certainty of existing in a future life. By the first our faculties are expanded and sharpened, and we acquire a moral prudence. By the second they are tempered, and we acquire a spiritual integrity. The former tends to the improvement of the head. The latter to the correction of the heart. The one, if named, might be called the wisdom of the serpent: the other the harmlessness of the dove. Both, when joined, constitute true wisdom. But, without the latter, as an inseparable handmaid, no true improvement, whether of individuals or of nations, can go on. And this reminds me of an interpretation of scripture, which is not very common, but yet very just; and which is, indeed, of essential importance in justifying the means which have been recommended for the improvement of the human race. Divines have usually taught, that our great ancestors lost the image of God, but that this image was to be restored by Christ. Now nothing can be more clear, than that all nations had originally a true notion of their own rise and condition, as well as of the character of the Divine Author of their existence. Adam must have communicated this knowledge to his posterity, and Noah must have repeated it; and yet all nations but one, lost this knowledge, and by so doing, lost the image also, and fell into idolatry, and from thence, by degrees, more or less, into a state of ignorance and barbarism. But is it not equally true, that some of the descendants of these very nations have been brought back from barbarism, to the condition of civilized communities, and has not this change been wholly effected by the two-fold knowledge just mentioned, of which an acquaintance with the truths of christianity constituted the more important part? In all these instances, Christ has been restoring, more or less, the image that was lost; for as men have the true knowledge, they become virtuous, and as they become virtuous, they approach the nearest to the Deity. But if this knowledge were universal, why should not the restoration of this image be universal also?

The great question is, who is to undertake so glorious a work? Who is to try to improve the moral condition of man? Who is to give him this knowledge in the cases that have been specified? Who, in fact, is to correct the morals of neglected individuals in civilized societies, or to engage in the task of civilizing whole states?

We may say at once, that it is the duty of governments to instruct and reclaim by wise and virtuous means, their own people. It is their immediate duty to become "a terror to

evil doers," and at the same time to become "the ministers of God for good" within their respective boundaries. But we have never yet seen the page in history which informs us, that the government of any enlightened nation had intercourse with the government of one that was barbarous, from the pure and lovely motive of increasing the happiness of the latter by improving its moral condition. It has, generally speaking, in such cases, been the practice of knowledge to take advan tage of ignorance, and of strength to abuse weakness. Uncivilized nations, however, have generally derived some benefit even from the victories obtained over them, either immediately from the new state in which such victories have placed them, or from causes connected with it. Thus, when Alexander had subjugated all the nations he could find, he planted an incredible number of colonies among them. Hence the arts and sciences were considerably spread. Hence the common Greek was diffused far and wide as a language also; in consequence of which, as a contingent cause, the scriptures, when they came forth, could be extensively understood. Another effect, of a similar good tendency, followed the arms of Rome, after she had become the mistress of the world. "The Roman empire, (as Pliny well observes,) had then collected the different governments which had been scattered over the face of the earth, into one; it had softened their manners; it had disseminated a general language to assist the intercourse of mankind." Hence a road was prepared for facilitating the progress of christianity just at the moment when it appeared. There was then a communication, which had never existed before, with the whole of the known universe, so that it could be carried with safety into all parts. These conquests, therefore, whether Macedonian or whether Roman, contributed in a great degree towards the promotion of that knowledge of the christian religion, which not only benefited, by its tendency to restore the image that had been lost, all the conquered, who then received it, but myriads, who were born afterwards, and myriads who exist at the present day. And yet no thanks are due to the original authors of these benefits for their motives on these occasions. They had not only no notion of the good likely to result from what they were then doing, but had no intention of improving the moral condition of their fellow creatures. To the love of power, and not to the love of their species, are we to ascribe the advantages which have been stated to have arisen. Just so (to take an instance

on a smaller scale) was it originally with our own island. We know, from Tacitus, how soon the British youth began to emerge from barbarism under their new masters; but from the ambition of Julius Cæsar, who began, and of his succes sors, who continued to subjugate them, and not from any wish these had originally to instruct the ignorant, sprung this change in their condition. The British youth only became improved, because they could not help catching some of the better customs of their conquerors.

But if the ancient governments of the world, which pretended to civilization, had not the merit, in their intercourse with those which were less refined, of raising, intentionally, the dignity of man, what have their successors done in a similar situation? A noble opportunity has indeed been afforded these, by the discoveries which have been made within the last three centuries, of new lands, and of new people. And how, then, have they used it? Asia! come forward, and tell thou thy tale! Africa, rise up! show the torch of discord which was first hurled upon thy shoreshold up thy bloody mantle-exhibit thy villages in flames! Mexico and Peru! point to the graves of your slaughtered children-show their living remains in an almost extirpated generation! Isles of America! produce your whips, your dungeons, and your chains! Is there, in fact, any one European government, which has had the merit of trying to improve the condition of the inhabitants of those countries which it has discovered? Have not, indeed, the ancient done better in this respect than the modern governments of the world? Under the former, those nations, which had but little light, experienced in some degree, as I have just observed, a change for the better both in their social and their intellectual condition; but, under the latter, the very reverse seems to have taken place. They seem to have used their superior light, as far as new people have been discovered, only to plunder and enslave, so that under their sanction, the human race has in some instances actually gone back, and in others, has at any rate been prevented from going on, both in their civil, their mental, and their moral attainments. It is only within the last ten or twelve years that any thing like common justice has been done under such circumstances. Denmark set the example, and England followed it, of abolishing the African slave-trade: but this, after all, was no more than to enforce the principle, as far as each of them could, that the subjects of the more powerful

were not to rob and destroy at their pleasure the subjects of the weaker states. Let us, however, not depreciate these events let us hope, that by means of them, the empire of reason, humanity, and justice have been enlarged: let us try to look upon them as so many pleasing omens of better days.

It would appear, then, from what we have now seen, that no one of the governments of the earth has ever yet thought itself to be under any moral obligation to engage in an undertaking of this nature. That such however, of the more civilized of them as now exist, may be brought in time to discontinue and to forbid acts of unprovoked violence against those which live in ignorance and darkness, and even to patronize in some degree*, the plans of benevolent individuals for improving the condition of such, is not improbable : but that they will, as governments, ever think it their duty to interfere with the governors and subjects of other states, and this for no other purpose whatever than to enlighten the minds of the latter, and thus elevate their rank as moral beings, is, I confess, what is hardly to be expected from them.

It is to be inferred, then, that the great and sublime task of endeavouring to give to whole nations that knowledge, which shall become capable of restoring them to the image which they have lost, must devolve upon individuals; or upon associations of individuals; or that it will not be effected at all. But here a serious question presents itself. Are the scanty means, which individuals usually possess, adequate to such extensive ends? Is it possible, if they were to set about it, they could accomplish so vast a work?

This question, which is very important, is not difficult of solution. As man emerges from barbarism his moral energies increase; of course when he is most civilized, his powers of usefulness are the greatest. It is then that his knowledge partakes in the highest degree of that two-fold illumination before spoken of, where, in the first instance, the faculties of his mind are sharpened and enlarged, by all those circumstances which belong to an enlightened social state, and where, in the second, they are tempered and corrected, and thus rendered benevolent and useful, by those sublime and superior feelings, which christianity inspires. In such a

The English government patronized the Sierra-Leon establishment is Africa, in a small degree, I wish I could have said wholly, on these principles.

state of society, who will say what an individual cannot do? Who will prescribe bounds to his exertion or his success? For, from his religion, he feels an almost constant stimulus to good: from his knowledge he can adapt the means to the end from his moral influence he can ensure co-operation. Here, indeed, his advantages are prodigious: for in such a state, as that now supposed, there must be thousands of beings of similar intellectual powers, and of similar virtuous dispositions. He no sooner then, produces his benevolent plans for an attainable good, than they are understood and patronized by these. Sympathy follows him as he goes, and is diffused also among all these, however they may be scattered in the community in which he lives. In such a state then, though the corrupt part of our nature still daily prompts us to go astray, the more pure part of it preponderates. The dominion of virtue there may be said to be essential and permanent, but that of vice transitory. One good man there, can produce a leaven, which will leaven thousands to virtue; whereas, a thousand wicked men there in combination, cannot perpetuate vice. There it is that the power of such an one can arrive at a height in the scale of usefulness, which the power of a whole nation, unenlightened, has not reached in former times. It is impossible, therefore, to estimate the good which but one enlightened individual may do, in an enlightened community, towards promoting the improvement of his fellow creatures, much less what a combination of such individuals could do in the same cause. And here it may not be improper to observe, that we, who live at the present day, have advantages beyond any which our ancestors ever had, for the furtherance of so glorious a work. Not to dwell upon the circumstance, that we know more, relative to the uncivilized nations of the world, and that our communication with them has become more quick and easy, our civil as well as our religious knowledge is far greater than theirs. The art of printing alone, by the circulation of myriads of thoughts in the long time which has elapsed since its invention, has made, in these respects, such a distinction between us, that we cannot be otherwise than conscious of the superiority of our station. Who then, in days like these, and in a country where full liberty is given to pursue whatever is honest and honourable, will venture to circumscribe the powers of individuals, or to say, however vast their object may be, they are incapable of attaining it?