THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 2B^ 



what is power ?" The philosopher answers, " Constraint 

 and plague ; et in maxima qiiaque fortuna minimum licere.'' 

 One very common error misleads the opinion of mankind 

 upon this head, viz. that, universally, authority is pleasant, 

 submission painful. In the general course of iiuman affairs, 

 the very reverse of this is nearer to the truth. Command 

 is anxiety, obedience ease. 



Artificial distinctions sometimes promote real equality. 

 Whether they be hereditary, or be the homage paid to office, 

 or the respect attached by public opinion to particular pro- 

 fessions, they serve to confront that grand and unavoidable 

 distinction which arises from property ; and whicii is most 

 overbearing where there is no other. It is of the nature of 

 property, not only to be irregularly distributed, bat to run 

 into large masses. Public laws should be so constructed as 

 to favour its diffusion as much a.s they can. But ail that 

 can be done by laws, consistently with that degree of gov- 

 ernment over his property which ought to be left to the sub- 

 ject, will not be suflicient to counteract this tendency. 

 There must always therefore be the difference between rich 

 and poor : and this difference will be the more grinding, 

 when no pretension is allowed to be set up against it. 



So that the evils, if evils they must be called, which 

 spring either froni the necessary subordinations of civil life, 

 or from the distinctions which have, naturally, though not 

 necessarily, grown up in most societies, so long as they are 

 tinaccompanied by privileges injurious or oppressive- to the 

 rest of the community, are such, as may, even by the most 

 depressed ranks, be endured, with very little prejudice to 

 their comfort. 



The mischiefs of which mankind are the occasion to one 

 another, by their private wickedness and cruelties ; by ty- 

 rannical exercises of power, by rebellions against just author- 

 ity, by wars, by national jealousies and competitions opera- 

 ting to the destruction of their countri'^s, or by other instan- 

 ces of misconduct either in individuals or societies, are all 

 to be resolved into the character of man, as a/ree agent. 

 Free agency in its very essence contains liability to abuse. 

 Yet, if you deprive man of his free agency, you subvert his 

 nature. You may have order from him and regularity, bat 

 you put an end to his moral character, to virtue, to merit, 

 to accountableness, to the use indeed of reason. To which 

 must be added the observation, that even the bad qualities 

 of mankind have an origin in their good -nes. The case is 

 this. Human passions are either necessary to human wef* 



