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    same love which draws the veil of darkrtfess over a wearied world , ande " tempers the wind to the shorn lamb . " The sixth section contains a history of Enthusiastic Perversions of the Doctrine of a Particular Providence . These perversions are exhibited either in a narrow and sordid solicitude about petty interests , or by an impkws petulance when unwarranted expectations are disappointed :

    * ' Minds of a puny form , who draw hourly , from the matters of their personal comfort or indulgence , so many occasions of prayer and praise , are most often seen to be insensible to motives of a higher kind;—they Lave no perception of the relative magnitude of objects ;—no sense of proportion : they feel little or no interest in what does not affect themselves . \ Ve ought , however , to grant indulgence to the infirmity of the feeble : —if the soul he indeed incapable of expansion , it is better it should be devout in trifles than not devout at all . Yet these small folks have need to he warned of the

    danger of mistaking the gratulations of selfishness for the gratitude of piety . It is a rare perfection of the intellectual and moral faculties which allows all objects , great and small , to be distinctly perceived , and perceived in their relative magnitudes . A soul of this high finish may be devout on common occasions without trifling ; it will gather up the fragments of the divine bounty , that' nothing be lost , ' and yet hold its energies and its solicitudes free for the embrace of momentous cares /'—P . 140 .

    The folly and impiety of murmuring under the disappointment of unreasonable expectations needs no proof ; but we are ably reminded by our author that a law of subordination manifestl y pervades that part of the government of God with which we are acquainted ; and that while lesser interests are the component parts of greater , the dispensations of Providence are as perfect towards each individual of mankind as if he were the sole inhabitant of an only world . This law , well understood , cannot but cherish at the same time a firm trust and a profound humility .

    " This perfect fitting and finishing of the machinery of Providence to individual interests must be premised ; yet it is not less true , that in almost every event of life the remote consequences vastly outweigh the proximate in actual amount of importance . Every man prospers , or is overthrown ; lives or dies ; not for himself , but that he may sustain those around him , or that he may give them place : and who shall attempt to measure the circle within which are comprised these extensive dependencies ? On principles even of mathematical calculation , each individual of the human family may be demonstrated to hold in his hand the centre lines of an interminable web-work , on which

    are sustained the fortunes of multitudes of his successors . These implicated consequences , if summed together , make up therefore a weight of human weal or woe that is reflected back with an incalculable momentum upon the lot of each . Every one then is bound to remember that the personal sufferings , or peculiar vicissitudes , or toils , through which he is called to pass , are to be estimated and explained only in an immeasurably email proportion if his single welfare is regarded , while their full price and value are not to be computed unless the drops of the morning dew could be numbered . "— - P . 144 .

    The events of human life are declared to be ( though in themselves fixed and foreknown to God ) divisible into two classes , as they appear to us . The one calculable , the other fortuitous . The course of the material world , the permanent principles of human nature , and the established order of the . social system , though liable to interruptions , are so far constant $ s to afford a basis for anticipation : on this basis we should ground our actions ; while , taught by experience how many occurrences may intervene which no human

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    Natural Hiitory of Ehthutfasfif , 47 $

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 475, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/27/