For want of a more
accurately defined term, the agent here introduced may be called
Philosophy; understanding by the term, the search, what would be the
conduct and preferences of a truly wise man, dispassionately seeking
for himself the best enjoyment of this life, uninformed of another to
follow.
Or, thirdly, we may seek to infuse a nobler principle than self-love,
however refined--even the charity, whose essence is, to love one's
neighbor as one's self; while, at the same time, this life being
earnestly contemplated as but the introductory part of an immense
whole, additional security is provided for the coincidence of interest
with duty. In a word, the third agency to be employed is _Religion_.
The whole subject thus sketched is one of which the writer is not
aware, that it has been distinctly defined, as a field for thought and
investigation. He has little to learn from the successes or the
failures of predecessors. Be this his excuse for seeming prosy and
dull; possibly for mistakes and crudities. He has the doubly
difficulty of attempting to turn thought into trains to which it is
not accustomed; and yet of offering no results so profound as to have
escaped other observers; or so sublime as to be the due prize of
genius, venturing where few can soar.
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