NATURAL THEOLOGY. 153 



tendance, for activity, vigilance, precaution. It 

 is this necessity which creates farmers ; which 

 divides the profit of the soil between the owner 

 and the occupier ; which by requiring expedients, 

 by increasing employment, and by rewarding ex- 

 penditure, promotes agricultural arts and agricul- 

 tural life, of all modes of life the best, being the 

 most conducive to health, to virtue, to enjoyment. 

 I believe it to be found in fact, that where the 

 soil is the most fruitful, and the seasons the most 

 constant, there the condition of the cultivators of 

 the earth is the most depressed. Uncertainty, 

 therefore, has its use even to those who sometimes 

 complain of it the most. Seasons of scarcity them - 

 selves are not without their advantages.^'' They 

 call forth new exertions ; they set contrivance 

 and ingenuity at w^ork : they give birth to im- 

 provements in agriculture and economy ; they 

 promote the investigation and management of 

 public resources. 



Again : there are strong intelligible reasons, 

 why there should exist in human society great 

 disparity of wealth and station ; not only as these 

 things are acquired in different degrees, but at 

 the first setting out of life. In order, for instance, 

 to answer the various demands of civil life, there 

 ought to be amongst the members of every civil 

 society a diversity of education, which can only 

 belong to an original diversity of circumstances. 



^^ See former note upon the only legitimate application of such 

 arguments. 



