 Life for eight or ten Years longer, you will then be a Member of the Legislature of GREAT BRITAIN, one of the highest and most important Trusts that can be confided by Mankind.
Here, my
Harry,
I have penned or rather pencilled, for your use, an Abstract in Miniature of this wonderful Constitution. But, before I give it, for your Study and frequent Perusal, I would give you some Knowledge of the Claims whereon it is founded, as also of the Nature of Man in his present depraved State, and of his several Relations as a Subject and as a Sovereign.
Man comes into this World, the weakest of all Creatures, and, while he continues in it, is the most dependent. Nature neither cloathes him with the warm Fleece of the Sheep, nor, the gay Plumage of the Bird; neither does he come forth in the Vigour of the Fole or the Fawn, who, on the Hour of their Birth, frisk about and exult in the Blessing of new Existence.
Sacred History, indeed, intimates that Man was originally created invulnerable and immortal, that the Fire could not burn him, Stones wound, Air blast, or Water drown him. That he was the angelic Lord and Controller of this Earth, and these Heavens that roll around us; with Powers to see, at once, into the Essences, Natures, Properties, and Distinctions of Things; to unfold all their Virtues, to call forth all their Beauties, and to rule, subdue, and moderate these Elements at Pleasure.
These, truly, were Godlike Gifts, illustrious Powers and Prerogatives, and well becoming an Offspring produced in the EXPRESS IMAGE of an all-potent, all-wise, and all-beneficent CREATOR.
True Sir, said
Harry,
but then we see nothing, now, of all this Greatness and Glory. Man, on the contrary, is himself subjected to all the Elements over which, you say, he was appointed the Ruler; he has every thing to fear from every thing about him, even the Insects and little Midges fearlessly attack and sting this boasted Lord of the Creation; and History shews, from the Beginning of the World, that the greatest of all Enemies to Man, is Man.
This, replied Mr.
Fenton,
is continually to remind him of the depraved and guilty State into which he is fallen. Man indeed is now no better than the Remains of Man; but then these Remains are sufficient to prove the Lustre and Dignity of his original State. When you behold the Ruins of some lofty and spacious Palace, you
