324 NATURAL THEOLOGi'. 



Of otlier external evils — still confining ourselves to what 

 are called physical or natural evils — a considerable part come 

 within the scope of the following observation : the great 

 principle of human satisfaction is engagement. It is a most 

 just distinction, which the late Mr, Tucker has dwelt upon 

 so largely in his works, between pleasures in which we ai«? 

 passive and pleasures in which w^e are active. And I be 

 lieve every attentive observer of human life will assent to 

 his position, that however grateful the sensations may occa- 

 sionally be in which we are passive, it is not these, but the 

 latter class of our pleasures, which constitute satisfaction — 

 which supply that regular stream of moderate and miscella- 

 neous enjoyments in which happiness, as distinguished from 

 voluptuousness, consists. Now for rational occupation, which 

 is, in other w^ords, the very material of contented existence, 

 there w^ould be no place left, if either the things wdth 

 which we had to do were absolutely impracticable to our 

 endeavors, or if they were too obedient to our uses. A world 

 furnished with advantages on one side, and beset with diffi- 

 culties, wants, and inconveniences on the other, is the propei 

 abode of free, rational, and active natures, being the fittest 

 to stimulate and exercise their faculties. The very refrac- 

 toriness of the objects they have to deal with, contributes to 

 this purpose. A w^orld in w^hich notliing depended upon 

 ourselves, however it might have suited an imaginary race 

 of beings, would not have suited mankind. Their skill, pru- 

 dence, industry — their various arts and their best attain- 

 ments, from the application of which they draw, if not their 

 highest, their most permanent gratifications, would be insig- 

 nificant, if things could be either moulded by our vol! Lions, 

 or, of Lheir own accord, conformed themselves to our views 

 and wishes. Now it is in this refractoriness that we discern 

 the seed and principle oi physical evil, as far as it arises from 

 that which is external to us. 



Civil evils, or the evils of civil lue, arc much more easily 

 disposed of than physical evils ; because they are, in truth, 



