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    ciae in ** language and idea we ever met with . The distinctive character of man , and the superiority of his sentieat p rinciple to that of all organized beings , is too evident to need any illustration : nor can it , we think , be denied by any species of sceptic , that this world is particularly designed for his developement . God made man

    after his own image , endowed him with reason , that distinctive prerogative of our nature , and delegated to him certain limited powers . " Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over the cattle , and over the earth , and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth . "

    << Far as Creation ' s ample range extends , The scale of sensual mental powers ascends : Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race , From the green myriads in the peopled grass . "

    We might give endless quotations , were it necessary , from sceptical writers and comparative anatomists , in proof of the vast superiority of our nature , sentient and organic , over the whole organized creation . Lord Monboddo has , indeed , endeavoured to assimilate

    us to baboons , with amputated tails ; and Lord Kames has described the Giages ( an African nation ) as a species totally distinct from mankind , because they killed their own children , and robbed the nurseries of their enemies :

    two instances among many , that writers against Revelation have nevertheless a credulity equal , if not superior , to that of any Christian fanatic . It is the study of our intellectual nature which we term metaphysical science ; the study of our organic

    nature , physiology . The great physiological question at issue is , respecting the cause of the vital phenomena , whether the effect of a certain organism of the materials which compose ie

    u visible structure , or a principle totall y distinct : the , metaphysical question , whether the sentient principle , or faculty of thinking , can be produced out of the powers and various modifications of matter , or is

    ii sonUf tfling- supera « dded to matter . j arose , among the ancients , those subtle , scholastic questions relative to nnal causes , which have ^ continued to lu « present times , and ub long as this

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    world exists wHl allord matter for disputation . Previous to the days of Lord Bacon , the object of philosophical inquiry was directed , not to the actual state of the creation as it appears to be formed , but to the means by which it has arrived at its present state . The vast progress of science since the memorable introduction of

    Lord Bacon ' s principles of induction , has occupied the pen of Mr . Dugald Stewart in a dissertation which , for real knowledge and eloquent language , eclipses the works of all modern historians . We have thus distinguished the opinions of metaphysicians into Materialism and Immaterialism . We have shewn

    the unpopularity of the former theory to arise very much from its contradiction of the popular religion of the world , both Pagan and Roman Catholic , wherever they have been " the law of the land ; " and in later times , it owes much of its obnoxious character

    to being the basis of the celebrated system of Spinoza , and the doctrine of many of the sceptics of the last century . A refutation of Spinonism and Atheism cannot be needed in our pages . Atheism , were it cultivated as a system , might indeed merit the notice of

    a legislature , since every tie of society is destroyed and all the motives of virtue buried in " annihilation , the sanctuary of sin . " But the worksof Boyle , Bently , Old worth , Clarke ,

    Tucker and Pa-ley , are barriers against the inroad of this black infidelity , and have demonstrated the material world

    " one stupendous whole , Whose body Nature is , and God the soul . ** The advocates of Materialism may be subdivided into two parties ; viz . those who believe in the authority of revealed religion , and those who do not . The Christian Materialist

    usuallybelieves in the immateriality of the Deity , but contends that the sentient , cogitative principle in man is not distinct from the body , but the result of its organization . The Deisticul Materialists appear to verge closely on Spinonism , and argue , that , as the powers

    of perception and thought have never been found but iu conjunction with a certain organized system of matter , therefore those powers usually exist in and depend on such a system . They have been nearly ail unbelievers iu a

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    Review . ' — -Recent Canirotiersif an Materialism . 17 &

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 175, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/47/