314 NATURAL THEOLOaY. 



been answered without harmony ; of smell, without fra- 

 grance ; of vision, without beauty. Now, " if the Deity had 

 been indifierent about our happiness or misery, Ave must im- 

 pute to our good fortune — as all des-ign by this supposition 

 is excluded — ^both the capacity of our senses to receive pleas- 

 ure, and the supply of external objects fitted to excite it." 

 I allege these as tivo felicities, for they are dilTerent things, 

 yet both necessary : the sense being fo-rmed, the objects 

 which were applied to it might not have suited it ; the ob- 

 jects being fixed, the sense might not have agreed with 

 them. A coincidence is here required which no accident 

 can account for. There are three possible suppositions upon 

 the subject, and no more. The first, that the sense, by its 

 original constitution, w^as made to suit the object; the sec- 

 ond, that the object, by its original constitution, was made 

 to suit the sense ; the third, that the sense is so constituted 

 as to be able, either universally or within certain limits, by 

 habit and familiarity, to render every object pleasant. Which- 

 ever of these suppositions we adopt, the efiect evinces on the 

 part of the Author of nature a studious benevolence. If the 

 pleasures which we derive from any of our senses depend 

 upon an original congruity between the sense and the prop- 

 erties perceived by it, we know by experience that the ad- 

 justment demanded, with respect to the qualities which were 

 conferred upon the objects that surround us, not only choice 

 and selection, out of a boundless variety of possible qualities 

 vith which these objects might have been endued, but a 

 'proiiortioning also of degree, because an excess or defect of 

 intensity spoils the perception as much almost as an error 

 in. the kind and nature of the quality. Likewise the degree 

 of dulness or acuteness in the sense itself is no arbitrary 

 :hing, but in order to preserve the congruity here spoken of, 

 requires to be in an exact or near correspondency with ths 

 strength of the impression. The dulness of the senses forms 

 the complaint of old-age. Persons in fevers, and I believe 

 in most maniacal cases, experience great torment from theij 



