154 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



As this sort of disparity, which ought to take 

 place from the beginning of life, must, ex hypo- 

 thesi, be previous to the merit or demerit of the 

 persons upon whom it falls, can it be better dis- 

 posed of than by chance ? Parentage is that sort 

 of chance : yet it is the commanding circumstance 

 which in general fixes each man's place in civil 

 life, along with every thing which appertains to 

 its distinctions. It may be the result of a bene- 

 ficial rule, that the fortunes or honours of the 

 father devolve upon the son ; and, as it should 

 seem, of a still more necessary rule, that the low 

 or laborious condition of the parent be communi- 

 cated to his family ; but with respect to the suc- 

 cessor himself, it is the drawing of a ticket in a 

 lottery. Inequalities, therefore, of fortune, at least 

 the greatest part of them, vh. those which attend 

 us from our birth, and depend upon our birth, 

 may be left, as they are left, to chance, without any 

 just cause for questioning the regency of a su- 

 preme Disposer of events. 



But not only the donation, when by the neces- 

 sity of the case they must be gifts, but even the 

 acquirahilily of civil advantages, ought perhaps, 

 in a considerable degree, to lie at the mercy of 

 chance. Some would have all the virtuous rich, 

 or, at least, removed from the evils of poverty, 

 without })erceiving, I suppose, the consequence, 

 that all the poor must be wicked. And how such 

 a society could be kept in subjection to govern- 

 ment, has not been shown : for the poor, that is. 



