OF THE ANIMATED CREATION. 273 



the Deity, it is necessary to suppose that the present system 

 is but a part of a whole, a stage in a Great Progress, and that 

 the Redress is in reserve. Another argument here occurs 

 the economy of nature, beautifully arranged and vast in its 

 extent as it is, does not satisfy even man's idea of what might 

 be ; he feels that, if this multiplicity of theatres for the exem- 

 plification of such phenomena as we see on earth were to go 

 on for ever unchanged, it would not be worthy of the Being 

 capable of creating it. An endless monotony of human gene- 

 rations, with their humble thinkings and doings, even though 

 liable to a certain improvement, seems an object beneath that 

 august Being. But the mundane economy might be very 

 well as a portion of some greater phenomenon, the rest of 

 which was yet to be evolved. Our system, therefore, though 

 it may at first appear at issue with other doctrines in esteem 

 amongst mankind, tends to come into harmony with them, 

 and even to give them support. I would say, in conclusion, 

 that, even where the two above arguments may fail of effect, 

 there may yet be a faith derived from this view of nature suf- 

 ficient to sustain us under all sense of the imperfect happiness, 

 the calamities, the woes, and pains of this sphere of being. 

 For let us but fully and truly consider what a system is here 

 laid open to view, and we cannot well doubt that we are in 

 the hands of One who is both able and willing to do us the 

 most entire justice. Surely in such a faith we may well rest 

 at ease, even though life should have been to us but a pro- 

 tracted malady, or though every hope we had built on the 

 secular materials within our reach were felt to be melting 

 from our grasp. Thinking of all the contingencies of this 

 world as to be in time melted into or lost in some greater 

 system, to which the present is only subsidiary, let us wait 

 the end with patience, and be of good cheer. 



