n
a high state of culture in the man, who, in point of intellectual
acquirement, knows little beyond the truths which it most concerns him
to know,--those great but simple principles which guide his conduct as
a responsible being.

In a well-regulated mind, there is an intimate harmony and co-operation
between these two departments of the mental economy. Knowledge, received
through the powers of sensation and simple intellect, whether relating
to external things, or to mental phenomena,--and conclusions derived
from these through the powers of reasoning, ought all to contribute to
that which is the highest state of man,--his purity as a moral being.
They ought all to lend their aid towards the cultivation of those
principles of his nature which bind him to his fellow-men;--and those
higher principles still, which raise his feeble powers to the Eternal
Incomprehensible One, the first great cause of all things, and the moral
Governor of the universe.

A slight degree of observation is sufficient to convince us, that such a
regulated condition of the mental constitution does not exist in the
generality of mankind. It is not my present purpose to inquire into the
causes by which this is primarily deranged; but it may be interesting to
trace some of the circumstances which bear a part in producing the
derangement. In our present state of being, we are surrounded with
objects of sense; and the mind is kept, in a great degree, under the
influence of external things. In this manner it often happens, that
facts and considerations elude our attention, and deeds escape from our
memory, in a manner which would not occur, were the mind left at liberty
to recall its own associations, and to feel the influence of principles
which are really part of the mental constitution. It is thus that, amid
the bustle of life, the attention is apt to be engrossed by
considerations of a local and an inferior character;--while facts and
motives of the highest moment are overlooked, and deeds of our own, long
gone by, escape from our remembrance. We thus lose a correct sense of
our moral condition, and yield to the agency of present and external
things, in a manner disproportioned to their real value. For our highest
concern as moral beings is with things future, and things unseen, and
often with circumstances in our own moral history, long past, and
perhaps forgotten. Hence the benefit of retirement and calm reflection,
and of every thing that ten