attention to it. Its principles have afforded him much consolation during a large portion of life; they have rendered advanced years placid and serene, and enabled him to contemplate death itself, notwithstanding its gloomy appearance, as one of the most essential blessings in the whole plan of Providence.” No man could have better grounds for contemplating death with security and composure than Dr Cogan; his life had been without reproach; he was pious and charitable, benevolent and humane; in thought and action he was moved by the genuine spirit of christianity; he loved God, and praised him habitually for his goodness; he loved man, and laboured for nothing so much as the moral improvement and happiness of his fellow-creatures.

REMARKS

ON THE

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN.

COMMUNICATED TO THE EDITOR.

THE design of Dr Cogan in the connected series of disquisitions, which he gave to the world, was, as he expresses it, "to trace the moral history of man. in his pursuits, powers, and motives of action; and the means of obtaining permanent wellbeing and happiness." He begins, very wisely, with a careful analysis of the passions and affections; from the proper exercise of which he supposes all happiness to be derived, and in the proper regulation of which, he supposes all virtue to consist.

It is to be regretted, that more attention has not been paid to this subject; to the actual constitution of the human mind, especially of its active principles, and to the various elements, that enter into the formation of a good character. Just views on these points would do much, it is certain, to correct many prevail

ing errours, not only in morals, but in theology. Light would be thrown upon the laws of scriptural interpretation; several doctrines of the Gospel, particularly those of repentance and conversion, would receive a more clear, satisfactory, and practical explanation; many of the differences, which now divide serious and well disposed Christians, would disappear; a more candid and liberal spirit would discover itself in our treatment of one another, and a more rational and consistent, if not a warmer piety towards God. In considering the nature and sources of some of the most mischievous delusions, that have vexed the church, the confused and partial conceptions, that still prevail respecting the influence of religion on the character, and the too common habit of representing many things as the genuine offspring of benevolence and piety, which originate in reality in a perverted intellect, or a diseased state of the affections, there is certainly nothing to which we can look with so much hope and confidence as a remedy for these evils, as to the improvements which have been made, are making, and will be made, in the Philosophy of the Human Mind.

The reputation of Dr Cogan, as a metaphysician, must depend chiefly on his Philosophical Treatise on the Passions. In defining, classifying, and describing the passions, affections, and desires, which belong to our nature, and in accounting for their almost infinite varieties and diversities, he has discovered much

acuteness and compass of mind; and given us probably more useful information on the subject, than can be found any where else in the same number of pages. He considers, that all our passions and affections may be resolved into one principle, the LOVE OF WELLBEING; even our aversions being no other than particular modifications of a desire founded on this love, namely, a desire of being liberated from whatever appears injurious to wellbeing. Our passions and affections he divides into two classes; those, which owe their origin to the principle of self-love; and those, which are derived from the social principle. Each of these classes he subdivides into two orders; the first embracing the passions and affections in which the idea of good predominates, or is the exciting cause; and the second, those in which the idea of evil predominates, or is the exciting cause.

The author is a decided believer in the real existence of a benevolent principle in man, distinct from self-love, and not a mere modification of it. He admits, indeed, as all must gladly admit, that much pleasure and satisfaction are felt by the person himself, who performs a benevolent action; but this pleasure and satisfaction are observed to follow, or attend, the benevolent action, and not to precede it ; and are, therefore, to be considered rather as its reward, than as its motive. There is sufficient evidence, that a disinterested sympathy forms a part of our moral constitution; by which the wellbeing of others

is so connected with our own, that an interest is felt and manifested in their happiness without any regard at the time to its influence on ours. It is an original law of our nature, and not the result of calculation. Another principle is excited, and made to act; and, therefore, the motive prompting us to perform a benevolent deed is by no means to be confounded with the motive prompting us to one purely selfish. It is one of the finest characteristics of our author's writings, that he takes every occasion to remark upon the derivation of our best and only permanent gratifications from the cultivation and exercise of this benevolent principle. "Who can sufficiently admire that constitution of things," he exclaims, "which has placed the supreme happiness of man in communicating happiness to others? Who can sufficiently despise the grovelling soul, whose only object is self-gratification? And who will regret, that such a soul can never possess what it covets; that it is condemned to feed upon husks alone, and to remain an eternal stranger to the luxuries of benevolence !"*

In his Ethical Treatise on the Passions, founded on the Principles investigated in the Philosophical Treatise, it must be admitted that Dr Cogan does not discover equal talent and discrimination; though it contains many ingenious remarks and happy illustrations, which will reward well an attentive perusal. It is the leading doctrine of this work, that all our

* Ethical Questions, p. 103.