282 Of the Effects on Society, 8^x. Bk. iv, 



evils attendant upon vice, and the pains that ac- 

 company the various forms of premature death. 

 A really virtuous society, such as I have supposed, 

 would avoid these evils. It is the apparent object 

 of the Creator to deter us from vice by the pains 

 which accompany it, and to lead us to virtue by 

 the happiness that it produces. This object ap- 

 pears to our conceptions to be worthy of a bene- 

 volent Creator. The laws of nature respecting 

 population tend to promote this object. No im- 

 putation, therefore, on the benevolence of the Deity, 

 can be founded on these laws, which is not equally 

 applicable to any of the evils necessarily incidental 

 to an imperfect state of existence. 



