BENEVOLENCE OF THE DEITY. 



91 



duced by the objects of external nature intended 

 to affect this orgar ! The murmurings of the 

 brooks, tha whispers of the gentle breeze, the 

 hum of bees, the chirping of birds, the lowing 

 of the herds, the melody of the feathered song 

 sters, the roarings of a stormy ocean, the dash- 

 ings of a mighty cataract, and, above all, the 

 numerous modulations of the human voice and 

 the harmonies of music, produce a variety of 

 delightful emotions which increase the sum of 

 human enjoyment. To gratify the sense of 

 smelling, the air is perfumed with a variety of 

 delicious odours, exhaled from innumerable plants 

 and flowers. To gratify the feeling, pleasing 

 sensations of various descriptions are connected 

 with almost every thing we have occasion to 

 touch ; and to gratify the sense of taste, the earth 

 is covered with an admirable profusion of plants, 

 herbs, roots, and delicious fruits of thousands of 

 different qualities and flavours, calculated to con 

 vey an agreeable relish to the inhabitants of 

 every clime. Now, it is easy to conceive, that 

 these gratifications were not necessary to our 

 existence. The purposes of vision, as a mere 

 animal sensation for the use of self-preservation, 

 might have been answered, although every trace 

 of beauty and sublimity had been swept from the 

 universe, and nothing but a vast assemblage of 

 dismal and haggard objects had appeared on the 

 face of nature. The purpose of hearing might 

 have been effected although every sound had 

 been grating and discordant, and the voice of me 

 lody for ever unknown. We might have had 

 smell without fragrance or perfume ; taste with 

 out variety of flavour; and feeling, not only 

 without the least pleasing sensation, but accom 

 panied with incessant pain. But, in this case, 

 the system of nature would have afforded no 

 direct proofs, as it now does, of divine benevo 

 lence. 



The remedies which the Deity has provided 

 a-gainst the evils L which we are exposed, are 

 likewise a proof of his benevolence. Medicines 

 are provided for the cure of the diseases to which 

 we are liable; heat is furnished to deliver us 

 from the effects of cold; rest from the fatigues 

 of :abour ; sleep from the languors of watching ; 

 artificial light to preserve us from the gloom of 

 absolute darkness, and shade from me injuries 

 of scorching heat. Goodness is also displayed 

 In the power of self-restoration which our bodies 

 possess, in recovering us from sickness and dis 

 ease, in healing wounds and bruises, and in 

 recovering our decayed organs of sensation, 

 without which power almost every human being 

 would present a picture of deformity, and a body 

 full of scars and putrefying sores. The pupil of 

 the eye is so constructed, that it is capable of con 

 tracting and dilating by a sort of instinctive power. 

 By this means the organ of vision defends itself 

 from the blindness which might ensue from the 

 admission of too great a quantity of light ; while, 



on the other hand, its capacity of expansion, so 

 as to take in a greater quantity of rays, prevents 

 us from being in absolute darkness even in the 

 deepest gloom, without which we could scarcely 

 take a step with safety during a cloudy night. 

 Again, in the construction of the human body, 

 and of the various tribes of animated beings, 

 hosvever numerous and complicated their organs, 

 there is no instance can be produced that any 

 one muscle, nerve, joint, limb, or other part, is 

 contrived for the purpose of producing pain, 

 When pain is felt, it is uniformly owing to some 

 derangement of the corporeal organs, but is never 

 the necessary result of the original contrivance. 

 On the other hand, every part of the construc 

 tion of living beings, every organ and function, 

 and every contrivance, however delicate and 

 minute, in so far as its use is known, is found 

 to contribute to the enjoyment of the individual 

 to which it belongs, either by facilitating its 

 movements, by enabling it to ward off dangers, 

 or in some way or another to produce agreeable 

 sensations. 



In short, the immense multitude of human beings 

 whicn people the earth, and the ample provision 

 which is made for their necessities, furnish irre 

 sistible evidence of divine goodness. It has 

 been ascertained, that more than sixty thousand 

 species of animals inhabit the air, the earth, and 

 the waters, besides many thousands which have 

 not yet come within the observation of the natu 

 ralist. On the surface of the earth there is not 

 a patch of ground or a portion of waler, a single 

 shrub, tree, or herb, and scarcely a single leaf 

 in the forest, but what teems with animated be 

 ings. How many hundreds of millions have 

 their dwellings in caves, in the clefts of rocks, in 

 the bark of trees, in ditches, in marshes, in the 

 forests, the mountains and the valleys ! What 

 innumerable shoals of fishes inhabit the ocean 

 and sport in the seas and rivers ! What mil 

 lions on millions of birds and flying insects, in 

 endless variety, wing their flight through the 

 atmosphere above and around &quot;us ! Were we 

 to suppose that each species, at an average, 

 contains four hundred millions of individuals, 

 there would be 24,000,000,000,000, or 24 billions 

 of living creatures belonging to all the known 

 species which inhabit the different regions of 

 the world, besides the multitudes of unknown 

 species yet undiscovered, which is thirty thou 

 sand times the number of all the human beings 

 that people the globe.* Besides these, there 



As an instance of the immense number of ani 

 mated beings, the following facts in relation to two 

 species of birds may be stated. Captain Flinders, 

 in his voyage to Australasia, saw a compact stream 

 of stormy petrels, which was from 50 to 80 yards 

 deep and 300 yards or more broad. This stream for 

 a full hour and a half continued to pass without in 

 terruption with nearly the swiftness of the pigeon. 

 Now, taking the column at 50 yards deep by 300 in 

 breadth, and that it moved 30 miles an hour, and 

 allowing nine cubic inches of space to each bird, the 



