ftance, and alone fufficient to prove all which we contend for, that, in this part likewife of organized nature, we perceive a continuation of the sexual system.

Certain however it is, that the whole argument for the divine unity, goes no further than to an unity of counsel.

It may likewife be acknowledged, that no arguments which we are in poffeffion of, exclude the ministry of subordinate agents. If fuch there be, they act under a prefiding, a controlling, will; because they act according to certain general restrictions, by certain common rules, and, as it fhould feem, upon a general plan but ftill fuch agents, and different ranks, and claffes, and degrees of them, may be employed.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY.

THE proof of the divine goodness rests upon two propofitions, each, as we contend, capable of being made out by obfervations drawn from the appearances of nature.

The firft is, "that, in a vaft plurality of inftances in which contrivance is perceived, the defign of the contrivance is beneficial.”

The fecond," that the Deity has fuperadded pleasure to animal fenfations, beyond what was neceffary for any other purpose, or when the purpose, fo far as it was neceffary, might have been effected by the operation of pain."

First, "in a vast plurality of inftances in which contrivance is perceived, the defign of the contrivance is beneficial.

No productions of nature difplay contrivance fo manifeftly as the parts of animals ; and the parts of animals have all of them, I believe, a real, and, with very few exceptions,

8.

tions, all of them a known and intelligible, fubferviency to the use of the animal. Now, when the multitude of animals is confidered, the number of parts in each, their figure and fitnefs, the faculties depending upon them, the variety of species, the complexity of structure, the fuccefs, in fo many cafes, and felicity of the result, we can never reflect, without the profoundest adoration, upon the character of that Being from whom all these things have proceeded we cannot help acknowledging, what an exertion of benevolence creation was; of a benevolence, how minute in its care, how vaft in its comprehenfion.

When we appeal to the parts and faculties of animals, and to the limbs and fenfes of animals in particular, we ftate, I conceive, the proper medium of proof for the conclufion which we wish to establish. I will not say, that the infenfible parts of nature are made folely for the fenfitive parts; but this I fay, that, when we confider the benevolence of the Deity, we can only confider it in relation to sensitive Being. Without this reference, or referred to any thing elfe, the attribute has no object; the term has no meaning. Dead matter is nothing. The parts, therefore, especially the

limbs and fenfes, of animals, although they conftitute, in mass and quantity, a small portion of the material creation, yet, fince they alone are inftruments of perception, they compose what may be called the whole of visible nature, estimated with a view to the difpofition of its author. Confequently, it is in these that we are to feek his character. It is by these that we are to prove, that the world was made with a benevolent defign.

NOR IS the defign abortive. It is a happy world after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted exiftence. In a spring noon, or a fummer evening, on whichever fide I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. "The infect youth are on the wing." Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their fportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without ufe or purpofe, teftify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discovered faculties. A bee amongst the flowers in fpring, is one of the cheerfulleft objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment: fo bufy, and fo pleafed yet it is only a fpecimen of infect

life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domefticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. The whole winged infect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon their proper employments, and, under every variety of conftitution, gratified, and perhaps equally gratified, by the offices which the author of their nature has affigned to them. But the atmosphere is not the only fcene of enjoyment for the infect race. Plants are covered with aphides, grecdily fucking their juices, and conftantly, as it should feem, in the act of fucking. It cannot be doubted but that this is a ftate of gratification. What elle fhould fix them fo close to the operation, and fo long? Other fpecies are running about with an alacrity in their motions which carries with it every mark of pleasure. Large patches of ground are fometimes half covered with thefe brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to what the waters produce, fhoals of the fry of fifh frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, and of the fea itself. These are so happy, that they know not what to do with themselves. Their attitudes, their vivacity; their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it, (which I have noticed a thousand times with equal attention

and