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warding off bodily harm it might have been objected, that surgical operations sometimes become necessary for removing a deeply seated injury, and that the pain which the surgeon is then obliged to inflict, being useless for its original purpose of warning us against danger, is an evil without compensation. This objection, I say, might have been made, though it would not have seemed a very reasonable one; for it amounts to asking, that, under a system of which the preservation of general laws is an essential part, precisely the same thing— namely, the cutting of the flesh-should be attended with pain, if done accidentally, but should be free from pain, if done intentionally, and with a benevolent purpose. This would seem to be a contradiction. But who shall prescribe bounds to the wisdom and goodness of God? Certain substances in nature have been endowed with such properties, that when administered to the patient, without causing any harm to his bodily constitution, his sensibility to pain, for a time, is entirely destroyed, and the surgeon may do his most formidable office upon him, while he is enjoying the happiest of dreams. Will even the skeptic dare affirm, that the marvellous anesthetic properties of ether and chloroform were not added to these substances for the express purpose which they have recently been discovered to answer, or that the discovery itself, so unexpectedly made, was not intended both to reward and stimulate man's researches in science with a view of doing good to his fellows, so that it is comprehended under that vast scheme of self-education which is the great object of man's earthly existence? In reference only to this discovery and its immediate results, it is not going too far to apply the remark first made in regard to the astronomer, and to say that the undevout surgeon is mad.

Self-improvement, both of the individual and of the race, seems to be the leading purpose of the Deity in the government of mankind. The several parts of man's nature are developed through their influence on each other, and in due proportion. The cultivation of his intellect, and the stores of knowledge thereby amassed, are continually adding to the safeguards of

conscience and to the evidences of religion, continually doing away with those objections to the providence of God, which, in the infancy of the race, perhaps, can be met by the humility and the power of Faith alone. of Faith alone. Who can say how many of the apparent individual evils of man's condition upon earth, now inexplicable, except from the general consideration that the possibility of suffering and sin is absolutely essential to any progress in happiness and virtue, will be directly explained away by the future triumphs of science, which has recently shed so much light upon the beneficent constitution of the body in regard to pain?

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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, 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.""

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 to be 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 nonexistence 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."

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 made the prob

lem 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 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 truth inclosed in his right hand, and in his left only the everactive 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."

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48

LECTURE IX.

THE UNITY OF GOD.

Ir was remarked in the last Lecture, 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 conscience loudly declare, then it is not only compatible with infinite benevolence, but essential to it, that pain and wrong should be permitted. The balance is, therefore, on the side of good, or a greater good is accomplished than would otherwise be possible. Benevolence does not consist simply in preventing pain, but in bestowing the largest amount, or balance, of pleasure; just as a man with an income of a thousand a year, but who is in debt for a hun

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