NATURAL THEOLOGY. 127 



of the five senses. Some physiologists have holden 

 that all secretion is pleasurable ; and that the com- 

 placency which in health, without any external 

 assignable object to excite it, we derive from life 

 itself, is the effect of our secretions going on well 

 within us. All this may be true ; but if true, what 

 reason can be assigned for it, except the will of 

 the Creator? It may reasonably be asked, Why is 

 any thing a pleasure ? and I know no answer 

 which can be returned to the question, but that 

 which refers it to appointment. 



We can give no account whatever of our plea- 

 sures in the simple and original perception ; and 

 even when physical sensations are assumed, we 

 can seldom account for them in the secondary and 

 complicated shapes in which they take the name 

 of diversions. I never yet met with a sportsman, 

 who could tell me in what the sports consisted ; who 

 could resolve it into its principle, and state that 

 principle. I have been a great follower of fishing 

 myself, and in its cheerful solitude have passed 

 some of the happiest hours of a sufficiently happy 

 life : but, to this moment, I could never trace out 

 the source of the pleasure which it afforded me. 



The "quantum in rebus inane !" whether ap- 

 plied to our amusements or to our graver pursuits, 

 (to which, in truth, it sometimes equally belongs,) 

 is always an unjust complaint. If trifles engage, 

 and if trifles make us happy, the true reflection 

 suggested by the experiment is upon the tendency 

 of nature to gratification and enjoyment ; which 



