Virginia Argus

REFLECTIONS ON MAN.
Much has been written on Divinity, and much on humanity. Can we separate them?--If they are to be separated, how nice are their boundaries!--Can we argue with respect to God, without having respect for his creatures! Can we reflect on his Creatures without recurring to the Creator? Idia is opposed to immensity: Omnipotence to our confined knowledge; and human argument shrinks from the question.
For what purpose were we placed on this globe? If we have not recourse to religion, what are we? Beings possessed of rationality; rationality, which shews us our weakness; weakness which had led us to vice; and vice, which must conduct us to misery.
Let us pass over the scenes which Philosophers have described, or attempted to describe. To Poetry the handmaid of Philosophy. I shall have no recourse at present. When the mistress erred, the servant was not to blame. Yet let it be said, that, however Reason wandered, nature was true; and that man looked up to God through the regions of nature.
Let us survey ourselves. What are we? Imagination starts from the idea. Yet have we not powers? We have--Can we ascertain them?--We will try.--I was born by a species of miracle; my life has been sustained by a continuance of the same miracle; by repeated miracles I have obtained middle age; and Death which is to lead to eternal Life, is the greatest of all miracles.
Tis true, there are rugged grounds, over which we must travel. But these are incidental to human nature. Religion rejects chimeras. The hydra of the ancients is justly exploded: and at present we have one false opinion to combat.
To what does false opinion conduct us? To argumentation without a guide, and to sophistry without a gleam of reason.
Let imagination range throughout the universe! and at length she must rest her in on this rock--There is a Supreme; and morality and religion must conduct us to his throne.