268 PURPOSE AND GENERAL CONDITION 



ment for his intellect, whatever be its grade, objects for the do- 

 mestic and social affections, objects for the sentiments. He is 

 also a progressive being, and what pleases him to-day may not 

 please him to-morrow ; but in each case he demands a sphere 

 of appropriate conditions in order to be happy. By virtue 

 of his superior organization, his enjoyments are much higher 

 and more varied than those of any of the lower animals ; but 

 the very complexity of circumstances affecting him renders 

 it at the same time unavoidable, that his nature should be often 

 inharmoniously placed and disagreeably affected, and that he 

 should therefore be unhappy. Still, unhappiness amongst 

 mankind is the exception from the rule of their condition, 

 and an exception which is capable of almost infinite diminu- 

 tion, by virtue of the improving reason of man, and the experi- 

 ence which he acquires in working out the problems of society. 

 To secure the immediate means of happiness, it would seem 

 to be necessary for men first to study with all care the con- 

 stitution of nature ; and, secondly, to accommodate themselves 

 to that constitution, so as to obtain all the realizable advan- 

 tages from acting conformably to it, and to avoid all likely 

 evils from disregarding it. It will be of no use to sit down 

 and expect that things are to operate of their own accord, or 

 through the direction of a partial deity, for our benefit; 

 equally so were it to expose ourselves to palpable dangers, 

 under the notion that we shall, for some reason, have a 

 dispensation or exemption from them : we must endeavour so 

 to place ourselves, and so to act, that the arrangements which 

 Providence has made impartially for all may be in our favour, 

 and not against us ; such are the only means by which we can 

 obtain good and avoid evil here below. ( 101 ) And, in doing 

 this, it is especially necessary that care be taken to avoid 

 interfering with the like efforts of other men, beyond what 

 may have been agreed upon by the mass as necessary for the 

 general good. Such interferences, tending in any way to 

 injure the body, property, or peace of a neighbour, or to the 

 injury of society in general, tend to reflect evil upon ourselves 

 through the re-action which they produce in the feelings of 

 our neighbour and of society, and also the offence which they 



