/ laiE ffOeONESS OF THE DBITV. iS^7 



and enjoyment intended for us ; and human life be too pre.r 

 earious tor the business and interests which belong to it. 

 There could not be dependence either upon our ovvn lives, 

 or the lives of those with whom we were coniiectedj suffi- 

 cient to carry on the regular offices of human society. The 

 manner, therefore, in which death is made to occur, con- 

 duces to the purposes of admonition, without overthrowing 

 the necessary stability of human affairs. 



Disease being the forerunner of death, there is the same 

 reason for its attacks coming upon us under the appear- 

 ance of chance, as there is for uncertainty in the time of 

 death itself. 



The seasons are a mixture of regularity and chance. 

 They are regular enough to authorize expectation, whilst 

 their being, in a considerable degree, irregular, induces on 

 the part of the cultivators of the soil a necessity for person- 

 al attendance, for activity, vigilance, precaution. It is this 

 necessity which creates farmers ; which divides the profit of 

 the soil between the owner and the occupier ; which, by 

 requiring expedients, by increasing employment, and by 

 rewarding expenditure, promotes agricultural arts and ag- . 

 ricultural life, of all modes of life the best, being the most 

 conducive to health, to virtue, to enjoyment. I believe it to 

 be found in fact, that where the soil is the most fruitful and 

 the seasons the most constant, there the condition of the 

 cultivators of the earth is the most depressed. Uncer- 

 tainty, therefore, has its use even to those who sometimes 

 complain of it the most. Seasons of scarcity then)selves 

 are not without their advantage. They call forth new ex- 

 ertions ; they set contrivance and ingenuity at work ; they 

 give birth to improvements in agiicukure and economy; 

 they promote the investigation and management of public 

 resources. 



Again ; there are strong, intelligible reasons why there 

 should exist in human society great disparity of wealth 

 and station ; not only as these things are acquired in dif- 

 ferent degrees, but at the first setting out in life. In order, 

 for instance, to answer the various demands of civil life, 

 there ought to be amongst the members of every civil soci- 

 ety a diversity of education, which can only belong to an 

 original diversity of circumstances. As this sort of dispar- 

 ity, which ought to take place t>oin the beginning of life, 

 must, ex hi/potJicsi, be previous to the merit or demerit of 

 the persons upon whom it falls, can it be better disposed of 

 than by chance ? Parentage is that sort of chance : yet it 



