320 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. pounded being as I now am ; I had no more hand in the union of these two principles, or in the composition of myself, than I had in the making of those two distinct beings of which I am compounded : It was God only, that great God who created both parts of me, the animal and the mind, who also joined them together in so strange an union; and if I were to enter into the mysteries of this union, it would open a wide and various scene of amazement at his unsearchable wisdom. But let me examine a little : Was there no ancient and early kindred between this particular spirit and this flesh'of mine, this mind and this animal ? Is there no original relation, no es- sential harmony and special congruity between my body and my soul, that should make their union necessary ? None at all that I can find, either by my sense or reflection, my reason or expe- rience. These two beings have dwelt above thirty years together, strangely united into one, and yet I have never been able to trace any one instance of previous kindred between them. This mind might have been paired with any other human body ; or this body with any other mind. I can find nothing but the sovereign will of God that joined this mind and this animal body toge- ther, and made the wondrous compound : It was he or- dained me to be what I am, in all the circumstances of my nativity. Seest thou, O my soul, that unhappy cripple lying at thy neighbour's door, that poor mis-shapen piece of human nature ? Mark how useless are his limbs ! he can neither support nor feed himself. Look over against him, there sits one that was blind from his birth, and begs his bread, if thou hadst been originally united to either of these pieces of flesh and blood, then hadst thou been that poor cripple, or that very blind beggar. Yonder lies a piteous spectacle, a poor infant that came into the world but three months ago, its flesh covered with ulcers, and its bones putrifying with its father's sins : I hear its whining cries, and long piteous wailings ; its bitter groans touch my heart, and awaken all my tenderness : Let me stand and reflect a little. Surely I had been that wretched thing, that little, pining, perishing infant, and all those pains and agonies had been mine, if God had reserved my soul in his secret counsels till a few months ago, and then confined it to that unhappy man- sion of diseased and dying flesh. Once more let my eyes affect my heart. What a strange aukward creature do I see there ! The form of it is as the form of a man, but its motions seem to be more irregular, and the animal more senseless than a very beast : Yet they tell me, it is almost forty years old. It might have been by this time a statesman, a philosopher, general of an army, or a learned di- vine ; but reason could never act nor spew itself in that disor-
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