It does seem strange to our earliest reflections on the subject, that ignorance, so absolute,. should be the reward of those who, all their life, have toiled in their endeavour to rise above that very ignorance. For "there is," says Solomon, "that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes!"

And it seems a paradox to early thoughts, that, after all, nothing is attained, but that which in the beginning was possessed-namely, IGNORANCE; nothing is arrived at by the WISE man, but the knowledge that he has not been able to find that which he has been seeking for. He has applied himself to the work of understanding the business that is done in the earth; he has laboured, but has not found it out: yea, although he has thought that he could find it, yet he has not been able!

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All that we know," said heathen philosophy, "is, that we know nothing:"* denoting the very limited portion of knowledge which the human mind, at that period of the world's history, was capable of arriving at.

What says christian philosophy?

I quote the words of one of the greatest, the wisest, and the most pious men, that ever laboured to enlighten and benefit mankind. * Socrates.

"When," he says, "I wrote my treatise about our system, I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considerate men for the belief of a Deity; and nothing can rejoice me more, than to find it useful for that purpose. But, if I have done the public any service this way, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought."*

"I know not," he said, "what the world will think of my labours," - these are the words which you are entreated to notice:"I know not what the world will think of my labours; but, to myself, it seems that I have been but as a child playing on the sea-shore: now finding some pebble rather more polished; and now some shell more agreeably variegated; while the immense ocean of truth extended itself unexplored before me."

The reason of my quoting these words to you is, that I wish to explain to you how it is that those who have attained unto most knowledge, are able to confess in this way how extremely little they know.

I have repeated to you the words of Solomon to this effect; the words, also, of one of the most celebrated of the ancient heathens, eminent for his virtue as for his research; and

* Newton's Works, Horsley's Edit. vol. iv. p. 430.

the words of the pious christian philosopher which I have just read.

And I think you will perceive, in your reflections on this subject, the very important way in which it unites itself with the other branches of christian meditation.

v...History, and the world around us, are the two sources of human knowledge. "If," it was said long ago, “if we have any humility towards the Creator; if we have any reverence and esteem of His works; if we have any charity towards man, or any desire of relieving man's miseries and necessities; if we have any love for natural truths, any aversion to darkness, and any desire of purifying the understanding; mankind are to be most affectionately entreated and beseeched to lay aside, at least for awhile, their preposterous, fantastic, and hypothetical philosophies, (which have led experience captive, and childishly triumphed over the works of God,) and now, at length, condescend, with due submission and veneration, to approach and peruse the volume of the creation, dwell some time upon it; and bringing to the work a mind well purged of opinions, idols, and false notions, converse familiarly therein.

"This volume is the language which is gone out to all the ends of the earth, unaffected by the confusion of Babel.

"This is the language that men should thoroughly learn: and not disdain to have its alphabet perpetually in their hands.

"And, in the interpretation of this language, they should spare no pains, but strenuously proceed, persevere, and dwell upon it to the last."*

This is the book which "he who runs may read." This is one source of knowledge: history is the other. But one of these sources alone is boundless!

Look at the

extent of the two, and what is our inference?

vi...The sources of knowledge being boundless; any portion of knowledge attainable by man, must, in proportion with these sources, not only appear, but be, indefinitely small.

Let us make use of a simple illustration. A drop of water taken from the sea, is very small in comparison to the sea from whence it is taken. So, the knowledge which man is able to attain unto, is much smaller, in comparison with the sources from whence he derives it; in comparison with the great * Bacon on Method of Philosophy.

"OCEAN of truth," which extends itself, unexplored, before him.

vii...Now, mark the next step, which we arrive at in our reflections.

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They that go down to the sea in ships," says the Psalmist," and occupy their business in the great waters: these men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." That is they who have witnessed those parts of God's works which most immediately and forcibly, perhaps, overawe the human mind; these men are more likely to be impressed with the idea of the greatness of God and of his power, than those who move only in nature's calmer scenes; it being the vast and the terrible in nature which the more readily makes man conscious of his insignificance.

Pain, rather than pleasure, brings men to religion. Man, from what is every day before his eyes, from any page or line in nature's volume, may trace the greatness and the power of God as plainly and distinctly as when it is forced upon his discernment by such a spectacle as the ocean during a storm. Nevertheless, we see that it is not the case that he does so; but that sorrows and afflictions-storms and dangers-cleanse most the