It is certain, that the knowledge of futurity would by no means be conducive to human happiness, if it could be obtained; it would hot advance other the improvement or the present interests erf man. Horace has well observed, that "The prudent God hath veiled in darkest night The future scene from ev'ry mortal eight; And laughs when men, with over-anxious fears, Anticipate the woes of future years."

† Quid ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli spectalur plagag.

Euripides.

And there are considerations, indeed, to demonstrate the wisdom of the appointment, of which the heathen moralists were not aware; for if it were otherwise, our existence would be regarded not as an uncertain period of probation, but as a defined possession, in which amendment would be posponed, and repentance procrastinated; our dependance on the Supreme Being would be forgotten: there would be confidence without fear, a reliance without gratitude or piety. The animation of hope, the pleasure of surprise, would be lost. The knowledge of approaching good would hot deaden the enjoyment of possession; the dread of approaclung evil would be fearful and intolerable. What, says Cicero, would have been the fete of Priam, if he had foreseen the impending destruction of his family?

"O visions ill foreseen, better had be Liv'd ignorant of future, so had borne His part of evil only."

"Let no man seek Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall Him or his children ; evil he may be sure, Which neither his foreknowing can prevent; And he the future evil shall no less ln apprehension than in substance feel Grievous to bear*."

Who would wish to behold his descendants, as Virgil represents Æneas to have seen Mar-cellus,

"In youth encircled with the shades of death."

How much Would the inducement to cultivate the good qualities and excellencies of those in whom we now feel interested be diminished, especially among such as look not to the .eternal fruits of virtue, if we were conscious that premature death would deprive us soon of the society of the objects of our care, and bury their virtues in an early grave: who would labour for distinction, of which the effect must finish on the morrow? What fortitude could contemplate the shade advancing on the dial of time, if the line were ascertained at which death would execute its decree?

* Paradise Lost, B. xi. E 6

Many writers, who have thought that they have observed proofs of a prophetic discernment of the mind, have maintained, that it displays an especial insight as it approaches the goal of its delivery *. Cicero considers its presaging powers as expressive of a divine nature, and of the excellent faculties which it will display in a future state† .

* Xenophon. Hist. L. viii. † Cicero de Sences.

These opinions are consistent with the current persuasions of antiquity, of which the poets and historians afford many proofs; as for instance Homer, in describing the death of Patroclus; Virgil, that of Turnus; Cicero, that of Possidonius * : and Sir Thomas Browne has observed, that men sometimes, upon the hours of their departure, do speak and reason above themselves; for then the soul, about to be freed from the ligament of the body, begins to reason like herself, and to discourse in a strain above mortality †" This, however, is nothing but the elation of the mind, to which earthly things begin to fade, and the hope and expectation of immortality to brighten: no real foreknowledge obtains, excepting as founded on conjectural reasonings from experience; nor are there any well-established accounts, of such, excepting in the instances mentioned in sacred history*.

* Naudaeus in Bib. Casaubon Enthus. C. ii. p. 59 Boyle's Works, vol. v. p. 496.

† Religto Medici, B. ii. §. 11.

"The mind of man is ignorant of fate †."

We may conclude therefore, in general deduction, from the considerations which have been stated, first, that the mind had no existence previously to its entrance into the body; since, in its most abstracted speculations, it exhibits no acquaintance with any ideas that are not acquired by the senses on earth: and secondly, that it is immaterial, and capable of independent exertions, though it sympathizes with the body in its affections, when the latter is either sleeping or waking, and is pained by its sufferings, and enlivened by its vigour. It appears also that it developes powers and faculties of a spiritual nature; and that its perfections are sometimes manifested with equal, if not greater vivacity, when it is freed from the oppressive influence of the body; and that it has, in that state, been judged by God capable of receiving divine revelations. It appears likewise, that some faint notices have been discerned in it occasionally of an intuitive and prophetical discernment, though it is not naturally endowed with prophetic powers, capable of affording any light for the direction of the conduct of men.

* Gen. xlviii.

† Virgil.