The constitution of man considered in relation to external objects ... / [George Combe].

  • George Combe
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution of man considered in relation to external objects ... / [George Combe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    attending to the natural laws, viz. 1st. Their independence of each other; 2dly. Obedience to each of them is attend- ed with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment; 3dly. They are universal, unbending, and invariable in their operation; 4thly. They are in harmony with the constitution of man. 1. The independence of the natural laws may be il- lustrated thus:—A ship floats because a part of it being immersed, displaces a weight of water equal to its whole weight, leaving the remaining portion above the fluid. A ship, therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as these physical conditions are observed; no matter ilthough the men in it should infringe other natural laws; as, for example, although .they should rob, murder, bias pheme, and commit every species of debauchery; and it will sink whenever the physical conditions are subverted, nowever strictly the crew and passengers may obey the moral laws here adverted to. In like manner, a man who swallows poison, which destroys the stomach or intestines, will die, just because an organic law has been infringed, and because it acts independently of others, although he should have taken the drug by mistake, or have been the most pious and charitable individual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, steal, tyrannise, and in short break a great variety of the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if he sedulously observed the organic laws of temperance, and exercise; while, on the other hand, an individual who neglects these, may pine in disease, and oe racked with torturing pains, although at the very mo- ment, he may be devoting his mind to the highest duties of humanity. 2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own icward, and disobedience with its own punishment '1 hus the mariners who preserve their ship in accordance with the physical laws, reap the reward of sailing in safe- ty; and those who permit its departure from them, are punished by the ship sinking. Those who obey the moral
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