IS8 PURPOSE AND GEStHUAL CO^DITIOW 



i 



gitimate extent ef action, producing great and indispen- 

 sable benefits to us. Man would be a tame, indolent, 

 unserviceable being without them, and his fate would be 

 starvation. War, then, huge evil though it be, is, after 

 all, but the exceptive case, a casual misdirection of pro- 

 perties and powers essentially good. God has given us 

 the tendencies for a benevolent purpose. He has only 

 not laid down any absolute obstruction to our misuse of 

 them. That were an arrangement of a kind which he 

 has nowhere made. But he has established many laws 

 in our nature which tend to lessen the frequency and de- 

 structiveness of these abuses. Our reason comes to see 

 that war is purely an evil, even to the conqueror. Be* 

 nevolence interposes to make its ravages less mischievous 

 to hum-dii comfort, and less destructive to human life 

 Men begin to find that their more active powers can be 

 exercised with equal gratification on legitimate objects ; 

 for example, in overcoming the natural difficulties of 

 their path through life, or in a generous spirit of emula- 

 tion in a line of duty beneficial to themselves and their 

 fellow-creatures. Thus, war at length shrinks into a 

 comparatively narrow compass, though there certainly is 

 no reason to suppose that it will be at any early period, 

 if ever, altogether dispensed with, while man's constitu- 

 tion remains as it is. In considering an evil of this kind, 

 we must not limit our view to our own or any past time. * 

 Placed upon earth with faculties prepared to act, but in- 

 experienced, and with the more active propensities ne- 

 cessarily in great force to suit the condition of the globe, 

 man was apt to misuse his powers much in this way at ■ 

 first, compared with what he is likely to do when he ad- 

 vances into a condition of civilization. In the scheme 

 of Providence, thousands of years of frequent warfare, 

 all the so-called glories which fill history, may be only 

 an exception to the general rule. 



The sex-passion in like manner leads to great evil3 ; 

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

 good connected with this affection. Providence has seen 

 it necessary to make very ample provision for the. pres- 

 ervation and utmost possible extension of all species. 

 The aim seems tjbe to diffuse existence as widely as 

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

 3entient being to be a vehicle of enjoyment. Hence this 

 ©a?sion is conferred in great foice. But the relation be- 



