:-i70 THE GOODXESS OP THE DEITY. 



found in any creation which was capable of continnance^ 

 although it is possible to suppose^ that such a creation might 

 have been produced by a being, whose views rested upon 

 misery. 



But there is a class of properties, which may be said to 

 be superadded from an intention expressly directed to hap- 

 piness ; an intention to give a happy existence distinct from 

 the general intention of providing tl'e means ot existence ; 

 and that is, of the capacities for pleasure, in cases, where- 

 in, so far as the conservation of the individual or of the 

 species is concerned, they were not wp.iited ; or wherein 

 the purpose might have been secured by the operation of 

 pain. The provision which is made of a variety of objects, 

 not necessary to life, and ministering only to our pleasures : 

 and the properties given to the necessaries of life themselves, 

 by which they contribute to pleasure as well as preserva- 

 tion, show a further design, than that of giving existence.* 



A single instance will make all this clear. Assuming 

 the necessity of food for the support of animal life, it is re- 

 quisite that the ammal be provided with organs, fitted for 

 the procuring, receiving, and digestiiig of its food. It may 

 be also necessary that the animal be impelled by its sensa- 

 tions to exert its organs. But the pain of hunger would do 

 all this. Why add pleasure to the act of eating ; sv^'eetness 

 and relish to food ? Why a new and appropriate sense 

 for the perception of the pleasure ? Why should the juice 

 of a peach applied to the palate, anect the part so different- 

 ly from what it does when rubbed upon the palm, of the 

 hand ? This is a constitution, v,'hich, so far as appears to 

 me, can be resolved into nothing but the pure benevolence 

 of the Creator. Eating is necessary ; but the pleasure at- 

 tending it is not necessary : and that this pleasure, depends 

 n u only upon our being in possession of the sense of taste, 

 which is difiierent from every other, but upon a particular 

 state of the organ, in which it resides, a felicitous adapta- 

 tion of the organ to the object, will be confessed by any 

 one, who may happen to have experienced that vitiation of 

 taste which frequently occurs in fevers, when every taste is 

 irregular, and every one bad. 



In mentioning the gratifications of the palate, it may be 

 said that we have made choice of a trifling example. I am 



*See this topic considered in Dr. Balguy's treatise upon the Divine 

 Benevolence. This excellent author. First, I think, proposed it ; and 

 nearly in the terms in which it is here stated. Some other observations.. 

 also, under this head, are taken trom that treatise. 



