special revelation, afforded from time to time to one particular race: and that he in his wisdom ordained, that this light should in that race be preserved, till the appointed time, when, having received an accession of brightness, it should no longer be confined to that race alone, but spread abroad its divine rays to illuminate all who were willing to receive it, all who did not still prefer to sit in darkness and under the shadow of death.

son."

"He who in times past spoke to "the fathers by the prophets, hath in "these last days spoken to us by his In all that he hath thus spoken, there are some things hard to be understood; some things which man, in his present imperfect state, must necessarily not be fully prepared to comprehend. But let us see whether this ought to surprize us?

1

I have already shewed you, that the knowledge gained in childhood, though in no respect full nor perfect, is of importance in preparing the mind for a fuller use of its powers in the period of youth; and that the knowledge acquired in youth, though different in degree, and of greater moment, must still, in many instances, remain to be perfected in a state of maturity. Is it not reason. able to suppose, that this progressive state of the mind goes on beyond death and the grave; and that the wisest of the sons of men, in the full vigour of his faculties, is, comparing all he knows with all he has yet to learn, but as a child, proud of being able to point out the first letters of the alphabet?

In all that the Bible teaches concerning what God has revealed to us of the scheme of providence, nothing

is

is rendered entirely clear, but what affords us essential aid when relied upon as a principle of action. As every successive generation which has, or which is to exist on this globe, till the determined period of its dissolution, are but parts of one great whole, all equally present in the mind of Him who inhabiteth eternity; and as all this mighty whole makes but a part of the scheme of the universe, it must be in vain for us to attempt comprehending a plan so vast, so inscrutable, so " past finding "out."

Any one who has ever made the attempt of explaining to children some particular parts of subjects, which stood connected with others, that from their ignorance and want of capacity they could not understand; and who has patiently listened to all the objections, and to reconcile

all

all the difficulties which this ignorance and want of capacity occasioned, will have a proper notion of the nature of those objections which human weakness urges against the divine authority of scripture, on account of the seeming difficulties with which some things in it are attended.

You, my dearest Lady Elizabeth, have the advantage of bringing to the important inquiry, on which we are about to enter, a pure and unprejudiced mind. You will easily perceive the folly and impropriety of rejecting with scorn or pronouncing with arrogance upon such parts of these high themes as are involved in obscurity. Continue, upon such occasions, to act as you have hitherto acted, and you will avoid the errors into which pride and ignorance are You remember the

so apt to fall.

VOL. II.

book of natural philosophy into which you used sometimes to look, and in which you occasionally met with passages that you read with much delight, though you seldom could go through half a chapter without finding something which you were obliged to pass as unintelligible, for want of previous information. The chapter upon optics in particular, concerning which you were extremely curious, you found you could then make nothing of. But what was the consequence? Did you take upon you to deny the truth of what the learned author had advanced upon any of these subjects, because it was not level to your apprehension? Did you say that you knew yourself to be a judge of what you could not judge, and pretend to de.cide upon what was, and what was not properly stated, concerning things

of