f his descendants
became deteriorated and at last lost, but that these faculties were
preserved in the race of Abraham and David, and the full power again
bestowed upon or recovered by Christ. I am ready to allow the importance
of religion in cultivating and improving the world; and Ambrosio's view
appears to me capable of being referred to a general law of our nature;
and revelation may be regarded not as a partial interference but as a
constant principle belonging to the mind of man, and the belief in
supernatural forms and agency, the results of prophecies and the
miracles, as one only of the necessary consequences of it. Man, as a
reasoning animal, must always have doubted of his immortality and plan of
conduct; in all the results of faith, there is immediate submission to a
divine will, which we are sure is good. We may compare the destiny of
man in this respect to that of a migratory bird; if a slow flying bird,
as a landrail in the Orkneys in autumn, had reason and could use it as to
the probability of his finding his way over deserts, across seas, and of
securing his food in passing to a warm climate 3,000 miles off, he would
undoubtedly starve in Europe; under the direction of his instinct he
securely arrives there in good condition. I have allowed the force of
your objections to that part of my vision relating to the origin of
society, but I hope you will admit that the conclusion of it is not
inconsistent with the ideas derived from revelation respecting the future
state of the human being.

_Amb_.--Revelation has not disclosed to us the nature of this state, but
only fixed its certainty. We are sure from geological facts, as well as
from sacred history, that man is a recent animal on the globe, and that
this globe has undergone one considerable revolution, since the creation,
by water; and we are taught that it is to undergo another, by fire,
preparatory to a new and glorified state of existence of man; but this is
all we are permitted to know, and as this state is to be entirely
different from the present one of misery and probation, any knowledge
respecting it would be useless and indeed almost impossible.

_Phil_.--My Genius has placed the more exalted spiritual natures in
cometary worlds, and this last fiery revolution may be produced by the
appulse of a comet.

_Amb_.--Human fancy may imagine a thousand manners in which it may be
produced, but upon such notions it is absurd to dwell. I will not