1^2 STUPIES OF NATURE. 



"or if my fortune, my condition, my religion, 

 ** impofe celibacy upon me ? The general felicity 

 *' diffufed over the Earth, ferves only as a bitter 

 ** aggravation of my particular vvretchednefs. 

 " What interefl: is it polTible for me to take in the 

 *' wifdom of an arrangement which renovates all 

 " things, if, as a ccnfequence of that very arrange- 

 " ment, I feel myfelf finking, and ready to be loft 

 " for ever ? One fingle wretch might arraign Pro- 

 *' vidence, and fay with yol^, the Arabian : * 

 ** IVherefore is light given to him that is in mifery ; 

 .^^ and life imto the bitter in foul f' Alas! The ap- 

 " pearanccs of happinefs have been difclofed to 

 *^ the view of Man, only to overwhelm him with 

 " defpair of ever attaining it. If a GOD, intelli- 

 " gent and beneficent, governs Nature, diabolical 

 " fpirits direft and confound, at lead the affairs 

 " of the children of men.'* 



I (hall, firft, reply to the prmcipal authorities, 

 on which fome of thofe objcftions are fupported. 

 They are extrafted, in part, from a celebrated 

 Poet, and a learned Philofopher, namely Lucretius , 

 and from Pliny. 



» 



Lucretius has clothed the Philofophy of Empe- 

 docles and Epicurus in very beautiful verfes. His 



* Job, chap. iii. ver. 20. 



imagery 



