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divirjuals , whose advantages in other respects have borne any proportion to each other . It has indeed been frequently remarked , that this single persuasion has
outweighed ,- both in its moral and mental influences , every advantage that has been supplied by learning and philosophy in its absence . There is therefore
something in its influence which is admirably adapted to our nature and present circumstances ; it greatly aids that operation of our minds , which arises from the gradual decline and moderated activity of
the faculties in withdrawing the affections from present objects , and transferring them to those of a more sublime , extended , and durable nature , and which can be
fully realised only in a future improved state of being . That the decline of life is a powerful agent in the promotion of this salutary process , is evident from its being essential to the formation of our
most enlarged and just idea $ » Were particular impressions and the lower propensities , or even any one faculty or principle of our natures , absolutely fixed and
permanent in its character , it would soon become the supreme and sole object of our affections , and every absent object would sink into insigrii ficance , or be estranged from our minds .
But by subjecting the sensations and appetites , and in a sue . cession proportipned to their respective degrees of importance , the superior affections and principles
of our nature to a gradual decline , as the process of abstractiQn and refinement is perpetually promoted , absent and invisible objects obtain an influence on the mind , in some measure proportioned
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to their actual importance ; and the primary Source of ail ex * istence obtains that supreme a . scendancy to ' which He is so justly entitled . Now if the very declen - sion of life have so salutary and essential an influence , in the fo r-
mation and promotion of our best powers and affections , and the expectation of a future life , in which alone those powers and affections can obtain their most energetic exercise and amplest gratification , be the most effectual means of
promoting this influence , it is surely agreeable to ** fact and analogy" to conclude , that such an existence is indeed the actual destination of mankind *
Perhaps it may be objected , that though the decline of parti - cular sensations , and of the subordinate appetites and passions , may operate in the promotion of our mental improvement , yet it is by no means so easily conceived how the utter extinction of all our faculties
can even , in conjunction with their subsequent restoration , contribute to the production of the same be . nefieial effects . But as death is but the completion of the process of decline , it is probable that its influence in conjunction with a future life , from which indeed it must be
considered as inseparably connected , is analogous to those of the preceding stages . Were this process arrested in any period of its course , and an opposite principle of
energy introduced , it is likely that its ameliorating effects would be in a great degree obliterated , and whatever changes might be made in our external circumstances , our
former appetites and propensities would probably recur * aftd be promoted witlikmr ' renewed vigbuf . On the other hand , its continu-
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486 On the Moral Evidence 8 p Influence of the Material Doctrine .
