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VESTIGES OE THE 



through primordial law, to go on ever brightening and 

 perfecting, yet never, while the present dispensation of 

 nature shall last, to be quite perfect ! 



The sex passion in like manner leads to great evils ; 

 but the evils are only an exception from the vast mass of 

 c'ood connected with this affection. Providence has seen 

 it necessary to make very ample provision for the pre- 

 servation and utmost possible extension of all species. 

 The aim seems to be to diffuse existence as widely as 

 possible, to fill up every vacant piece of space with some 

 sentient being to be a vehicle of enjoyment. Hence this 

 passion is conferred in great force. But the relation 

 between the number of beings, and the means of support- 

 ing them, is only on the footing of general law. There 

 may be occasional discrepancies between the laws operat- 

 ing for the multiplication of individuals, and the laws 

 operating to supply them with the means of subsistence, 

 and evils will be endured in consequence, even in oui' 

 own highly favoured species. But against all these evils, 

 and against those numberless vexations which have arisen 

 in all ages from the attachment of the sexes, place the 

 vast amount of happiness which is derived from this 

 source — the basis of the whole circle of the domestic 

 affections, the sweetening principle of life, the prompter 

 of all our most generous feelings, and even of our most 

 virtuous resolves and exertions — and every ill that can 

 be traced to it is but as dust in the balance. And here, 

 also, we must be on our guard against judging from what 

 we see in the world at a particular era. As reason and 

 the higher sentiments of man's nature increase in force, 

 this passion is put under better regulation, so as to 

 lessen many of the evils connected with it. The civi- 

 lised man is more able to give it due control ; his attach- 

 ments are less the result of impulse ; he studies more the 



