3l8 NATURAL THEOLOai'. 



ing to general laws ; secondly, that general laws, however 

 well set and constituted, often thwart and cross one another; 

 thirdly, that from these thwartings and crossings, frequent 

 particular inconveniences will arise ; and fourthly, that it 

 ao-rees with our observations to suppose that some degree of 

 these inconveniences takes place in the works of nature. 

 These points may be allowed ; and it may also be asserted, 

 that the general laws with which we are acquainted are 

 directed to beneficial ends. On the other hand, with many 

 of these laAVS we are not acquainted at all, or we are totally 

 unable to trace them in their branches and in their opera- 

 tion ; the effect of which ignorance is, that they cannot be 

 of importance to us as measures by which to regulate our 

 conduct. The conservation of them may be of importance 

 in other respects, or to other beings, but we are uninformed 

 of their value or use ; uninformed, consequently, when and 

 how far they may or may not be suspended, or their efiects 

 turned aside by a presiding and benevolent will, without 

 incurring greater evils than those which would be avoided. 

 The consideration, therefore, of general laws, although it 

 may concern the question of the origin of evil very nearly, 

 which I think it does, rests in views disproportionate to our 

 faculties, and in a knowledge which we do not possess. It 

 serves rather to account for the obscurity of the subject, 1 l:an 

 to supply us with distinct answers to our difficulties. How- 

 ever, while we assent to the above-stated propositions as 

 principles, whatever uncertainty we may find in the appli- 

 cation, we lay a ground for believing that cases of apparent 

 evil, for which ive can suggest no particular reason, are gov- 

 erned by reasons which are more general, which lie deeper 

 in the order of second causes, and which on that account 

 are removed to a greater distance from us 



The doctrine oi iiii'pcrfections, or, as it is called, of evils 

 of imperfection, furnishes an account, founded, like the for- 

 mer, in views of universal nature. The doctrine is briefly 

 this : it is probable that creation may be better replenished 



