OF THE ANIMATED CREATION. 257 



barks and many lives perish. Here, it is evident, the evil is 

 only exceptive. Suppose, again, that a boy, in the course of 

 the lively sports proper to his age, suffers a fall which injures 

 his spine, and renders him a cripple for life. Two things 

 have been concerned in the case : first, the love of violent 

 exercise, and second, the law of gravitation. Both of these 

 things are good in the main. Boys, in the rash enterprises 

 and rough sports in which they engage, are only making the 

 first delightful trials of a bodily and mental energy which has 

 been bestowed upon them as necessary for their figuring pro- 

 perly in a scene where many energies are called for, and 

 where the exertion of these powers is ever a source of happi- 

 ness. By gravitation, all moveable things, our own bodies 

 included, are kept stable on the surface of the earth. But 

 when it chances that the playful boy loses his hold (we shall 

 say) of the branch of a tree, and has no solid support imme- 

 diately below, the law of gravitation unrelentingly pulls him 

 to the ground, and thus he is hurt. Now it was not a 

 primary object of gravitation to injure boys ; but gravitation 

 could not but operate in the circumstances, its nature being 

 to be universal and invariable. The evil is, therefore, only a 

 casual exception from something in the main good. 



The same explanation applies to even the most conspicuous 

 of the evils which afflict society. War, it may be said, and 

 said truly, is a tremendous example of evil, in the misery, 

 hardship, waste of human life, and mis-spending of human 

 energies, which it occasions. But what is it that produces 

 war ? Certain tendencies of human nature ; as keen assertion 

 of a supposed right, resentment of supposed injury, acqui- 

 sitiveness, desire of admiration, combativeness, or mere love 

 of excitement. All of these are tendencies which every 

 day, in a legitimate extent of action, produce great and 

 indispensable benefits to us. Man would be a tame, indolent, 

 unserviceable being without them, and his fate would be 

 starvation. War, then, huge evil though it be, is, after all, 

 but the exceptive case, a casual misdirection of properties and 

 powers essentially good. God has given us the tendencies for 

 a benevolent purpose. He has only not laid down any absolute 



