124 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



be right, they are more than repaid for the defect 

 of palate. The feast lasts as long as the digestion. 

 In seeking for argument, we need not stay to 

 insist upon the comparative importance of our ex- 

 ample : for the observation holds equally of all, or 

 of three at least, of the other senses. The neces- 

 sary purposes of hearing might have been answer- 

 ed without harmony ; of smell, without fragrance ; 

 of vision, without beauty. Now, " if the Deity had 

 been indifferent about our happiness or misery, we 

 must impute to our good fortune (as all design by 

 this supposition is excluded,) both the capacity of 

 our senses to receive pleasure, and the supply of 

 external objects fitted to excite it." I allege these 

 as two felicities, for they are different things, yet 

 both necessary : the sense being formed, the ob- 

 jects, which were applied to it, might not have 

 suited it ; the objects being fixed, the sense might 

 not have agreed with them. A coincidence is here 

 required, which no accident can account for. 

 There are three possible suppositions upon the sub- 

 ject, and no more. The first ; that the sense, by 

 its original constitution, was made to suit the ob- 

 ject : The second ; that the object, by its original 

 constitution, was made to suit the sense : The third ; 

 that the sense is so constituted, as to be able, either 

 universally, or within certain limits, by habit and 

 familiarity, to render every object pleasant. Which* 

 ever of these suppositions we adopt, the effect evin- 

 ces, on the part of the Author of nature, a studious 

 benevolence. If the pleasures which we derive 



