lS6 STUDIES OF NATURE, 



are at a lofs how to employ it. Labour, therefore, 

 is a benefit. Men envy the beafts the inftindt 

 which guides them : but if, from their birth, they 

 knew, hke them, all that they ever are to know, 

 what (hould they do in the World ? They would 

 faunter through it without intereft, and without 

 curiofity. Ignorance, therefore, is a benefit. 



The other ills of Nature are equally neceffary. 

 Pain of body, and vexation of fpiiit, which fo 

 frequently crofs the path of life, are barriers 

 ereded by the hand of Nature, to prevent our de-, 

 viating from her Laws. But for pain, bodies 

 would be broken to pieces on the flighted Ihock : 

 but for chagrin, fo frequently the companion of 

 our enjoyments, the mind would become the vic- 

 tim of every fickly appetite. Difeafes are the ef- 

 forts of temperament to purge off fome noxious 

 humour. Nature employs difeafe not to deftroy 

 the body, but to preferve it. In every cafe, it is 

 the confequence of fome violation of her I^aws, 

 phyfical or moral. The remedy is frequently ob- 

 tained by leaving her to aâ: in her own way. The 

 regimen of aliments reftores our health of body, 

 and that of men, tranquillity of mind. Whatever 

 may be the opinions which difturb our repofe in 

 fociety, they almofl always vanifh into air in foli- 

 tude. Sleep itfelf fimply difpels our chagrin more 

 gently, and more infallibly, than a book of morals. 



If 



