LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 177 



attempting- to prove that man is not " born to die " 

 I am only endeavouring to shew that he was not 

 by nature subjected to disease and premature death. 

 I claim for the system of man no more than is 

 readily conceded to other systems. I claim for 

 him only the same degree of perfection, the same 

 importance, the same consistency, which are so 

 clearly observable in all the other works of the 

 Almighty Architect of the universe. I cannot 

 believe that it formed a part of the original scheme, 

 that one half of mankind should die before they 

 have attained the age of eight years that is, before 

 they have lived long enough to fulfil any one con- 

 ceivable intention in fact, before they are them- 

 selves fully formed. 



If any man die while any one of his organs is 

 unimpaired, he dies prematurely, and before he has 

 fulfilled the final cause of his existence. For nature 

 is an economist in every thing : she creates nothing 

 in vain : she never falls short, nor does she ever 

 exceed the object in view: she husbands her re- 

 sources, and never wastes her energies. But to 

 create an eye or an ear with the power of seeing or 

 hearing for eighty years, and to attach that eye or 

 that ear to a body capable of existing only sixty 



years, would be an obvious waste, a most unneces- 

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