The Harmony of Creation [pp. 278-290]

THE HARMONY OF CREATION.
would find an outlet in'that direction, especially during the winter months.
The opening of this road is no very distant event. That of itself will restore to the South her equal rights and liberties. Let
all true frieiids of our country eschew politics, and help, advise
or encourage the construction of works of internal improvement,
which are in truth the most powerful agencies, because they unite
distant peoples together on terms of amity, of social intercourse,
of trade, and community of pecuniary and political interests.
AIRT. VI.-TIIE IIARMONY OF CREATION.
PHYSICAL AND MORAL ANTAGONISMS RECONCILED-PHYSIOLOGY,
PHYSICAL AND MORAL.
WE would not invent a new terminology; but apply the old with
more accuracy. The terms, moral philosophy, natural philosophy,
though conventionally well understood, are philologically inexpressive of the sense in which they are employed. What is the
science of moral or natural love of wisdom? Is not "moral philosophy," falsely so called, as natural as the equally false phrase,
"natural philosophy." We use the phrase, "physiology," in its
etymological sense. Physiology means a discourse on nature;
which may be divided in various branches, moral and physical.
The science of life is physiology, physical and moral, which embraces what is usually termed physiology, and is confined to physical structures. But we would have the term, moral physiology,
embracing the science of moral life. We think it the most expressive term that can be adopted. It is the only accurate and
scientific phraseology we have in reference to the subject, and
scientific men should have no fear in using it.
The harmony of creation is produced and sustained in all its
parts by a war of antagonisms, which has existed from the beginning, and will continue through nature while that wedlock shall
endure which God has ordained between matter and vitality.
"From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began;
From harmony to harmony,
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full on man."
And yet amidst this increasing harmony, in the unceasing
change and endless variety of nature, there occur great radical
ideas, which form the groundwork of change, the basis of the
variety, but admit in themselves of no change or variety whatever,
in this constant change consist the permanency, the stability of
nature. This is the physical and moral antagonism which produces the beautiful harmony of nature, a subject we propose dis
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