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Show 186 PURPOSE AND GENERAL COND.fl'ION' . which is gratification, and of faculties, the exerc.ise ot which is pleasurable. When we consult our own sensations, we find that, even in a sens~ of a healthy. P.erform .. ance of all the functions of the animal eco_norny,. God has furnished us with an innocent and very high.enJoyment. The mere quiet consciousness of _a l~ealthy play of the mental functions, a mind at ease w1th Itself an~ al~ around it-is in like manner extremely agreeable. ~hi~ neg~tive class of enjoyments, it may be rernarked, IS hkely ~o be even more extensively experienced b~ the lowe~· animals than by man, at least in the proportion ?f theu. absolute endowments, as their mental and bodily functwns are much less liable to derangeme.nt ~han_ours. To fi~d the world conatituted on this pnnciple IS o~ly what In reason we would expect. We cannot conceive that so vast a system could have been created for a ~ontrary pu:- ose. No averagely constit';lted h?man. being ~ould~ In his own limited sphere of ac~1on, t~m~{ oi producing a similar system upon ~n oppos1te pnnctpl~. But to form so vast a range of being, and to mal{e being evei:Ywhere a source of gratification, ~s conformabl~ to o~r 1de~s of a Creator in whom we at·e con~tantly dtscovenng tt·atts of a , nature of which our own is but a faint and far-cast shad .. ow at the best. It appears at first d~fficult to reconcil~ with. this idea the many miseries wlu?h we see all ~enhent bewgs, ourselves included, occaswnally endunng. How, the sage has asked in every age, should a Being so transcc:n~ently kind have allowed of so large an admixture of evll In the condition of his creatures ? Do we not at length find an answer to a certain extent satisfactory, in the view which has now been given of the constitution of nature ? \V_e there see the Deity operating in the n1o~t augus_t of hiS works by fixed laws, an arrangement which, It_ IS clear, only admits of the main and primary results _bewg good, but disregards exceptions. N O\Y the mecha~1wallaws at·e so definite in their purposes, that no exceptwns ever. take place in that department; if there is a certain quantity ?( nebulous matter to be agglomerated, and divided, and s~t1n motion as a planet~ry system, it will te so with han'sbreadth accuracy, and cannot be other\\:ise. But the la~s presiding over meteorology, life, and 1n1nd, are nece_ssanly less definite, as they have to produce a great vanety of mutually related results. Left to act independentlY of OF THE ANIMATED CREATION. 187 '-ach other, _each a~cording to its separate commission, and eacr~ w1th a w~c~e range of potentiality to be modified by assoctated ~ond1t10ns, they can only have effects generally ben~fic1al : often there must be an interference of •?ne law Wit~ another, often a ~aw will chance to operate In excess, or upon a yvrong obJect, and thus evil will be produced . . Thus,. vnnds are generally useful in many ways, and the sea IS useful as a means of communication bet~een one coun_try and another; but the natural laws wluch pro_duce Winds are of indefinite range of action, a_nd sometimes are unusually concentrated in space or in time, so as to p~oduce storms and hurricanes, by which ~uch damage IS clone~ the sea may be by these causes vw~ently agitat~d~ so .that many barks and many lives perish. Her~, It IS evident, .the evil is only exceptive Suppose, again, th~t a boy, In the course of the lively sp?rts proper to his ~ge, suff~rs a fall "Yhich injures his spine, and renders h~m a en pple for hfe. Two things have ?een concerned In the case : first, the love of violent ex_ercise, and se~ond, the law of gravitation. Both of these thmgs are goo.d In t~e main. ln the rash enterprises and roug-h sports _In which boys engage, they prepare their b.odtes and mtnds for .the hard tasks of life. By gravitahon, all moveable thmgs, our own bodies included are kept stable on the surface of the earth. But wh~n it ch<mces that the playful boy loses his hold, (we shall say) of the branch of a tree, and has no solid support immed~ ately below, the law of gravitation unrelentingly pull~ hlm to t_he ground, nnd thus he is hurt. Now it wa~ not~ pr_nnary object of gravitation to injure boyfl; but ~rav1tahon ~ould not but operate in the circumstances ~ts nature being to be uni ven~al and invariable. The evil Is, ther_efore, only a casual exception from somethinO' In the main good. 0 !he same expla~ation applies to even the most con· sp1c~_ous of the_ ev~Js w ~1ich aftiict society. War, it may ~e said, a:1d said b uly ~ IS a tremendous example of evil, In the_ misery, hardship, waste of human life, and misspendi. ng. of human energies, which it occasions. But what IS It that produces war ? Certain tendencies ot hu1~an .nature, as keen ~s.s?rtion of a supposed right, re .. senb;ne.:t of a supposed InJury, acquisitiveness desired admn:~twn, combativeness, or mere love of e~citerr.f'nt All ot these are tendencies w h1ch are every day, i '1 a l£l~ |