NATURAL THEOLOGY. 137 



struction is removed, but they struggle with the 

 impediment. They take an action as near to 

 the true one, as the difficulty and the disorga- 

 nization with which they have to contend will 

 allow of. 



Of mortal diseases, the great use is to reconcile 

 us to death. The horror of death proves the 

 value of life. But it is in the power of disease to 

 abate, or even extinguish, this horror ; which it 

 does in a wonderful manner, and, oftentimes, by 

 a mild and imperceptible gradation. Every man 

 who has been placed in a situation to observe it, 

 is surprised with the change which has been 

 wrought in himself, when he compares the view 

 which he entertains of death upon a sick-bed, with 

 the heart-sinking dismay with which* he should 

 some time ago have met it in health. There is 

 no similitude between the sensations of a man led 

 to execution, and the calm expiring of a patient 

 at the close of his disease. Death to him is only 

 the last of a long train of changes ; in his progress 

 through which, it is possible that he may experi- 

 ence no shocks or sudden transitions. 



Death itself, as a mode of removal and of suc- 

 cession, is so connected with the whole order of 

 our animal world, that almost every thing in that 

 world must be changed, to be able to do without 

 it. It may seem likewise impossible to separate 

 the fear of death from the enjoyment of life, or 

 the perception of that fear from rational natures. 

 Brutes are in a great measure delivered from all 

 13* 



