192 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



it ; and likewife that we have invented feveral mod ufeful arts. It 

 therefore appears, from the hiftoiy both of antient and modern 

 times, that man is going on to anfwer the end for which he was in- 

 tended by his life in this world ; that is, to make fomc progrefs to- 

 wards the recovery from his fallen ftate, by the acqulfition of the 

 ufe of his intelled, and by the improvement of it. Now, intelleifl is 

 the prime quality of an intelligent animal, and what makes him 

 fiich; and in man it is the foundation not only of arts and fciences, 

 but of virtue and religion, and of every quality of any value which 

 he poflefles. 



Such is the ftate of man in this life with refpect to intelligence. 

 I am now to inquire how he is as to happincfs or mi/cry, that is good 

 or /"//, in this life : And this leads us diredly to the folution of the 

 grand queftion, which I have propofed, concerning the origin of 

 evil. 



Evil is either Natural or Moral. What we call Natural Evil^ is 

 what happens in the material world by hurricanes, earthquakes, erup- 

 tions of burning mountains, and fuch like commotions of the ele- 

 ments here below: Of thefe I have fpoken in a preceding part of 

 this volum.e*, where I have fhown that thefe events, though they 

 happen but rarely, are produced as neceffarily as the common phe- 

 nomena of nature. Of the fame kind are tempefts and bad feafons, 

 which deftroy the fruits of the earth : For thefe all proceed from 

 thofe general laws of nature, by which the fyftem muft be governed, 

 ctherwife it would be no fyftem; and, as God is the author of nature, 

 the laws of nature are his laws, which he can no more alter than he 

 can alter his own nature f . 



As to Moral Evil, it belongs only to the intelledual animal, and 



is 



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