Man and his motives

Preface

This work is somewhat religious ; but it is hoped that the reader will not deem an apology necessary on that account, since it is impossible to reflect on the nature and motives of man, without concluding that religion is the end and purpose of reason.

It was formerly the author's ambition to write acceptably on subjects more strictly professional, but circumstances having pressed the higher objects of thought upon his attention, he feels constrained to express his convictions, not because others have not better exhibited those truths which influence his own mind, but because the manner in which he has felt and presented thern may suitably meet the state of some other hearts, and induce in them those sympathies, without which life, instead of brightening toward its close, is apt to become dark indeed.

IV PREFACE.

The topics propounded demand and deserve the fullest consideration of every man, but especially of him whose business it is to administer to the relief of mental and physical disorder. The medical practitioner can scarcely be engaged in his duties, with a right feeling of their importance, without discovering that moral influences operate very extensively, both in causing and in curing the majority of maladies. He sees, too, that religious hope enables a patient to bear calmly, and even cheerfully, those evils which therapeutic agents, however important, can neither remove nor ameliorate, while the absence of religion often aggravates disease, and adds terror to death,

The thoughts presented in this volume are such as occurred to the author, while fully occupied in his profession, and are those that his intimacy with sufferers and with suffering leads him to believe are most needed and most neglected.

The sick bed tests a man almost as much as the martyr's pyre; and those who there see something more than bodily disorder, often learn lessons of the greatest practical value, in relation to the spiritual training of man. The physician thus gains instruction for himself, and he who does his best to render such lessons available to others also, ought

PREFACE. V

rather to be deemed worthy of praise than of blame. Those views, which have encouraged the writer's own heart, under appointed and appropriate trial, will probably tend also, in some degree, to improve the faith, feeling, and practice of those who shall peruse, with candor and kindness, what has been writen in patience and hope.

This volume was designed, in connection with two others — " The Power of the Soul over the Body in relation to Health and Morals," and " The Use of the Body, in relation to the Mind" — both of which have been so far favorably received as to warrant the expectation of an equally indulgent reception of this, which, although of rather a different complexion, will probably be thought an appropriate companion to them. Those persons who are disposed to dig deep, will discover indications in these works that they are based upon a substratum of more difficult materials, designedly kept out of sight. We give an architect credit for laying a good foundation,, notwithstanding he conceals it under what is intended to be familiar. The suggestion of an argument is usually sufficient for all the practical purpose of persuasion, since those who are reasonable enough to judge of moral truth, readily work out ideas in their own

VI PREFACE.

minds, without an elaborate logic, but still in keeping with their self-consciousness and experience. Truth itself is of no advantage to any man, but as it helps to rectify and regulate his desires, by directing his mind to right objects, thus enhancing his hopes as well as his enjoyments, while imparting motives to look further on in the pathway of heaven.

A more philosophical style might easily have been assumed, with the appearance, at least, of greater profundity ; but that is not always shallow which appears transparent, not that deep w r hich is dark. The author prefers to express what he feels in such a manner as to seem but superficial truth, provided what he writes excites his readers to look deeper. He would rather invite them to contemplate distinct objects than endeavor to pierce indefinite space, where worlds of light appear but as clouds, because our sight is insufficient for the vastness before it. Man, himself, is the grand wonder, " mira profunditas, Deus mens, ?nira profunditas" a depth of which each one of us may see a little by looking into himself; and another's aid is valuable only but as it may dispose or enable a man to look within. The main object of the writer has been to preserve before the mind

PREFACE. Vll

tne grand truth, that intelligent love is the only rightful power of government among rational beings. The subject is divided into chapters, which may be read either consecutively or in a detached maner, each receiving illustration from the rest, and yet not requiring that illustration in order to be understood. There is no metaphysi cal evolution attempted, but throughout the work will be found scattered some of the writer's reasons for believing that the Bible is consistent with nature, with the necessities of man, and with all we can conceive of his Maker. Should any injurious error have been introduced, it is sincerely hoped that it may be corrected by reference to the standard of truth, for it is the author's earnest prayer that all his readers may be led to walk in the light of a heavenly life, struggling against all delusion with unfettered soul.

Contents

CHAP. PAGB

MAN AND HIS MOTIVES,

Chapter I. Man — Primitive And Derivative

Man is not a natural production, and the elements of earth are not sufficient for his completion. He is an embodied spirit, and from the source of his existence he must derive those supplies which may fit him to fulfill the purposes of his creation, and satisfy his capacity for knowledge and happiness.

It is worthy of especial notice that there is scarcely a people to be named which has not among them the tradition or the prophecy of a perfect human nature ; and probably every mind imagines some model man, some ideal type or standard of humanity, which all ought to admire and imitate. But earth, as it is, has never been deemed his home. Some suppose him to have existed in a golden era long since departed ; others expect him yet to come. Some think that we are his degenerated offspring; others believe that we are progressively improving upon our ancestors, and that, in due time, the progeny of our successors shall be perfect beings, according to an orderly development, ** from inherent qualities," by which at length living monads become spiritual paragons, under astronomical influences and in virtue of gravitation, and " the modes of action depending solely on organ iz ation." We can not exactly calculate how long a period may be necessary for the purpose of converting an infusorial animalcule into a man, such a transformation never having yet been observed in progress ; but we are pretty well assured, by the reluctant testimony of infidels, as well as by the careful research of believers, that man can not have been an inhabitant of earth above seven thousand years. Geology, ethnology, and the natural history of our race, bear ample testimony, in this respect at least, to the truth of the book of Genesis, which testimony is itself a fact strongly in evidence of the inspired origin of that book; since to guess at such coincidences in chronology and science is beyond the reach of fanc}^. This length of time seems not to be quite enough to answer the purposes of the development theory, but we can get no more. We are not ignorant that skulls and other bones of man have been discovered in caves and in stalagmite formations, mixed with those of extinct mammals, both ruminants and carnivora; and that these bones in no respect differ from modern specimens. It is also true that geologists are nearly unanimous in assigning these remains to periods far within the date above named, and all their conclusions on the subject tend to confirm rather than invalidate the statement in the book of Genesis. If, however, man had existed at an earlier period there can be no very evident reason why his fossil remains should not be found imbedded with those of other creatures in the anterior formations.

As it appears from recent theorists that even now man is at best but a paulo-post chimpanzee, he could scarcely have become bimanal and biped at that date, or, at least, monkeys and men ought then to have been mingled in the same family circle.

History, either sacred or profane, has no respect for the theory of development, and does not quite agree with it. Instead of finding mankind brutal and destitute of the arts of social comfort in the early periods of our race, we have reason to believe that they were highly civilized and cultivated ; not, it may be, after the complicated manner of the moderns, but still with sufficient decision, in two forms at least, very much as they now present themselves. There were those among the people of most ancient date who took pleasure in exercising power, in tyranny and rapine; while others, impressed by the manifestations of divine wisdom in the wondrous works of creation, or by the tradition of God's covenant with man, took delight in meditating upon his providence, and preserved a life of quiet thoughtfulness and worship. According to moral motives and the state of will, with regard to the revelations of existence, the minds of men appear always to have been actuated to the attainment of ends in keeping with their faith and knowledge. Religion always made the grand difference among mankind. There were always sons of God as well as of Belial. Those who, being instructed concerning righteousness, and believing and loving truth, were looking forward to a future life, occupied their faculties in subserviency to that end, while those who regarded the present life as their only hope, gave themselves to the indulgence of their tastes for sensual pleasures, and to the contrivance of such means as best promised the fulfillment of their unholy desires. This, substantially, is all we learn of the history of mankind up to the deluge.

The anxiety of infidels to dispose of the deluge, and to satisfy themselves that they need not believe the Bible, is most wonderful and deplorable. How eagerly some of the French savans seized upon the zodiacs sculptured on the temples of Dendera and Esneh, with the hope that they had therein discovered a demonstration that the Mosaic statement was a mistake. Their ingenuity would have been amusing had it not been impiously absurd. M. Jomard proved to his own satisfaction that these zodiacs were three thousand, and M. Dupuis that they were, at the very least, four thousand years older than the Christian era, while M. Gori would not abate a week of seventeen thousand years. That their mathematical wits* were racked to little purpose is seen in their discrepancy. But observe how the truth at last prevails. M. Champollion comes forward in the promising manhood of his intellect, and gives his life to the study of Egyptian antiquities, and instead of guessing at the meaning and dates of these zodiacs, learns really to read them, and finds that the zodiac, the date of which M. Dupuis had so clearly demonstrated to have been at least four thousand years before Christ, was actually erected in the reign of Augustus Caesar, and that which M. .Gori had carried back in his imagination seventeen thousand years, had been raised in the time of Antoninus, a.d. 140.

If we may credit the oldest history we possess, the correctness of which none can invalidate, the most difficult arts were not unknown amidst the family of the first man. And there is little doubt that before the flood the imaginations of men were refined enough for the invention of whatever might contribute to heighten the enjoyment of mere outside beauty, and to render evil so indomitable in the heart of man that to allow him to live on would be but to permit the propagation of iniquity in such fascinating forms as to banish the beauties of holiness from the earth. It could not have been mere ignorance that was hardened

* " Mathematics is based upon nothing, and therefore arises out of nothing." — (Ok en's Physio-philosophy, p. 5.) These words are not quoted because they are true — we can have no idea of plus or minus, point, limit, form, dimension, or proportion, but from real things ; a man born blind knows nothing of a triangle unless he has felt its parts xMAN PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE. 15

against the preaching of Noah: ingenuity and unbelief, satisfied with their own substitutes for divine order in the appliances of a proud and perverted reason that delights in its own works, were always the resisters of righteousness. Savages would have been converted. The antediluvians in general, at the time of Noah, must have been skeptical geniuses, rationalists, and despots, who could not believe in especial judgments, abrupt transitions, and miraculous interferences for the punishment of vice. They lived under the reign of violence and terror, and being ingenious in disobedience, invented their own religion, and worshiped a mock reason while they blasphemed God, and polluted his sacred image in the form of man. Their spirits were fit to be imprisoned.

The flood came — need it be proved ? All nations acknowledge it. A reserved few replenished the new world. Whence have we the tradition of a deluge if it never happened ? It was not a partial event — the world owns it. The Chaldeans, Assyrians, Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, Phoenicians, Syrians, Armenians, Persians, Chinese, Hindoos, Arabians, Turks, Africans, the North and South Americans, the Aborigines of the South Seas, and every stray tribe of man, all hold a tradition of the deluge; and science finds the record written on the earth — the grand catastrophe assuredly occurred, and faith reads its significance. The Almighty altered the face of the world which he had made, because the spirits of men required a judgment co-extensive with their abode, and they were removed to a place adapted to their wickedness. The living earth perished in the great deep; but Noah and his sons were not barbarians — they could enter into covenant with their Maker, for they had obeyed his voice. But the original evil was in their blood, and soon we find their offspring madly desirous of reigning without righteousness. That they were not, however, without skill, the tower of Babel bears them witness. The city of Nineveh was magnificent in works of art, and the ancient Memphis was not mean. But we will pass on a few hundred years. What does the progress of time prove ? Not that man was not mentally developed, but that his intellect W T as ever prone to seek satisfaction without obeying God, and that Almighty interference has always been required to prevent the total apostasy of our race. Was Abraham, the friend of God, less a man than any of us, or more so than the first son of Adam? No; but he had superior motives, and in the largeness of his heart he believed God, and was also fit to associate with kings. Iu trusting to the absolute power of Jehovah as the sovereignty of mercy, and reaching forward in faith for life beyond death, and for an endless futurity of blessing at the hand of the Omnipotent, he exhibits, in his brief story, all that constitutes the sublimity of a human soul; while yet, in the folly of his fears, we see a perfect picture of man's infirmity and guiltiness. Thus we are taught, as he was, that our recovery from degradation to the true standing of an obedient and a believing spirit is a divine work, accomplished by the intelligent apprehension of God's purpose to oneself, and a growing conformity to his will from a growing confidence in his love.

The men of old were not minors in humanity. If we may judge from what Moses has written, he was as great a man as Newton: he preferred to suffer with the people of God rather than to dwell as a prince among ingenious idolaters; and he has presented us with reasons for trusting in Jehovah. It is true that he has not given us the mathematical elements of the celestial mechanism ; but yet Newton could discover such plain indications in the writings of the chosen shepherd that Omniscience was his teacher, that the philosopher would at once have distrusted his own caldilations had they in any instance contradicted the Mosaic statement. Who could credit Moses if he wrote merely like a philosopher? He does not seek for causes, but sees the hand of God ; he states facts, explains not physics ; he writes history, not theories ; he defends no hypothesis; he does not speculate: and instead of doubtful opinions he annunciates positive precepts. The moral law which he first conveyed to men is so perfectly suited to man's social and spiritual relations that to break it in any particular is evidently in spirit to contravene the whole, and it is so intimate and consistent, that, like creation itself, it bears the impress of its Maker, and can be no other than a transcript of the Eternal Mind, humanly expressed.

The present state of the world is i proof that Moses, in describing the distribution of Noah's descendants, stated an anticipated truth. The prediction may be tested now — it is the history of the world in a few lines. Philosophers, in tracing mankind to their origin, are obliged to terminate their researches in Asia, as the center of civilization, and the source of all those streams of light which have flowed over the earth. Both creation and the deluge place man in the central East. From thence Shem, Ham, and Japheth divide the world among their offspring. Europe was peopled by those of Japheth ; those of Ham spread over Africa and the south-western parts of Asia ; and those of Shem populated the teeming Orient. •« By these were the nations of the earth divided after the flood." (Gen. x. 32.) The slight statement given by Moses is sufficient for the purposes for which it was recorded — it effectually serves to prove the truth of prophecy God spake by all the prophets since the world began. Thus we see the fulfillment of Noah's prediction concerning his sons, and that the nation from whom the Deliverer came is not obscure. The providence of God is thus traced with specific relations to the final arrangement 2

18 MAN IK.^iiTIVE AND DERIVATIVE.

of the nations, when in the reign of Heaven it shall be manifest, that from the commencement of history and prophecy to their consummation, the earth and its inhabitants have been held in the hand of their Maker, and regarded by Him in their totality, for glorious purposes ere long to be completed. Who told Moses that Noah knew that the islanders of Europe should colonize the East, or that Africa should be an oppressed land ? And so with regard to all he foretells. Did Moses study the doctrine of chances in Egypt, and speak truth by accident? Then chance is no longer a name for incongruous contingencies, but the mistress of sciences, that not only predicts but fulfills the miracles she utters. Avaunt, deceiving spirit! Ascribe not to chance the word and power of God. Trace a raindrop from the ocean through the clouds and back again to the deep, and find it there, and then perhaps you may be able to foretell what should happen among the sons of men thousands of years before their birth. It is this evolution of man's destinies, as foreshown in prophecy, that renders the Bible so marvelous, astounding, and trustworthy a book, possessing in its own testimony its own divine credentials, and proving that none have a right to question its doctrines until they have invalidated its authority.

Physiologists persuade us that they have proved that the Caucasian is the highest variety of man, and that the descending scale from this is Mongolian, American, Malay, Negro. If this be true, does it not follow that man came from his Maker's hand as a Caucasian rather than a Negro? Surely it is more consistent to suppose that man was made in his highest form at first, and that he afterward degenerated in his habits and cranial development, than to suppose that he improved upon his Creator's workmanship, and raised himself from the lowest type to the highest. It would be easy to show how the highest might, by neglect of the means bestowed by providence, have descended from the proper standard and model of man. Physiology, history, and the sacred scriptures agree in showing that human degradation has always resulted from neglecting the knowledge and advantages which God bestowed on man for the preservation of society in due order, under the influence of industry, religion, and law.

The origin of man, the law, the divine covenant with man, and man's incessant failure, all the facts and all the prophecies in the Pentateuch, belong more or less to the ful/er developments of providence which we recognize as history, and we must nullify our own knowledge to deny that of Moses ; and far more : we must resign our trust in Jehovah's dealings with man as his Saviour and his Sanctifier; for to destroy the Pentateuch is to destroy the foundation on which Christianity, with all our hopes, is built. With such interests at stake, we have reason to be in earnest in our defense of the credibility of the Hebrew foundling. But to question the authenticity of Moses is like endeavoring to prove that God forsook the world as soon as he had made it, and has had no intercourse with man since his creation. We may agitate the question — the result will still be an unavoidable conviction that a written revelation is not less a fact than the world we live in. But our object was to show that the nature of man has not been gradually evolved from an inferior form, and we appeal to the totality of history as summed up in the Bible, in proof of our position.

Were the subject exhibited in its physiological bearings, we should see abundant proof that the creative fiat has fixed specific limits within which all creatures continue to propagate their kind after their own likeness, so far at least as never to approximate to a new order. Distinction is preserved amidst variety ; the

20 M£N PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.

shades of gradation are separate lines ; and however near the resemblance between species may be, yet there is no mixture. To suppose otherwise were to ascribe confusion to the work of omnipotence, and to regard nature as a force beyond rule, operating at random to an infinite enormity. Those who assert that one race of living creatures may be developed from another are required first to show us an instance of the fact; but let them be careful to avoid mistakes, for their business is to contradict the conviction of all ages, and to prove that it is absurd to believe that " God made the beast of earth after Ids kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." The greater caution is necesssary in endeavoring to falsify these words, since those who have hitherto attempted it have only so far succeeded as to prove that the presumption of man is at least indefinite.

It might be easily demonstrated that as long as man has been known to man he has appeared in the same general form and proportion as at present, wonderfully adapted to his place and occupation on earth ; but it is of far more importance to observe that, as a thinking being, man was the same when Moses wrote as he is now ; and that though fully capable of considering the Wonders of creation with a reasonable discernment of their Author's power and wisdom, yet the true awakening and appetite of reason were proved rather in demand for spiritual light than speculative knowledge, for then, as now, man could not reflect without feeling himself a sinner; nor think of God without asking how he was to be justified with Him ; nor hope for an immortality of good without finding an Almighty Saviour.

Humanity was, at least in this respect, as much developed when Job and his friends discoursed concerning the government of Providence as it is among modern philosophers who labor under the disadvantage of not having received the New Testament; and it must be granted that the Hebrew prophets knew the holy character of God, and were remarkable for their insight into coming events, since much that they predicted is now visible to our eyes. But if the prophets with their sublime ideas, Job and his friends with their mysterious discussions, and Moses with his august record of the verified order of creation, are realities, we learn that Omnipotence has always operated in keeping with the morals of men, and that Providence is not the development of a mere physical contrivance, but the direction of a spiritual supremacy over beings capable of spiritual instruction by appeals to their understandings, and their motives as rational agents.

Man, then, is not a ripening organism, but a peculiar being, having relation both to the past and to the future, and an interest both in history and prophecy, because time, eternity, and man belong to God, who uses them all for the manifestation of Himself. Hence there can be no bound to man's capacity for intelligence, nor limit to his life, since both life and intelligence are united in him for the purpose of evincing God himself as the Eternal Reason. From this cause it arises that all men who have looked upon this world of light, with their spiritual eyesight open to perceive its beauties, have in all ages exhibited that degree and standard of intelligence which reach at once to the highest conclusions of science, and induce a man to join heart and soul with Job, Moses, David, and the prophets in celebrating the majesty of the Eternal, who in Himself gives unity to all the varieties of nature, makes the worlds of matter and of minds one universe, and claims our confiding trust in His hand, because unceasing providence is His one continued act.

From the foregoing and many other considerations, both scientific and religious, we shall probably be justified in preferring to believe the statement that man was expressly created in relation to his Maker rather than that he was developed from an inferior creature. We would not, however, question the fact, that Omniscience is at work in all the universe, diffusing life and mind among innumerable beings, none of which stands alone, and among the minutest of which not a feeling is awakened that is indifferent to the heart of the Creator. He regards all his works, in their infinite totality, with a full knowledge of each inscrutable particular. His love is not divided, His mercy is over all, because all is His ; but it is through man that the unity of nature is revealed, and the loving kindness of Omnipotence made manifest. And as no other creature on earth is conscious of God's love, so if he fail, through ignorant or malicious motives, to obey that love, he departs from his right place in creation, and bears a curse where he should have conveyed blessing.

Human existence is not an accident — God has a purpose in it ; let us, therefore, endeavor to discover what belongs to us, and by learning how we are provided for, learn also what is demanded on our parts, in order to obtain our right position as individual spirits.

If we may judge from the more recently imported specimens of scientific surmise concerning man's derivation, there appears to be no such great improvement in the theory of development, as will serve to account either for our hopes or our fears, The mere fact that we are conscious beings, that can think of the demands of Deity on our consciences, is, however, the only omission in the scheme ! Polarization and matter being given, make a man, says the physio-theorist. There is the difficulty ; the materials may suffice to form a body, all we want is the soul ; in short, the theory fails in its working, and gives us the man — all but himself!

i4 Man is also a child of the warm and shallow parts of the sea," says Oken, the logical physio-philosopher, (§ 213, Ray Soc. Transl.) " It is possible that man has only originated on one spot, and that, indeed, the highest mountain in India. It is even possible, that only one favorable moment was granted in which men could arise. A definite mixture of water, definite heat of blood, and definite influence of light, must concur to his production ; and this has probably been the case only in a certain spot and at a certain time." 44 The deluge cast up the first men," (Oken, p. 324.) 44 They were littoral inhabitants, and, without doubt (!), carnivorous, as savages still are (?). From whence could they have obtained also fruits, cabbage, and turnips ?" Whence, indeed — ask Moses. The certain time and the certain place of theory are the most uncertain things in the world, and the assumed definite mixtures necessary to make a man are more undefined than the man in the moon. But there are two or three points in this anthropology which are worthy of remark. The author acknowledges the deluge, and derives man from the East, and traces him, so to say, to one source. Would he have doue so if he had not been compelled, in spite of his theory, to yield to the evidences in favor of these facts ?