(xOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 317 



some measure not only superadded, but unmixed guitifica- 

 tions, having no pains to balance them.* 



I do not know whether our attachment to loro^perty be 

 not something more than the mere dictate of reason, or even 

 than the mere effect of association. Property communicates 

 a charm to whatever is the object of it. It is the first of 

 our abstract ideas ; it cleaves to us the closest and the lon- 

 gest. It endears to the child its plaything, to the peasant 

 his cottage, to the landholder his estate. It supplies the 

 place of prospect and scenery. Instead of coveting the beauty 

 of distant situations, it teaches every man to fmd it in his 

 own. It gives boldness and grandeur to plains and fens, 

 tinge and coloring to clays and fallows. 



All these considerations come in aid of our seco7id propo- 

 sition. The reader will now bear in mind what our two 

 propositions were. They were, firstly, that in a vast plu- 

 rality of instances in which contrivance is perceived, the de- 

 sign of the contrivance is beneficial ; secondly, that the Deity 

 has added pleasure to animal sensations beyond what was 

 necessary for any other purpose, or when the purpose, so far 

 as it was necessary, might have been eiTected by the opera,- 

 tion of pain. 



While these propositions can be maintained, we are au- 

 thorized to ascribe to the Deity the character of benevolence ; 

 and what is benevolence at all, must in him be ijijinite be- 

 nevolence, by reason of the infinite, that is to say, the incal- 

 culably great number of objects upon which it is exercised. 



Of the ORIGIN OF EVIL, no universal solution has been 

 discovered ; I mean, no solution which reaches to all cases 

 of complaint. The most comprehensive is that which arises 

 from the consideration o{ general rules. We may, I ihiuk, 

 without much difficulty, be brought to admit the four fol- 

 lowing points : first, that important advantages may accrue 

 to the universe froni the order of nature proceeding accord- 

 * Balgiiy on the Divine Benevolence. 



