Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1803-09-19
Far the AlsuandTa Advertiser.
THE MoRALIsT.

THE MORALIST.
No II.
! Read in The ffaee ef HeaUea, and in The Stars,
| The G0dim5rxss'd IN clearing eba,a2rrs.
DRYDEN.
Man was not formed by the divine architect,
for a creature of low & mean condition. He was
gwen reasoa, and thrown upon this vicious world
aslnto q vast and spacious anphltheatre, to view
and examine all around him. He became, at
once, an actor In the scene and candidate for
fame and immortality. In his soul was implanted
a strong and invincible passion, for all that is
great and divine, with contemp: for n,eanness,
and an adherence of wickedaess. Hence it would
seems that " the great globe itself ana all which
1t lnherlts is not capacious enough for the ex-
tenslye. centenpiations of the human mind il Id
that our thoughts often soar above the Heavens,
and penetrate beyond those boundaries which ter
innate the universe.
Disaaining as It were, TO be limited by the mar.
row powers OF our senses. we open the field to our
imagination and, as if the earth we tread was
too small, we contemplate worlds that revove at
immense distances. We CONCEIVE that we can
distinguish behind and beyond all these, Others
not less IN magnitude but seeming SO because at
greater distance. This genious we receive from
Heaven, extensive as the inhnite space which it
contemplates, ard in which it is, as it were at
length mingled, swallowed up and lost. ltknows
no more bounds than that inGnity Of space it
would examine, or than the power itself which it
supposes tohave furnished that inhnity with worlds
innumerable.
/" II tbe par {adiau, qUbose aefato,sd mind,
" Sees G0d in e0s,y cicad, or hears him il The
1vt4d."
PORE.
Thus human reason acts when right directed;
and thus a sovereign pride grows on confessed hu-
nifty, as knowledge upon conscious Ignorance.
He who fances HIMSELF great, who, seeing some
things less supposes himself superior to ALL glories
IN what is little more than nothing. When we
have the modesty to know ourselves, we at once
distinguish the soul to be something SUPERIOR and
find its separate nature oy exerting its indepen-
dent faculties. In contemplating these subjects.
we feel a gratitude to Cop, we feel power Of
divinity within US we discover that to entertain
sense of these. his operations, is to enjoy, tho
at an unreasonable distance, something OF MS own
nature, some emanation from himself, and there
fore too great for mortality.
tie who has the power to think, feels within
himself conviction of the true dignity, and real
superiority IN his nature above that Of other crea.
lures. he now believes that he has proof of The
souls immortality, while he contemplates heaven
and earth, the sea and air, and those innumerable
WORLDS formed like this, ard most likely, peop!ed
md he oro
laVoured creature OF that great power who made
him. He Will see the extent Of his creator SO
tar asst regards himself in the disposition of things
about him; and conforming has Actions with love
and with obedience to that design, tic will exert
every virtue.
This was the design for which God conferred
this dignity and bestowed those powers upon the
human mind. They should only be applied to
virtuous ends, and thus cannot fail giving relief
to the disordered, and happiness to all. This is
the consequence of employing and exerting them;
and this being the consequence, it is virtue so to
employ them; and with the gnominy, there is a
tn6tCre of crime, in suffering them to be unex-
erted.
ANECDOTE.
The following Anecdote has not probably e.
scaped the recollection of some, who vouch
tor its being substantially corred;
MANY years ago, gentleman of considera-
bic fortune, who resided in Virginia, and who
had two children, daughter and son, became
much lncensed against his daughter, in conse-
quenee other being about to marry perfon he
disapproved of and in order to eylnce his disap.
probation of the connection, he disinEerited her,
and bequea.hed the whole Of his estate to his son.