330 NATUHAL THEOLOGY. 



the evils which mankind suffer — tliat it is sniiply and mere 

 ly bad. But how does he distinguish idleness from the love 

 of ease ? Or is he sure that the love of ease in individuals is 

 not the chief foundation of social tranquillity ? It will be 

 found, I believe, to be true, that in every community there 

 is a large class of its members whose idleness is the best 

 quahty about them, being the corrective of other bad ones, 

 If it were possible, in every instance, to give a right deter- 

 mination to industry, we could never have too much of it. 

 But this is not possible, if men are to be free. And without 

 this, nothing would be so dangerous as an incessant, univer- 

 sal, indefatigable activity. In the civil world, as well as in 

 the material, it is the vis inertias which keeps things in 

 their places. 



Natural Theology has ever been pressed with this ques- 

 tion : Why, under the regency of a supreme and benevolent 

 Will, should there be in the world so much as there is of the 

 appearance of chance ? 



The question in its whole compass lies beyond our reach ; 

 but there are not wanting, as in the origin of evil, answers 

 which seem to have considerable weight in particular cases, 

 and also to embrace a considerable number of cases. 



I. There must be chance in the midst of design ; by 

 which we mean, that events which are not designed, neces- 

 sarily arise from the pursuit of events which are designed. 

 One man travelling to York, meets another man travelling 

 to London. Their meeting is by chance, is accidental, and 

 so would be called and reckoned, though the journeys which 

 produced the meeting were, both of them, undertaken with 

 design and from deliberation. The meeting, though acci- 

 dental, was nevertheless hypothetical! y necessary — which is 

 the onlj' sort of necessity that is intelligible — for if the two 

 journeys were commenced at the time, pursued in the direc- 

 tion, and with the speed in which and with which they 

 were in fact begun and performed, the meeting could not l)e 



