Yes; man is equally liable to degenerate as he is capable of improvement--more so, for he must be aroused, urged forward, forced on almost against his will: to take the downward path of degeneracy, he needs only to be left unmolested to choose his own way. Are there those who deny this--who look upon man as not a fallen and depraved being, shorn of the glory of his primeval excellency, ever liable to sink lower and degenerate farther, unless influences from without reach him--but as a being who has raised himself by the unaided exercise of the powers of his own mind, from a condition little above that of the brute creation, to his present state? I ask them but to survey the page of human history, to become convinced of the absurdity of such an idea. Can they point to the records of any tribe of the human family which, from a condition of rude barbarism, and shut out from all intercourse with civilized nations, has ever raised itself above such a state?[3] They cannot--it has uniformly been the entrance of the missionary, the trader, the emigrant, from more enlightened and civilized nations, which has changed the condition of such a people. [3] Such as desire further information on this important point, may obtain it, at a very small expense of time and labour, by consulting Dr. Doig’s “_Three Letters on the Savage State_,” addressed to Lord Kames.--ED. Had it been as they say, had man been formed the being they represent him, and had the voice of God never reached his ear, had no celestial visitant ever arrived upon our planet, man had never risen one step above his first condition. If, then, as the history of mankind abundantly proves, religion founded upon revelation be the only really efficient means by which man can be raised to that state of perfection he is capable of attaining; if, as we trace the progress of Christianity among the nations, we find an advancement in civilization following in her footsteps, and an amelioration of the social condition of the people marking her progress, may we not reasonably attribute to her seventh-day rest all the temporal blessings which, as she advances, she is conferring upon the labouring population? And would not the abolition of this institution, or the appropriation of Sabbath hours to other than their proper use, be effectively to exclude those who obtain their daily bread by the labour of their hands, from a participation in the benefits which the knowledge of revelation confers upon man? No more effectual step could be taken towards the demoralization, I had almost said the brutalization, of the labouring population, than that of inducing them to look upon it as a mere human holiday, which may be occupied in any way fancy may dictate. Barbarous and degrading sports, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and such like; drunkenness, revelry, and riot, would, with fearful rapidity, take the place of the solemn assembly.