LECTURE II, 65 



are two; Moral Evil, of which he is himself the , 

 fountain, has accumulated into an immense ocean, 

 which covers and afflicts the whole surface of the 

 earth. Physical evil, on the contrary, is restrained 

 within very narrow bounds: it seldom appears 

 alone;- for it is always accompanied with an equal, 

 if not a superior good. Can happiness be denied 

 to animals, when they enjoy freedom; have the 

 faculty of procuring subsistence with ease, and pos- 

 sess more health and organs capable of alTording 

 more pleasure than those of the human species? 

 Now the generality of animals are most liberally 

 endowed with all these sources of enjoyment. The 

 degraded Sloths are perhaps the only animals to 

 whom Nature has been unkind, and which exhibit 

 to us the picture of innate misery." 



In opposition however to this eloquent ha- 

 rangue, we may venture to suppose, without any 

 fear of being in the wrong, that the Sloth, notwith- 

 standing this appearance of wretchedness and de- 

 formity, is as well fashioned for its proper modes 

 and habits of life, and feels as much pleasure in its 

 solitary and obscure retreats, as the rest of the 

 animal world, of greater locomotive powers, and 

 superior external elegance. 



LECT. II. F 



