11 XIII. of the arts began to be cultivated, and these first LETTER appeared among the children of his descendant Lamech. One of these began the Arab and Tartar style, of living in tents and breeding cattle, so that this form of human society began before the flood:" another invented the harp and the organ, or commenced the production and cultivation of the music of sound: 10 another became an artificer in brass and iron, and thereby indicates that he had found out a process for smelting metallic ores and of working them into serviceable instruments.' These are all the notices we have of the occupations of the antediluvian race. One portion of it was for some time more virtuous and religious than the other; but intermingling by marriages," the morality of all diminished: and by the time that Noah had attained his 500th year, violence and voluptuousness had become the general habit of society, and characterized its individual life.13 The corruption was so universal as to be incurable. The same cause brought on the same effect. Disregard of the laws of God and disobedience to Him produced, as their natural consequence, vice and evil, and destroyed human happiness. Mutual warfare and depredation on the one hand, and personal depravity on the other, made human life a scene of misery, and degraded and spoilt human nature itself. The plans and wishes of the Deity for the benefit and improvement of His 9 Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.' Gen. iv. 20. 10 His brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.' Ib. 21. "Zillah bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.' Ib. 22. XIII. LETTER human creatures, were thus again defeated by their rebellion and perversity. The blessings which He had caused the material course of nature which then prevailed, to impart to them, had only made them more self-elated and contumacious. His gift of longevity, had thus been abused into more powerful means of mischief and debasement: and He resolved to terminate this condition of human nature, by the extinction of its deteriorated population; and to renew it under an altered system of nature, and under new circumstances of its existence, which would constitute its third state, and which is that in which it has ever since continued, and is now subsisting. This revolution would be another monitory instance, that human happiness and obedience to God are inseparably linked together, and that man cannot live in the habit of disobedience to the Divine laws, without perpetually producing moral evil and personal suffering. A deluge of waters, that should overwhelm all that was living, was the chosen instrument of effecting this awful dispensation. LETTER XIV. FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF OUR FIRST XIV. THE surprise and censures of many have been excited LETTER by our first parents acting as they did, and occasioning thereby the loss of a paradise to all their posterity; but in justice to them we must recollect, that it is most probable, that every one of the descendants who blame them, would, in their situation, have acted no better; and that if any other human beings of former ages, or any even of ourselves were to be placed and circumstanced as they were, the same conduct and results would ensue. We ground this conclusion on the observed fact in daily life, that every one who has sprung from them, often imitates their error by sinning against better knowlege and better resolutions, and even right intentions. That Hell is paved with good intentions was the strong figurative expression of one of our most distinguished moralists; and the universal application of the remark to every age and individual, is as undeniable as its truth. If the good intention were sufficient, if to mean well were the same as to do well, or would necessarily and most certainly produce the corresponding action, there would be little vice or error in the world; but it is because we do not carry the good intention into the actual practice; it is because we feel and know what is right and proper, and most usually wish and mean to do it, but yet do not put the becoming pur LETTER pose into execution, but repeatedly deviate from the XIV. good intention and even resolution, into the action and indulgence which is contrary to it, that we ourselves so often misconduct our life; and that immorality, crime, sin and suffering are so intermingled and so prolonged among mankind. It is because we do not individually exert and direct our self-agency to restrain us from the wrong practice, that both moral and natural evil so much pervade society still, and have been such adhering residents among us. But i w if the present race, the last of all the generati that have een living thro almost sixty centuries are still in this predicament, still acting with this unreasonableness and weakness; if we, with all the corrective and admonishing benefit of so much experience, are yet so infirm of purpose, and so defective in self-government, ought we to press the deficiency so hardly, against our similarly acting predecessors?— or, omit to perceive both the justice and the necessity of our divine Author's having put human life, into that state of discipline which alone has kept it so tolerable; which has prevented so much greater deterioration that would have ensued without it; and which has already led it to so many improvements, that would have been thought impossible by any of the contemporaries of either Adam or Noah, or even of Socrates and Cicero? Much indeed remains yet to do. Sighing for ourselves and others, we must all, with self-humbling sincerity, admit this truth ; but let us also be candid as to ourselves, and just to our Maker's wisdom and effectively-chosen measures. Much has been already accomplished in the meliorating process; His plans and means are achieving grand effects. He has exalted His human being into XIV. ennobling improvements. He has thus far largely, LETTER variously and beautifully regenerated His human nature into new features, to a new heart, and with a new spirit. Both the moral and the intellectual aspect of the world has now a more sunny appearance than ever, amid all its shades and deformities. The soul of man is visibly a new being already, compared with what it has been, and it is perceptibly on the advance. The rectifying agencies have never been so active nor so successful, as thev are at this moment; nor is there any chance that timproving energies will diminish. Vast impulses to have become active, and are struggling for superiority. But a new creating spirit has also sprung every where into life, and is pursuing and repressing whatever actuates to mislead. The hand of our Maker is upon mankind; and what He has excited or is watching, He will guide, guard, teach, and in due time, and with all His fine and diversified complication of impulses, restraints, suggestions, aids, disciplines and government, will conduct to the grand issues that He means to educe from it. We find moral evil existing around us, as we grow up into observation and judgment. It must then have originated from those who preceded us. Our ancestors have therefore both committed and transmitted it. As far as we can carry up our inquiry, history presents the same defects and stains in the conduct of our species. It must then have begun from some portion of our predecessors, in the very earliest stages of human existence, because mankind, in no part of antiquity, appear without it; of its origin we have only one account. The singularity of this soleness is a strong indication of the veracity |