e, and the immutable laws of moral rectitude.
When, in any of these forms, a sensual or selfish propensity is allowed
to pass the due boundary which is fixed for it by reason and the moral
principle, the mental harmony is destroyed, and even the judgment itself
comes to be impaired and distorted in that highest of all inquiries, the
search after moral truth.

The desires, indeed, may exist in an ill-regulated state, while the
conduct is yet restrained by various principles, such as submission to
human laws, a regard to character, or even a certain feeling of what is
morally right, contending with the vitiated principle within. But this
cannot be considered as the healthy condition of a moral being. It is
only when the desire itself is sound, that we can say the man is in
moral health. "He who grieves at his abstinence," says Aristotle, "is a
voluptuary;"--and this also is the great principle so often and so
strikingly enforced in the sacred writings; "Keep thy heart with all
diligence, because out of it are the issues of life." "Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God." Thus, there are desires which
are folly, and there are desires which are vice, even though they should
not be followed by indulgence; and there are desires which tend to
purify and elevate the moral nature, though their objects should be
beyond the reach of our full attainment in the present state of being.
Perfect moral purity is not the lot of man in this transient state, and
is not to be attained by his own unaided efforts. But, subservient to
it is that warfare within, that earnest and habitual desire after the
perfection of a moral being, which is felt to be the great object of
life, when it is viewed in relation to the life which is to come. For
this attainment, however, man must feel his total inadequacy,--and the
utmost efforts of human reason have failed in unfolding the requisite
aid. The conviction is thus forced upon us, that a higher influence is
necessary, and this influence is fully disclosed by the light of
revealed truth. We are there taught to look for a power from on high,
capable of effecting what human efforts cannot accomplish,--the
purification of the heart.

Sect. II.

The Affections.

As the desires are calculated to bring some gratification to ourselves,
the Affections lead us to our relations to other men, and to a certain
line of conduct which arises out of these relations. They are to be
viewed as o