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natural and necessary, as well as an ennobling principle, and his tread may be as firm, and his assurance in regard to ultimate results as absolute, as if he comprehended the whole system of the universe from beginning to end and from centre to circumference. It would not indeed be philosophy by which he would be guided; but it would be reason rejecting as inadequate such philosophy as itself might be able to form, and trusting, instead, to the guidance of Him who is the author and source of all philosophy. It would be the mariner trusting his compass; it would be the child taking exercise or medicine by the direction of a father, without knowing the laws of his system. It would, in short, be man understandingly and rationally taking that place as a child in which is his dignity and his happiness. With sufficient ground of confidence in his father, a child holding his hand-which is faith-might rationally close his eyes and step where his father should direct; or, with his eyes open, he might step in opposition to what would be his individual judgment; and in these two cases, with the limit above given, we have the whole relation of reason and faith.

As connected with religion, faith has been the subject of much discussion, but as a great natural principle of action it is an illustration of the principle noticed in the first lecture, that what is the most intimate to us, and from the beginning wholly a matter of course, is the last to attract attention. When the term was first used in Christianity, nothing could have been more strange. It was unknown in. philosophy, and it is a strong evidence for Christianity that it should have thus seized upon a principle which must act from the first moment of conscious existence, which is in society what gravitation is among the stars, and without changing its nature, but only modifying it according to the

relations involved, should have transferred it from its all. pervading though unrecognized earthly uses to the higher uses of religion.

means.

From what has been said it would appear that in pursu ing an end from instinct, by faith, or with a full comprehension of both means and ends, we may be acting rationally, while it is only in the last case that we should be acting philosophically, because a system of philosophical action can be based only on a conception of ends and of But these three systems or grounds of action, the instinctive, the religious, and the philosophical, can have the common characteristic of being rational only on the condition that they conspire to a common end. That most clearly they must do. A system not based on the true end would be erroneous and not philosophical; an instinct or tendency in a being rightly constituted must prompt to the true end; and faith in God could lead only to that.

Thus does this philosophy of ends, in connection with the law of limitation, make provision for the harmonious operation of every active power in man. In whatever proportions instinct and faith and philosophy may be combined, there is yet full provision for the high prerogatives of man as personal and rational, and every power may conspire to lift him up and bear him on to his true end.

Having thus brought moral philosophy to a perceived harmony with those original impulses of the constitution which are of the nature of instinct, and with faith, which is distinctively and naturally the religious principle, it will need but a few words to show its harmony with religion itself.

It will, first, be a test of any system that may claim to

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come from God, whether it be one of revealed law, or of a mode of restoration when law has been violated; and, second, of any such system that should really come from God it would be the adjuvant.

Moral philosophy analyzes the powers of man, and thus discovers the true end of each, and so of man himself. If, then, there be a revealed law, or what claims to be such, which would require the pursuit of the same end, moral philosophy must accept that law. It cannot do otherwise. Then the law is right and binding, whether revealed or not. If any law claiming to be from God could be shown to be thus wholly in harmony with the moral constitution of man, it would be conclusive evidence that it was from God. It would be a revelation in words of the same will that had been previously revealed in ends. And this is precisely what we claim for the Bible as a revelation of law. What we say is, that no fair and correct analysis of our faculties can be made that will not necessitate for them the same end and law that are revealed in the Bible.

So of anything that should claim to be revealed as a method of restoration. If it could be shown to be not only in harmony with the law as revealed in the end, but also to have in it an efficacy so to restore the man that he shall attain that end, it would be conclusive evidence that that too was from God. Here the problem would be double, and the difficulty increased. But as it is the object or end of the foot that we may walk, and as a rational physiology would accept whatever would restore a broken bone so that it should be as good as if it had not been broken, so, if the moral powers have been injured, a rational philosophy would accept and welcome anỷ remedial system which it could be shown would enable them to

attain their original end. Here is the test of any system claiming to be remedial,-harmony with law on the one hand, and the power of restoration on the other, — and, tried by this test, we have no hesitation in saying that Christianity must be received.

LECTURE XI.

RIGHTS.- THEIR ORIGIN AND KINDS. ALIENABLE. -INALIENABLE. SLAVERY.-RIGHTS OF PERSONS AND OF THINGS. GIVING AND RECEIVING. RIGHTS OF GOVERNMENT. -LIBERTY AS RELATED TO RIGHTS. - DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIBERTY-NATURAL, CIVIL, POLITICAL.

Or any correct system of moral philosophy one characteristic must be that the active powers will, in their movements, harmonize with each other. That they do this. in connection with the system of ends, we have seen. Through the law of limitation each higher power is harmonized with the lower, while the highest is left to act freely and to expand in its connection with those infinities to which it is naturally related. This gives us a philosophical system for the individual which we may comprehend.

But not only may we comprehend both means and ends, and so seek them intelligently; we may also seek ends from a native tendency involving in it, if it be not instinct, the instinctive principle; and we may seek ends by faith. These principles may be combined in very different proportions. They must be, as persons are younger or more advanced, as they are ignorant or instructed; but it was one object of the last lecture to show that whatever the proportions might be, these principles might be so accepted and permeated by the rational nature that we should be rational in acting from them, and that they would be in perfect harmony.

But God does not regard the individual only. He has