Freedom of will a human prerogative-freedom, variety, and conformity-forced conformity slavish-the first man free to be happy by obeying the good-dominion of man's will- obedience to Divine will the liberty of reason-the pleasure of knowledge incomplete without knowing the author of truth- to obey Divine law is to work divinely-man needs God's teach- Moral law and free agency-law expressed-obedience or dis- obedience determines destiny-no recovery but by Divine remedy-brutes without morals-no responsibility if no reason -instinct without perception of moral good and evil—man proved supernatural by his moral perverseness-conscience and free will-self-government and holiness-moral and in- tellectual powers co-operative-good never lost-moral instruc- tion and prohibition-sin-the first law arbitrary-sin and death-conscience marks fallen man—thinking men conscious of sin-when conscious of sin man seeks a Saviour-Divine love Man needed language and God imparted it—the three theories of language—the mute origin of speech-the intuitive-the sympathetic-man's sympathy with nature-Max Müller on roots-the origin of language illustrated by the case of Laura Bridgman-reason not complete without language-the state -the teaching voice and presence with the first man-language PAGE Claims of the Hebrew-Hebrew as the vehicle of highest The gift of speech prepared man for woman-man's fellowship with woman-God's gift of immortality to man through woman Genuine work-cultivation of the beautiful and useful-the fulfilment of man's duty-scientific culture should be religious -cultivation of corn-wheat, oat, barley, modifications-Mr. Cowper's difficulty-the cereals and man's power to cultivate -corn a direct gift of God to man-man's deficiency without art and instruction-man's interest in animals-man's dominion MAN as he is has not yet been accounted for by philosophers. If they do not possess power of mind equal to the explanation of a fact so common among natural phenomena as the present existence of themselves, the first step towards a correct anthropology has not been taken; and therefore we need not wonder if they stumble on strange theories in their attempts to make us understand how man happened to come into existence at first. It is but vanity and vexation of spirit to discourse about man's mind and body, with the variety of his races and his doings, if men cannot come to a conclusion, from the knowledge of their own qualities as human beings, why they were made, who made them, and what is likely to become of them. Any comparative anatomist, worthy of the name, can read in the structure of an animal the kind of life it was designed to fulfil. The physiologist also can infer its habitat from the knowledge of the provisions necessary to supply its different wants, and so localise it at once, as well as classify it in relation to the rest of the animal kingdom. He would also, as a rational matter of course, conclude that there was once a first of its kind, which, also as a matter of course, must have been organised pretty much like the specimen under examination. In the same manner we reason concerning ourselves, from our bodily formation as well as mental constitution, and take it for granted that the first man was the same kind of being as ourselves. If, therefore, we would learn anything definite concerning the first man, we had better study our own wants and the provisions made to meet them. If we are not content to know ourselves as merely nati consumere fruges-born to eat, drink, and die-we shall desire to learn what is the design of our existence, since that existence itself is a proof of design implying special adaptations to ourselves. Now, when we have arrived at a proof of design, we have also come to meet a Power with a will sufficient to account for the existence concerning which we are enquiring, that is to say, an Almighty Designer; for reason assures us that any power less than Almighty could not produce a living creature like man and provide for its wants. With respect to man, we have, therefore, to consider the inherent wants of his spirit as well as his body, and if possible to determine his relation to his Maker, not only on the ground of his demand as a creature to be especially provided for, in consequence of his peculiar bodily adaptations, but also as to his spiritual nature, with its hopes and its fears in relation to an everanticipated future, and its capacity to know, to rejoice, to suffer, in a manner unknown to any other creature on earth. Design implies a beginning and an end or purpose; therefore, if human nature as a whole evince design, its origin involves whatever in that nature remains to be fulfilled in the history of any individual as derived from the first man. The dispositions of a living creature, as well as its form, are included in our ideas of that creature. Every living thing belongs to a kind of which there was once a first of that kind, and that one had a place prepared for it, not only as to locality in space, but also as to its dispositions in relation to creatures of other kinds. There was, then, a first man and a place prepared for that man, considered both as a kind of living creature and as requiring a local habitation suited to his bodily and mental constitution, with every provision for his nature. And what is true of the first man's nature is true of everyone descended from him. With respect to other animated beings, if we know their structure and instincts, we find no difficulty in assigning them to their class and order. To what class, order, genus and species of Animalia does man, then, belong? Duly to answer this question, we must consider the matter somewhat at large. |