'284 THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 



fare, or capable of being made, and, in a great majority of 

 instances, in fact made, conducive to its haj)[)ines9 These 

 passions are strong and general , and, perhaps, would not 

 answer their purpose unless they were so. But strength and 

 generality, when it is expedient that particular circum- 

 stances should be respected, become, if left to themselves, 

 excess and misdirection. From which excess and misdi- 

 rection the vices of mankind (the causes no doubt, of much 

 misery) appear to spring. This account, whilst it shows us 

 the principle of vice, shows us, at the same time, the prov- 

 ince of reason and of selt-government ; the want also of ev- 

 ery support which can be procured to either from the aids 

 of religion ; and that, without having recourse to any na- 

 tive gratuitous malignity in the human constitution. Mr. 

 Hume in his posthumous dialogues, asserts, indeed , o( idle- 

 ness Of aversion to labour, (which he states to lie at the root 

 of a considerable part of the evils which mankind suffer,) 

 that it is simply and merely bad. But how does he distin- 

 guish idleness from the love of ease ? or is he sure, that the 

 love of ease in individuals is not the chief foundation of so- 

 cial tranquillity ? It will be found, I believe, to be true, 

 that in every community there is a large class of its mem- 

 bers, whose idleness is the best qual ty about them, being 

 the corrective of other bad ones. If it were possible, in 

 every instance, to give a right determination to industry, 

 we could never have too much of it. But this is not possi- 

 ble, if men are to be tree. And without this, nothing would 

 be so dang-erous, as an incessant, universal, indefatigable 

 activity. In the civil world as well as in the material, it is 

 the vis inertia? which keeps things in their places. 



Natural Theology has ever been pressed with this 

 (juestion. Why, under the regency of a supreme and be- 

 nevolent will, should there be, in the world, so much as 

 there is, of the appearance of chance? 



The question in its whole compass lies beyond our reach, 

 but there are not wanting, as in the origin of evil, answers 

 which seem to have considerable weight in particular cases, 

 and also to embrace a considerable number of cases. 



I. There must be chance in the midst of design : by 

 which we mean, that events which are not designed, ne- 

 cessarily arise from the pursuit of events which are design- 

 ed One Bjain travelling to York meets another man trav- 



