Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/40

20 object, the other eye saw a shape and colour the very reverse: suppose too that one ear heard one sound, whilst the other ear heard a different one, or that one leg and foot attempted to move in one direction, whilst the other was urgent to move in another:—Who cannot perceive that, in all these cases, an endless confusion would ensue in all the sensations and operations of the body, and that the terrible consequence would be the destruction of all orderly sensation, and the annihilation of all orderly operation? Who then cannot perceive, for the same reason, that similar dreadful results would follow from the disagreement and disunion of the affections of the will and the persuasions of the understanding, in the human mind?

It is, I fear, but too common a thing, in the great concern of salvation and eternal happiness, for men to depend, either on purity of will alone, to the exclusion of truth in the understanding, or on the knowledge of truth in the understanding alone, to the exclusion of purity of will. Thus some make the commandments every thing, and a creed nothing, whilst others exalt the creed above the commandments, and rest their salvation on its pre-eminence. Some again depend on a life of charity separate from faith, whilst others regard faith as the master-key to the kingdom of heaven, and make charity of little or no account. But what shall