THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 219 



separate the fear of death from the enjoyment of life, or 

 the perception of t.iat fear from ^rational natures. Brutes 

 are in a great rueasure delivered from all anxiety on this 

 account by the inferiority of their faculties : or rather they 

 seem to be armed with tne apprehension of death just suf- 

 ficiently to put them upon the means of preservation, and 

 no further. But would a human being wish to purchase this 

 immunity by the loss of those mental powers which enable 

 him to look forward to the future 1 



Death implies sejjaratio/i ; and the loss of those whom 

 we love must necessarily be accompanied with pain. To 

 the brute creation, nature seems to have stepped in with 

 some secret provision for their relief, under the rupture of 

 their attachments. In their instincts tov/ards their offspring 

 and of their offspring to them, I have often been surprised 

 to observe, how ardently they love, and how soon they for- 

 get. The pertinacity of human sorrow (upon which time 

 also, at length, lays its softenmg hand) is probably, there- 

 fore, in some manner connected with the qualities of our 

 rational or moral nature. One thing however is clear, viz. 

 that it is better that we should possess affections, the sources 

 of so many virtues au'l so many joys, although they be 

 exposed to the incidents of life, as well as the interruptions 

 of mortality, than, by t!ie want of them, be reduced to a 

 state of selfishness, apathy, and quietism. 



Of other external evils (still confining ourselves to 

 what are called physical or natural evils) a considerable 

 part come within the scope of the following observation. 

 The great principle of human satisfaction is engagement. 

 It is a most just distinction, which the late Mr. Tucker has 

 dwelt upon so largely in his works, between pleasures in 

 which we are passive, and pleasures in which we are ac- 

 tive. And, I believe, every attentive observer of human 

 life will assent to his position, that, however grateful the 

 sensations may occasionally be in which we are passive, it 

 is not these, but the latter class of our pleasures, which con- 

 stitute satisfaction ; which supply that regular stream of 

 moderate and miscellaneous enjoyments, in which happi- 

 ness, as distinoruished from voiujtuousness, consists. Now 

 for rational occupation, which is, in other words, for the 

 very material of contented existence, there would be no place 

 left, if either the things with which we had to do were ab- 

 solutely impracticable to our endeavours, or if they were too 

 obedient to our uses. A world furnished with advantages 

 on one side, ana beset with difficulties, wants, and incon- 



