9. And again, could such a spectator, seeing animals entirely occupied
by their appetites and desires, and the objects subservient to their
individual gratification, have ever dreamt that there should appear on
earth a creature who should desire to know, and should know, the
distances and motions of the stars, future as well as present; the
causes of their motions, the history of the earth, and his own history;
and even should know truths by which all possible objects and events not
only are, but must be regulated?
10. And yet again, could such a spectator, seeing that animals obeyed
their appetites with no restraint but external fear, and knew of no
difference of good and bad except the sensual difference, ever have
imagined that there should be a creature acknowledging a difference of
right and wrong, as a distinction supreme over what was good or bad to
the sense; and a rule of duty which might forbid and prevent
gratification by an internal prohibition?
11. And finally, could such a spectator, seeing nothing but animals
with all their faculties thus entirely immersed in the elements of their
bodily being, have supposed that a creature should come, who should
raise his thoughts to his Creator, acknowledge Him as his Master and
Governor, look to His Judgment, and aspire to live eternally in His
presence?
12. If it would have been impossible for a spectator of the præhuman
creation, however intelligent, imaginative, bold and inventive, to have
conjectured beforehand the endowments of such a creature as Man, taking
only those which we have thus indicated; it may well be thought, that if
there is to be a creature which is to succeed man, as man has succeeded
the animals, it must be equally impossible for us to conjecture
beforehand, what kind of creature _that_ must be, and what will be _his_
endowments and privileges.
13. Thus a spectator who should thus have studied the præhuman creation,
and who should have had nothing else to help him in his conjectures and
conceptions, (of course, by the supposition of a præhuman period, not
any knowledge of the operation of intelligence, though a most active
intelligence would be necessary for such speculations,) would not have
been able to divine the future appearance of a creature, so excellent as
Man; or to guess at his endowments and privileges, or his relation to
the previous animal creation; and just as little able may we be, even if
there is to exist at some time, a creature more excellent and glorious
than man, to divine what kind of creature he will be, and how related to
man. And here, therefore, it would perhaps be best, that we should quit
the subject; and not offer conjectures which we thus acknowledge to have
no value. Perhaps, however, the few brief remarks which we have still to
make, put forwards, as they are, merely as suggestions to be weighed by
others, can not reasonably give offence, or trouble even the most
reverent thinker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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