NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 279 



of circumstances affecting him renders it at the same 

 time unavoidable that his nature should be often inhar- 

 moniously placed and disagreeably affected, and that be 

 should therefore be unhappy. Still, unhappiness amongst 

 mankind is the exception from the rule of their condi- 

 tion, and an exception which is capable of almost infinite 

 diminution, by virtue of the improving reason of man, 

 and the experience 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 constitution of nature ; and, secondly, to accommodate 

 themselves to that constitution, so as to obtain all the 

 realisable advantages 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. 

 And, in doing this, it is especially necessary that care be 

 taken to avoid interfering with the hke efforts of other 

 men, beyond what may have been agreed upon by the 

 mass as necessary for the general good. Such interfe- 

 rences, tending in any way to injure the body, property, 

 or peace of a neighbour, or to the injury of society in 

 general, tend very much to reflect evil upon ourselves, 

 through the reaction which they produce in the feelings 

 of our neiijlibour and of society, and also the ofVence 



