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by them ; and although the occaiions are inftant and real, a fecret 

 complacency mixed with them ? Man contemplates his own ex- 

 iftence with a confcious pride and felf-complagency ; every a<3: 

 that alTures him of his being, and of his powers, is a fource .of 

 fecret exultation. The exercife of the limbs not only contributes 

 to preferve the health of the body, but is attended by a degree 

 of pleafure and exhiliration of the fpirits. Conformably to a like 

 order of nature, every exercife of the faculties of the mind, 

 every exertion of the fentient principle, is accompanied by agreeably 

 fenfations. The acquifition of knowledge, the exercife of fym- 

 pathy, of fortitude, of fagacity, ads of benevolence, of gene- 

 rofity and felf-denial (independent of the teftimony of approving 

 confcience,) bring with them an internal fatisfadion. What is 

 more ftrange, even the ungentle and criminal paffions have a 

 certain unhappy pleafure, a difeafed and lickly pleafure, indeed, 

 .appropriated to their adivity. 



Man being defigned, by his Maker, for adive fundions, this 

 pleafure neceflarily and infeparably conneded with the exercife 

 of his powers, and the accomplifhment of the ends of his creation, 

 fhews the wifdom of Him, who moulded his corporeal frame, 

 and infufed into it the animating fpirit. As exercifes of ftrength 

 and agility are produdive of pleafure to the robufl.and healthy, 

 and contribute to preferve the ftrength and vigour of the body, 

 exertions of memory, refledion, and ratiocination are, at once, 

 a fource of mental enjoyment, and a prefervative of mental 

 fanity : and thus did He, who has beautified and ennobled all 

 creation with the means and forms of pleafure, kindly ordain 



and 



