l8o STUDIES OF NATURE. 



ence of GOD. It remains that I reply to the 

 objedions raifed againU his goodnefs. 



It needs muft be, we are told, that the God of 

 Nature fhould differ from the God of Religion, 

 for their Laws are contradidory. This isjuft the 

 fame thing with faying, that there is one God of 

 metals, another God of plants, and another of 

 animals, becaufe all thefe beings are fubjeded to 

 laws peculiar to themfelves. Nay, in all the king- 

 doms of Nature, the genera and the fpecies have 

 other Laws belldes, which are particular to them, 

 and which, in many cafes, are in oppofition among 

 themfelves J but thofe different Laws conftitute 

 the happinefs of each fpecies in particular ; and 

 they concur, in one grand combination, in a moft 

 admirable manner, to promote the general feli- 

 city. 



The Laws which govern Man are derived from 

 the fame plan of Wifdom which has conftruded 

 the Univerfe. Man is not a being of a nature 

 perfe6tly fimple. Virtue, which ought to be the 

 great objeèl of his purfuit on the Earth, is an ef- 

 fort which he makes over himfelf, for the good of 

 Mankind, in the view of pleafing GOD only. It 

 propofes to him, on the one hand, the Divine 

 Wifdom as a model ; and prefentsto him, on the 

 other, the moft fecure and unerring path to his 



own 



