That the general laws of the universe are favorable to order and to happiness, is an observation, says Mr. Stewart, which "I am persuaded will appear, upon an accurate examination, to hold without any exception whatever; and it is one of the noblest employments of philosophy to verify and illustrate its universality, by investigating the beneficent purposes to which the laws of nature are subservient. Now, it is evidently from these general laws alone, that the ultimate ends of Providence can be judged of, and not from their accidental collisions with the partial interests of individuals; collisions, too, which so often arise from an abuse of their moral liberty. It is the great error of the vulgar (who are incapable of comprehensive views) to attempt to read the ways of Providence in particular events,

be incited to make the requisite efforts for the attainment of that knowledge in whose light they will finally disappear.

"The problem has been solved by mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton having first investigated it, of finding the form of a symmetrical solid, or solid of revolution, which in moving through a fluid shall experience the least possible resistance; in other words, of finding the form which must be impressed upon any given bulk of matter, so that it shall move more easily through a surrounding fluid than if it had any other conceivable form whatever, with a breadth or a length also given. The figure bears a striking resemblance to that of a fish. Now suppose a fish were formed exactly in this shape, and that some animal endowed with reason were placed upon a portion of its surface, and able to trace its form for only a limited extent, say at the narrow part, where the broad portion or end of the moving body was opposed, or seemed as if it were opposed, to the surrounding fluid when the fish moved; the reasoner would at once conclude, that the contrivance of the fish's form was very inconvenient and artificial, and that nothing could be worse adapted for expeditions or easy movement through the waters. Yet it is certain, that, upon being afterwards permitted to view THE WHOLE body of the fish, what had seemed a defect and an evil, not only would appear plainly to be none at all, but it would appear manifest, that this seeming evil or defect was a part of the most perfect and excellent structure which it was possible even for Omnipotence and Omniscience to have adopted, and that no other conceivable arrangement could by possibility have produced so much advantage, or tended so much to fulfil the design in view.”—Brougham's Supplementary Dissertations to Paley.

and to judge favorably or unfavorably of the order of the universe from its accidental effects with respect to themselves or their friends. Perhaps, indeed, this disposition is inseparable, in some degree, from the weakness of humanity. But surely it is a weakness, which we ought to strive to correct; and the more we do correct it, the more pleasing our conceptions of the universe become. Accidental inconveniences disappear, when compared with the magnitude of the advantages which it is the object of the general laws to secure: 'or,' as one author has expressed it,'scattered evils are lost in the blaze of superabundant goodness, as the spots on the disk of the sun are lost in the splendor of his rays.'"

Merit determined by progress, not by attainment. — That progress in knowledge, happiness, and virtue, effected through our own exertions, and not the mere attainment of any fixed point or degree in either, is the main purpose of our being here below, and really our greatest good, is a doctrine which immediately explains away all those supposed evils in human condition, which are usually classed under the heads of inequality and imperfection. All conditions are alike in this respect, inasmuch as all admit of advance and improvement; the progress of each individual being measured from his own starting point, all have an equal chance of winning the prize, though the lot of some be cast in the early ages of hoar antiquity, and others are seemingly favored by the intelligence, the arts, and the morals of civilized nations and modern times. The happiness of each, as we have seen, is computed by his own standard of happiness, whatever that may be; and his merit, also, is determined by the measure of his moral improvement, and not by the refinement of those ideas of virtue which he may finally attain. It is, then, so far from an impeachment of the goodness of the Creator that he has made us finite beings, finite in our existence, our capacities, our virtues, and our enjoyments, that we see at once, infinity or perfection is the only point from which progress is impossible. Death alone, or in itself considered, apart from the antecedent dread of it, and from the injury to the feelings of the survivors, is not even an apparent evil, any more than

the fact of our non-existence through antecedent ages.* It is matter of the commonest observation, also, that it is not the possession of any given quantity of the means of enjoyment, however great, but the increase of that quantity, whether the original sum were a unit or a million, which makes a man happy. To adopt Paley's illustration, "It is not the income which any man possesses, but the increase of income that affords the pleasure."

Virtue and happiness determined only by reference to capacity. -How unphilosophical, then, as well as ungrateful, is that frame of mind which looks with a jaundiced eye over creation, intent only on spying out its evils and imperfections; which pities the oyster, because it is inferior to the vertebrated animal, the quadruped, because it is not equal to man, and man, because his finite capacities are far below the perfections of the Infinite One! Yet it is only such reasoning as this, which has

* There is so much truth, as well as beauty, in the following remarks by Soame Jenyns, that I quote the whole passage, though some of the particular statements and arguments in it are open to criticism.

"Death, the last and most dreadful of all evils, is so far from being one, that it is the infallible cure of all others.

To die is landing on some silent shore,

Where billows never beat, nor tempests roar;

Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, 't is o'er.

For, abstracted from the sickness and sufferings usually attending it, it is no more than the expiration of that term of life God was pleased to bestow on us, without any claim or merit on our part. But was it an evil ever so great, it could not be remedied but by one much greater, which is by living for ever; by which means, our wickedness, unrestrained by the prospect of a future state, would grow so insupportable, our sufferings so intolerable by perseverance, and our pleasures so tiresome by repetition, that no being in the universe could be so completely miserable as a species of immortal men. We have no reason, therefore, to look upon death as an evil, or to fear it as a punishment, even without any supposition of a future life but if we consider it as a passage to a more perfect state, or a remove only in an eternal succession of still improving states, (for which we have the strongest reasons), it will then appear a new favor from the divine munificence; and a man must be as absurd to repine at dying, as a traveller would be, who proposed to himself a delightful tour through

made the problem respecting the origin of evil to appear insoluble. However great the good which is actually provided may be, the skeptic fancies that he may always ask, Why is it not greater? If mankind are happy, why were they not created earlier, or why do they not now exist in greater numbers? Here is the error of supposing that virtue and happiness are tangible products, instead of abstract ideas, are quantities which may be weighed or measured, the goodness of the Creator being estimated by the magnitude of the aggregate. But it is not so; each can be determined only in reference to the capacities of the individual, whose cup of enjoyment, whatever its dimensions may be, being full, or whose merit being positive from the moral improvement that he has made, no matter where he began or where he leaves off, the equity of the Divine government, in his respect, is sufficiently vindicated. Hence the justice as well as the beauty of the solemn affirmation of our

various unknown countries, to lament that he cannot take up his residence at the first dirty inn which he baits at on the road.

"The instability of human life, or the hasty changes of its successive periods, of which we so frequently complain, are no more than the necessary progress of it to this necessary conclusion; and are so far from being evils deserving these complaints, that they are the source of our greatest pleasures, as they are the source of all novelty, from which our greatest pleasures are ever derived. The continual succession of seasons in the human life, by daily presenting to us new scenes, render it agreeable, and like those of the year, afford us delights by their change, which the choicest of them could not give us by their continuance. In the spring of life, the gilding of the sunshine, the verdure of the fields, and the variegated paintings of the sky, are so exquisite in the eyes of infants at their first looking abroad into a new world, as nothing perhaps afterwards can equal. The heat and vigor of the succeeding summer of youth ripens for us new pleasures, the blooming maid, the nightly revel, and the jovial chase: the serene autumn of complete manhood feasts us with the golden harvests of our worldly pursuits: nor is the hoary winter of old age destitute of its peculiar comforts and enjoyments, of which the recollection and relation of those past are perhaps none of the least; and at last, death opens to us a new prospect, from whence we shall probably look back upon the diversions and occupations of this world with the same contempt we do now on our tops, and hobby-horses, and with the same surprise, that they could ever so much entertain or engage us.”. - Soame Jenyns.

Saviour, that "There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance." A German writer has expressed the same general truth in a forcible, perhaps hyperbolical, manner. "If," says Lessing, "God should hold all truths inclosed in his right hand, and in his left, only the ever-active impulse to the pursuit of truth, although with the condition that I should always and for ever err, and should say to me, Choose!— I should fall with submission upon his left hand, and say, Father, give! Pure Truth is for Thee alone."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE UNITY OF GOD.

Summary of the last chapter. It was remarked in the last chapter, in reference to the problem respecting the origin of evil, that we need not consider how much evil there is in the world; for the problem is solved, when we can account for the existence of any evil, however small, and show that it is reconcilable with a belief in the infinite goodness and almighty power of the Creator. Now, omnipotence does not include the power to accomplish a metaphysical impossibility, the statement of which always involves a contradiction, or, in other words, is an absurd and meaningless statement. It is just as contradictory to suppose that virtue can exist without a free choice between good and evil, as that four is not equal to twice two; for freedom is involved in the idea of virtue, just as twice two is involved in the idea of four. The phrase compulsory or enforced virtue, is quite as absurd as that of a virtuous machine. Sin and suffering, therefore, must be possible, if virtue is to be possible; and if virtue is man's highest interest, which both reason and