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PURPOSE AND GENERAL CONDITION OF 

 THE ANIMATED CREATION. 



WE have now to inquire how this view of the constitution 

 and origin of nature bears upon the condition of man upon 

 the earth, and his relation to supra-mundane things. 



That enjoyment is the proper attendant of animal existence is 

 pressed upon us by all that we see and all we experience. Every- 

 where we perceive in the lower creatures, in their ordinary con- 

 dition, symptoms of enjoyment. Their whole being is a system 

 of needs, the supplying of which is gratification, and of facul- 

 ties, the exercise of which is pleasurable. When we consult 

 our own sensations, we find that, even in a sense of a healthy 

 performance of all the functions of the animal economy, God 

 has furnished us with an innocent and very high enjoyment. 

 The mere quiet consciousness of a healthy play of the mental 

 functions a mind at ease with itself and all around it is in 

 like manner extremely agreeable. This negative class of 

 enjoyments, it may be remarked, is likely to be even more 

 extensively experienced by the lower animals than by man, 

 at least in the proportion of their absolute endowments, as 

 their mental and bodily functions are much less liable to 

 derangement than ours. To find the world constituted on 

 this principle is only what in reason we should expect. We 

 cannot conceive that so vast a system could have been created 

 for a contrary purpose. No averagely constituted human 



