the bounds of time, and, in regulating the population of this world, would regulate that of the next! Viewed then in the lights of eternity, how does this subject appear? Its slightest features enlarge into infinity, and become fixed for ever. Then the meanest of those

human existences, which a grovelling principle would teach us to regard as valueless, or worse, is invested with that which swells its worth above that of all the "capital" upon earth; beyond the boasted powers of geometry or arithmetic to compute,—with immortality! Contrariwise, those things which that principle represents as of primary consideration, and makes the foundation of its varying code of virtues, are then seen stripped of their fictitious value; even life itself seems but as a short parenthesis in the page of eternity, "signifying nothing," except in connexion with the import it bears to the language of that mysterious volume. But this principle, running counter to all the feelings and duties of mankind in this life, would finally render the concerns of eternity subordinate to those of time; and all from a vain and selfish fear, that the Being who created all, who preserves all, who clothes the lilies and feeds the ravens, without whose notice not even the sparrow falls, and who, knowing that we "have need of these things," should not clothe, and feed and sustain, those for whom he principally created the world which he has given to the children of men.

(26) As some of the last ideas have clothed themselves in the language of Scripture, and as, possibly, similar instances may appear in the course of this work, it will be well to state, thus early, the way in which such quotations, which will neither be sought for nor avoided, will, if they should occur, be used. To those who embrace the truth and authority of the Divine Records, they will be more than mere illustrations; by those who are unhappy enough not to be of that number, they cannot be regarded as less-as even the latter are themselves often found enforcing their meaning by similar allusions. Dr. Johnson has too well defended the practice, which is abundantly illustrated by

all the best authors in the best periods of our language, to render any apology from me necessary. I trust, therefore, as no part of the ensuing argument will be built on proofs derived from Divine Revelation, that quotations from it may be tolerated, as so many passages from Homer or Virgil, by those upon whose opinion they will make no other impression. Not that by thus expressing myself, I would disclaim the decisive evidence which Revelation affords us on this momentous point. God forbid! If ever there was a subject which connects itself with the very principles of our religion, it is this. Sir Matthew Hale, who wrote a folio book upon it, so treated it throughout his invaluable work. Even the divinity of Heathenism was full on this point. Christianity is decisive. Not that Christianity which gives, in the estimation of some, so "pleasing a proof of its truth," by accommodating its doctrines to the dogmas of the day, making, therefore, "virtue itself ambulatory," but that which never did, nor ever will, at the instance of all the philosophers in the world, resign one jot or tittle of its principles or precepts till all its purposes are fulfilled; and which has, a thousand times over, and especially on those points on which, for a time, it was thought the most untenable, vindicated itself as the only true and permanent system of moral philosophy in the world. This religion, none can deny, enjoins those virtues which infallibly tend to the increase of that "evil," which the darker theory of Population has pronounced to be fatal to the interests and happiness of mankind, forbids those fears which it is its main purpose to infuse, and enjoins that confidence. which it would fain destroy; while the views it takes of the rights of poverty and distress, and the duties it ordains, in reference to them, are as opposite to

those held by the latter, as light is to darkness. Those who regard the subject in the sacred light which this divine religion pours upon it,-and happy is it for the present and future interests of humanity, that they infinitely outnumber those noisy declaimers who totally disregard it,-have no need to be invited into the present controversy. They may doubt or differ upon other topics, but on this they are fully confident and unanimously agreed, namely, that a God of infinite goodness would not create those whom he could not sustain; neither would a God of infinite purity contemplate means, concerning which he has expressed his abhorrence, in order to obviate the supposed difficulty. Though the argument may be unnecessary to such, still, if it demolish a theory, of which infidelity and vice are already availing themselves; if it uncover a link in the chain of that Providence which they were conscious had ever sustained them, though it was concealed from their view, it cannot but unfold to them matter of pleasing contemplation. By adding another to those innumerable instances which ought already to have taught mankind that accusations against Providence ultimately resolve themselves into proofs of human ignorance, and consequently that it is the duty and wisdom of mankind, firmly to confide, even when they can no longer fully comprehend,-they will refresh their minds with one of the most important and consoling truths of their religion, and

learn that to obey is best,

And love with fear, the only God; to walk
As in his presence; ever to observe

His providence, and on him sole depend,

Merciful o'er all his works.

(27) From the calm and elevated view of the subject which the language of our great poet inspires, I must now descend into the thorny paths