460 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



tions of the earth appear to have branched forth from one quarter. 

 Dr. Prichard has traced them with great learning and judgment, 



to the strongest man of Van Diemen's Land, and the weakest Englishman 

 stronger than the strongest New Hollander : the average strength of Europeans 

 in the loins exceeded that of the most powerful individuals of cither Van 

 Diemen's Land, New Holland, or Timor. 



Mr. Lawrence, I mention it with pain, appears to draw, from the occurrence 

 of monsters, an argument unfavourable to the belief of the goodness of the 

 Almighty. This, I am aware, is not the place to ' assert eternal providence, 

 and justify the ways of God to man ;' but in recommending the student to a 

 work, it is my duty to guard him against its disadvantages. " Neither should 

 we overlook these productions (says this gentleman) in our attempts to infer 

 from the phenomena of nature, and particularly from organized beings, the 

 character of the cause which has produced them. Creatures so imperfectly 

 constructed, as to be incapable of independent vitality, and consequently 

 perishing immediately after they are born ; and those whom the malformation 

 of some organ draws, after a life of pain and misery, afflicting to themselves 

 and burthensomc to others, to a premature death, offer an apparent exception 

 to the inferences, which have been drawn from the animal kingdom in general, 

 concerning some attributes of the creating power." " Archdeacon Paley has 

 passed over the subject in silence." Something is added about the infallibility 

 of revelation, but the sarcastic mode of expression, even if not coupled with 

 passages in various other parts of his writings, renders the meaning but too 

 suspicious. 



The world, it must be remembered, is governed " not by partial, but by 

 general, laws," and the least reflection will shew that the most trivial alteration 

 which a human being could propose in any one of them, would produce infinite 

 mischief. In particular circumstances, however, the good they generally cause, 

 is certainly converted into evil. Hunger is one of the great sources of activity 

 and enjoyment among men and brutes, but in particular circumstances, — 

 where it cannot possibly be gratified, it is a mere torment. The laws of each 

 species of organic formation produce the beautiful animated system, but these 

 same laws under particular thwarting circumstances, — when crossed by other 

 general laws, produce monsters. The case of monsters is but one of numerous 

 similar examples, and, although Paley has not noticed this example individually, 

 he notices all such in general. " Contrivance proves design ; and the predo- 

 minant tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the designer. 

 The world abounds with contrivances, and .all the contrivances which we arc 

 acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil, no doubt, exists ; 



