282 VESTIGES OF THE 



it is so has been amply shown, it can be of no real benefit 

 to us ; and, in the second, it is proper to inquire if there 

 be necessarily in the doctrine of universal causation any 

 peculiarity calculated materially to affect our hitherto 

 supposed relation to the Deity. ' It may be that, while 

 we are committed to take our chance in a natural system 

 of undeviating operation, and are left with apparent 

 ruthlessness to endure the consequences of every collision 

 into which we knowingly or unknowingly come with 

 each law of the system, there is a system of Mercy and 

 Grace behind the screen of nature, which is to make up 

 for all casualties endured here, and the very largeness of 

 which is what makes these casualties a matter of indif- 

 ference to God. For the existence of such a system, the 

 actual constitution of nature is itself an argument. The 

 reasoning may proceed thus : The system of nature 

 assures us that benevolence is a leading principle in the 

 divine mind. But that system is at the same time defi- 

 cient in a means of making this benevolence of invariable 

 operation. To reconcile this to the recognised character 

 of 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 Kedress is in reserve. Another 

 argument here occurs — the economy of nature, beauti- 

 fully 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 exemplification of 

 such phenomena as we see on earth were to go on 

 for ever unchanged, it would not be w^orthy of the 

 Being capable of creating it. An endless monotony 

 of human generations, with their humble thinkings 

 and doings, even though liable to a certain improve- 

 ment, seems an object beneath that august Being. 

 But the mundane economy might be very well as 



