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    their species , or to their own peril . At the critical period of life when pr inciples should , if ever , be formed , they surrendered themselves to the mastery of their passions and sensibilities . Their passions being nourished by gratification , gained an unlimited ascendency ; their sensibility , amiable still , but undisciplined , misled them day by day , weakening their intellectual and moral p owers , and reducing them through one stage of disease to another , till

    they stand on the brink of the grave of their best hopes and noblest endowments . The rake , the drunkard , the gamester , the brutal murderer himself , have all experienced in their day emotions , perhaps , as warm , as pure , as exquisite , as those whose temporary decay we mourn : and what have these emotions done for them ? Had they been willing to submit to the natural and salutary process by which these feelings become converted into habits of piety , benevolence , and obedience to conscience , they might now have been

    as angels of light compared with their present state : but they disturbed the process , and their strength has become weakness , and the milk of human kindness , the appropriate nourishment of their spiritual frame , is changed into a corrosive poison . — Let us be careful , then , to yield our obedience where it is due , and to follow Principle wherever she leads , without casting

    a lingering look on the flowery paths in which we have hitherto trod . The blossoms must fall off before fruit can be produced ; it is the part of folly to weep because they fade , and that of wisdom to tend the ripening fruit without regretting the transient beauties of the spring , which , having afforded their due measure of delight , and fulfilled the purpose of their creation , have passed away .

    In our religious services , we should be more careful to pay our tribute t > f reverent gratitude and praise regularly , calmly , and cheerfully , than to kindle flaming raptures , or excite thrilling fears . We should endeavour to have God in all our thoughts , to acknowledge his hand in the daily events of our lives , to study his word , and to glorify him by our actions ; and not to wait for some particular emotion before we venture to approach him , or neglect

    prayer because we find our hearts too cold for so sacred a service . We may , we must , sometimes feel deep concern at the deadness of our devotional feelings ; but the stream , though stagnant , is not frozen , and the way to restore its purity and hasten its course is to open its accustomed channels to light and warmth from heaven . —If we find our sympathies with our brethren less vivid than formerly , we must not sit down to ponder our troubles ; for this is the sure way to concentrate our attention on ourselves , and to perpetuate

    the evil . We should not wait till some object of misery presents itself to our gaze , to awaken the sensibility which has hitherto been the spring of our actions ; but , remembering that what our hand findeth to do we are to do with all our might , we should relinquish our inactive meditations , exclude selfish regrets , and hasten to the performance of some active duty . Some may ask , ' Are we then to forego without a murmur the dearest privileges

    and most exalted enjoyments we have ever known—the sensibilities which have been the delight , the ornament , the very element of our being ? " I answer , " No . Submit but for a time to the guidance of principle , and your feelings will revive with added vigour : the offspring of virtuous habits , they are endowed with immortality , and , if duly cherished , they will accompany you from strength to strength , and at length appear with you before God "

    How the regenerating process is performed , we will hereafter consider . In the meanwhile , it is right to bear in mind , under all discouragements , that

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    On the Agency of Feelings in the Formation of Habits . 10 £ >

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    vol . in . i

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/33/