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    On the Moral Evidence < fy Influence of the Material Doctrine . 485

    Untitled Article

    It is evident , that the deep and long continued impression of the objects of this life , has a tendency to generate vice , and is indeed the general cause of its prevalence To counteract this tendency and promote the growth of virtue , which arises from more impartial and enlarged views , especially from those which immediately respect the divine Being and his works in general , it is necessary both that the duration of this

    life should be limited , and that the influences of its various objects , should be subjected to a gradual decline . Something of this nature seems to be essential even to that degree of general observation ^ which is necessary to onr acqu i

    ing a just acquaintance with the objects of this life , and probably to the very formation and exercise of the menial powers ; this being the leading design , it is likely , of those perpetual alternations of activity and weariness , of ardour

    and satiety , and of vigilance and repose , to which every succeeding day and night of our lives is subjected . The tendency of these restraints and interruptions upon action , seems evidently to be the prevention of that peculiar narrowness of mind , and those exorbitant degrees of enthusiasm , which would arise from the

    continued impression and unceasing pursuit of particular objects . Besides as the great end of life is not to acquaint us with those objects only , which happen to fall under our immediate observation , but to

    reader these the instruments of our attaining to a more general knowledge of things , it is necessary that a mental operation should exist , by which this end fliay be most effectually promoted .

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    Now that operation seems to consist in the tendency of particular and general idea * to promote the perpetual recurrence of each other , and in that mutual comparison which necessarily ensues ; and it appears to be produced by that peculiar admixture of energy and weakness which exists in the human frame , by which the impression of objects , and the decline of those * impressions , are

    made to form a certain proportion to each , other , and to co-operate in the' formation and regulation of our thoughts and affections . - A similar process to that which appertains to every day , takes

    pUice vvitla respect to the whole course of thisJife , and seems intended to co-operate in the production of the same general effects , upon a more extended scale of human existence . The Recline Nof life tends to withdraw our

    affections gradually from its objects , while it generates a peculiar degree of deyotedness to the divine will , and of benevolence toward our fellow creatures . This appears to be its natural * and * in some de-*** V ** A l / W MM . W H . *—• * * -V * ^^ * ¦* ^^* T m ¦ " * ^^ * m ^ " ^ " ^'

    ^ gree , its almost unavoidable tcndency ; and that it , in comparatively few instances , produces these effects to their more desirable extent , arises from the objects of this life still retaining an undue ascendancy , notwithstanding the constant operation of this powerful means to counteract it . It is

    observable , however , that nothing seems to be so essential to the production of its full effect , as the due impression of the hope of a future life , founded on rational views of its natur ' e and evidences .

    It is the want or the due influence of this persuasion , which produces the greatest disparity between in-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1810, page 485, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2409/page/13/