the
voluntary action of men, some that the Providence of God directs us in
every step, some that all events are fixed by Destiny. It is for us to
ascertain how far each of these affirmations is true.

[Sidenote: Individual life of a mixed kind.]

The life of individual man is of a mixed nature. In part he submits to
the free-will impulses of himself and others, in part he is under the
inexorable dominion of law. He insensibly changes his estimate of the
relative power of each of these influences as he passes through
successive stages. In the confidence of youth he imagines that very much
is under his control, in the disappointment of old age very little. As
time wears on, and the delusions of early imagination vanish away, he
learns to correct his sanguine views, and prescribes a narrower boundary
for the things he expects to obtain. The realities of life undeceive him
at last, and there steals over the evening of his days an unwelcome
conviction of the vanity of human hopes. The things he has secured are
not the things he expected. He sees that a Supreme Power has been using
him for unknown ends, that he was brought into the world without his own
knowledge, and is departing from it against his own will.

[Sidenote: It foreshadows social life.]

Whoever has made the physical and intellectual history of individual man
his study, will be prepared to admit in what a surprising manner it
foreshadows social history. The equilibrium and movement of humanity are
altogether physiological phenomena. Yet not without hesitation may such
an opinion be frankly avowed, since it is offensive to the pride, and to
many of the prejudices and interests of our age. An author who has been
disposed to devote many years to the labour of illustrating this topic,
has need of the earnest support of all who prize the truth; and,
considering the extent and profundity of his subject, his work, at the
best, must be very imperfect, requiring all the forbearance, and even
the generosity of criticism.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: First opinions of savage life.]

In the intellectual infancy of a savage state, Man transfers to Nature
his conceptions of himself, and, considering that every thing he does is
determined by his own pleasure, regards all passing events as depending
on the arbitrary volition of a superior but invisible power. He gives to
the world a constitution like his own. His tendency is necessarily to
super