168 EVIL IN THE WORLD. 



reason, are felt still to leave an unsolved mystery be- 

 hind. The phrase of Paley (due, however, to Balguy 

 before him), that ; evil, as far as we can see, is never 

 the subject of contrivance/ is perhaps the happiest that 

 has been brought into the question, pointing as it does 

 to the last of these methods of solution, viz., that go- 

 vernance of the world by general laws, which is every- 

 where so strongly denoted to our reason as part of the 

 design of the Almighty. 



To sum up all I have ever ventured myself to con- 

 clude on this dark question. I cannot give belief to a 

 Satan, a personal spirit of evil, infringing on the unity, 

 if not also on the power and supremacy of God. Seeing 

 what I do of this Divine Power, not solely on the earth, 

 but in the universe around, I cannot suppose it to be 

 controlled by the properties of matter or other unde- 

 fined physical obstacles. For what remains I can 

 come to no other conclusion than the need of great 

 humility, and the confession that no thought or wisdom 

 of ours can rightly comprehend that design of the crea- 

 tion, into which man and the mixed good and evil of 

 human life enter fractionally only, as parts probably of 

 some higher scheme. I have felt an entire submission 

 to this ignorance the best relief to those perplexities of 

 thought which the aspects of human existence press 

 upon everyone who thinks at all. 



