vent and energetic
exertions of the warrior, and the calm and unalterable resolution of
the sage, all imply the same thing. Will, and a confidence in its
efficiency, "travel through, nor quit us till we die." It is this which
inspires us with invincible perseverance, and heroic energies, while
without it we should be the most inert and soulless of blocks, the
shadows of what history records and poetry immortalises, and not men.

Free will is an integral part of the science of man, and may be said to
constitute its most important chapter. We might with as much propriety
overlook the intelligence of the senses, that medium which acquaints us
with an external world or what we call such, we might as well overlook
the consideration of man's reason, his imagination or taste, as fail to
dwell with earnest reflection and exposition upon that principle which
lies at the foundation of our moral energies, fills us with a moral
enthusiasm, prompts all our animated exertions on the theatre of the
world, whether upon a wide or a narrow scale, and penetrates us with
the most lively and fervent approbation or disapprobation of the acts
of ourselves and others in which the forwarding or obstructing human
happiness is involved.

But, though the language of the necessarian is at war with the
indestructible feelings of the human mind, and though his demonstrations
will for ever crumble into dust, when brought to the test of the
activity of real life, yet his doctrines, to the reflecting and
enlightened, will by no means be without their use. In the sobriety of
the closet, we inevitably assent to his conclusions; nor is it easy to
conceive how a rational man and a philosopher abstractedly can entertain
a doubt of the necessity of human actions. And the number of these
persons is perpetually increasing; enlarged and dispassionate views of
the nature of man and the laws of the universe are rapidly spreading in
the world. We cannot indeed divest ourselves of love and hatred, of
the sentiments of praise and blame, and the ideas of virtue, duty,
obligation, debt, bond, right, claim, sin, crime, guilt, merit and
desert. And, if we could do so, the effects would be most pernicious,
and the world be rendered a blank. We shall however unquestionably,
as our minds grow enlarged, be brought to the entire and unreserved
conviction, that man is a machine, that he is governed by external
impulses, and is to be regarded as the medium only through the
in