•J6.;J TJIE GOODNESS OP THE DEITY, 



cry, we must impute to our good fortune (as all design by 

 this supposition is excluded) both the capacity of our senses 

 to receive pleasure, and the supply of external objects fitted 

 to produce it. 



" But either of these, and still more both of them, be- 

 ing too much to be attributed to accident, nothing remains 

 but the first supposition, that God, when he created the hu- 

 man species, wished their happiness ; and made for them 

 die provision which he has made, with that view and for 

 that purpose. 



" The same argument may be proposed in different terms ; 

 (bus : Contrivance proves design , and the predominant 

 tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the 

 designer. The world abounds with contrivances ; and all 

 the contrivances which we are acquainted with, are direct- 

 ed to beneficial purposes. Evil, no doubt, exists ; but is 

 never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. 

 Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache ; their aching now 

 and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps insepara- 

 ble from it : or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in 

 the contrivance ; but it is not the object of it. This is a 

 distinction which well deserves to be attended to. In de- 

 scribing implements of husbandry, you would hardly say of 

 the sickle, that it is made to cut the reaper's hand, though, 

 from the construction of the instrument, and the manner 

 of using it, this mischief often follows. But if you had oc- 

 casion to describe instruments of torture or execution, this 

 oiigme, you would say, is to extend the sinews ; this to dis- 

 locate the joints ; this to break the bones ; this to scorch 

 the soles of the feet. Here pain and misery are the very 

 objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is to 

 be found in the works of nature. We never discover a 

 train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. No 

 anatomist ever discovered a system of organization, calcu- 

 lated to produce pain and disease ; or, in explaining the 

 parts of the human body, ever said, this is to irritate ; 

 this to inilame ; this duct is to convey the gravel to the 

 kidneys ; this gland to secrete the humour which forms the 

 gout : if by chance he come at a part of which he knows 

 not the use, the most he can say is, that it is useless , no 

 one ever suspects that it is put there to incommode, to an- 

 noy, or to torment." 



The two cases which appear to me to have the most of 

 difficulty in them, as forming the most of the appearance of 

 Qsception to the represeatation here given, are those o^ven- 



