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Chap. XVIir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 253 



man is as happy as by his nature he can be ; For if a man indulge 

 in bodily pleafures, or in thofe pleafures of the mind, v^hich vanity 

 and ambition furnifh, he will enjoy the gratifications which thofe 

 pleafures give Iiiin ; fo that he is not perfedly miferable; for he en- 

 joys pleafure, and fo is happy to a certain degree, though that plca- 

 fure be fo much overbalanced by pain, that upon the whole he can- 

 not be faid to be happy even in this life, and will fuffer much mi- 

 fcry in the life to come. Whereas if he pradice virtue and reli- 

 gion, he will be as happy, even in this life, as his nature will ad- 

 mit. And thus I think I have explained, what I have advanced in 

 a former part of this Volume*, and which no doubt would appear a 

 very great paradox to mofl; of my readers, that every man even in 

 this life is as happy as his nature will admit : And indeed it will, 

 upon due confideration, appear to be no paradox, if wc confider 

 that every man, by the exercife of his free will, has it in his power 

 to form to himfelf what may be called a new nature. It was by the 

 exercife of that faculty that man fell from his more perfect Rate to 

 the ftate he is now in ; and in this ftate he continues flill to exercife 

 that free will, and thus to make to himfelf a nature that takes delight 

 in virtue and religion ; and fo he is as happy as he can be in this 

 life. Whereas if by a wrong ufe of his free will he forms a habit 

 and dilpofition of mind, by which he makes his happinefs to con- 

 fift in fenfual pleafures, or thofe of vanity and ambition, he is mife- 

 rable even in this life ; and if he does not repent and change his 

 courfe of life, he will be ftill more miferable in the life to come. 



And thus I think I have proved that man is as happy as his na- 

 ture will admit j that is, as happy as he could be, both in this life 

 and in the life to come. And if he be miferable in either of thefe 

 two lives, it is by his own fault, that is, by the abufe of his free 

 will, which is cffential to his nature as an intelligent creature, and 

 which God couW not have taken from him without annihilating 



him 

 * Pp. 131 and 20c. 



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