64 LECTURE II. 



hilated, as in some future period will be the case. 

 Every thing that Nature could possibly produce, 

 capable of existence, has been produced, of which 

 the Sloths are a striking example. They constitute 

 the last term of existence in the order of animals 

 endowed with flesh and blood: one other defect 

 added to the number would have totally prevented 

 their existence. To regard these bungled sketches 

 as beings equally perfect with others; to call in the 

 aid of final causes to account for such dispropor- 

 tioned productions, and to make Nature as brilliant 

 in these as in her most beautiful animals, is to view 

 her through a narrow tube, and to substitute our 

 own fancies for her intentions. Why should not 

 some animals be created for misery, since in the 

 human species the greatest number of individuals 

 are devoted to pain from the moment of their ex- 

 istence ? Evil, it is true, proceeds more from our- 

 selves than from Nature. For a single person who 

 is unhappy because born feeble or deformed, there 

 are millions who are rendered miserable by the 

 oppression of their superiors. The inferior ani- 

 mals, in general, are more happy, because the 

 species have nothing to fear from individuals : to 

 them there is but one source of evil : to Man there 



