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Show 188 PURPOSE AUD GEl' 'EltAL CO.NDIT10!f' gitimate extent of action, producing great and indispen. sable benefits to us. Man would ~be a tame, indolent, unserviceable being without them, and his fate would be starvation. War, then, huge evil though it be, is, after all, but the exceptive case, a casual misdirection of properties and p0wers essentially good. God has given us the tendencies for a beneYolent purpose. He has only not laid down any absolute obstruction to our misuse of them. That were an arrangement of a kind which he has now here made. But he has established n1any laws in our nature which tend to lessen the frequency and de .. structi veness of these abuses. Our reason con1es to see that war is purely an evil, even to the conqueror. Be· nevolr.nce interposes to make its ravages less mischievous to human comfort, and less destructive to human life Men begin. to find that their more active powers can be exercised with equal gratification on legitimate objects; for example, in overcoming the natural difficulties of their path through life, or i.z.l a generous spirit of emulation in a line of duty beneficial to themselves and their fellow-creatures. Thus, war at length shrinks jnto a comparatively narrow compass, though there certainly is no reason to suppose that it \\'ill be at any early period, if ever, altogether dispensed with, while man's constitution remains as it is. In considering an evil of this kind, we must not limit our view to our own or any past time. Placed upon earth with faculties prepared to act, but in-· experienced, and with the more active propensities necessarily in great force to suit the condition of the globe, man was apt to misuse his powers much in this way at fi1:St, compared with what he is likely to do when he advances into a condition of civilization. In the scheme of Providence, thousands of years of freC}uent warfare, all the so-called glories which fill history, may be only an exception to the general rule. The sex-passion in like manner leads to great evils; but the evil-s are only an exception from the vast n1ass of good conner.ted wi:h this afiection. Providence has seen it necessary to make very ample provision for the pres· ervation and utm.o:3t possible extension of all species. fl1e aim seems t) be to difl'use existence as widely as pos81ble, to fill up every vacant piece of space with some sentient being to be a vehicle of enjoyment. Hence this Qa~sion is conferred in great force. But the relation be· OJ' THE ANIMATED CREATION. 189 tween the number of beino-s d t1 them, is only on the footi~jj' ~p le ~etns of supporting be o~casional discrepancie~ betgener\ aw. There ~ay f~n· tne multiplication of indivi~:~l~ he laws operanng ttng to supply them with the r and the l.aws operaevils will be endured in cons means of su.bs~stence, and highly favored species But equ~nce, even In our own against those numbel'l·e~s vexa~~~~~st.~~l ~hhse evi~~, a1~d all ages from the attachment f th "' lC ave ansen ln amount. of happiness which i~ dert s~xfjes, place the vast the basis of the whole circle of t;: rom t.hat sour~ethe sweetening principle of life tl domestic affeetwns, most generous feelino-s, and e~ 1e prompter of ~II our resolves-and every iil that ~n of pur mo~t .virtuous dust in the balance. And h~an ~ traced to It Is but as guard against judo-ing from w~=t a so, w~ must be•on our particular era As rea'"'on and thweh~ee In the ·world at a , • : :::J ~ e 1o-her sent" t f man s nature 1 ncrease in for th. b . • I men s o better regulation so as to l ce, Is passwn Is put under n. ected with it . 'The C·lV ·I1.d ~Zses denm maan~ Iys mof t.h e bel vils co. n- ~u~~e. c~~t;flJ. his attachments are less t~:er!su'lt ~~~e sprino-'. Th~ele:re~::nthe weal of his partner and ofl~ conn~cted in earl societ so~e of the resentful feelings ~uccessful riva;lry!and je:iio:;;h ~ohle,hsu~h as h.atred of ~n a~ advanced stage of civili , t' c ; most. disapl?oar mg, In our own species at l .za Ion. h.e evils spl'lngtherefore be an exce t' ~ast, ffom. tlus passion may term of the world's 0-~~~:a~~a P~~ubwr to a particula·r t~> de.crease greatly in a~ou~t. w lC may be expected \V 1th respect ao-ain to d · . suffeJ·i.no- to m;n othe' h lsease, so. prohfic a cause of complic~ted but 'reo-ulat~m~n con~btution is merely a which o-oes on welloa d . plocess In electro-chemistry catw. n, os o Ion()' as no, thinn o-Iso ca sou. rce .o f con t't nual gratifi-' juriously but 1 · h · 1o. cm 8 to Interfere with it in- ' w 1tc lS table ever t ranged by various external ao-enc. y mome!l to be de-source of pain and if tl . -~ . Ies, vvhen It becomes a capable of ret'ainin'o- lif~e I~{ury be seYere, _c-eases to be that the evils expe~ience.d . ~~y be rea(lJly admitted b.ut, after all, such exp~rienl~s a:~ way are very great; swnal, and not necessaril fre no _mor~ than. occag~ neral rule of which th!dire~~en~:-e~ce-phons from a piness. The human constituf ac ~~lht IS to confer hap-wn fil 'g t have been m au-'1 e |