OF THE ANIMATED CREA1I0HT. 



195 



remedy or compensating principle ready to interfere for 

 its alleviation. And there can be no doubt that in this 

 manner suffering of all kinds is very much relieved. 



We may, then, regard the globes of space as theatres 

 designed for the residence of animated sentient beings, 

 placed there with this as their first and most obvious 

 purpose — namely, to be sensible of enjoyments from the 

 exercise of their faculties in relation to external things. 

 The faculties of the various species are very different, 

 but the happiness of each depends on the harmony there 

 may be between its particular faculties and its particular 

 circumstances. For instance, place the small-brained 

 sheep or ox in a good pasture, and it fully enjoys this 

 harmony of relation ; but man, having many more facul- 

 ties, cannot be thus contented. Besides having a suffi- 

 ciency of food and bodily comfort, he must have enter- 

 tainment for his intellect, whatever be its grade, objects 

 for the domestic and social affections, objects for the sen- 

 timents. He is also a progressive being, and what pleases 

 him to-day may not please him to-morrow ; but in each 

 case he demands a sphere of appropriate conditions in 

 order to be happy. By virtue of his superior organiza- 

 tion, his enjoyments are much higher and more varied 

 than those of any of the lower animals ; but the very 

 complexity of circumstances affecting him renders it at 

 the same time unavoidable that his nature should be 

 often inharmoniously placed and disagreeably affected, 

 and that he should therefore be unhappy. Still, unhap- 

 piness among mankind is the exception from the rule of 

 their condition, and an exception which is capable of al- 

 most infinite diminution, by virtue of the improving rea- 

 son 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 

 fhe constitution of nature, and, secondly, to accommo- 

 date themselves to that constitution, so as to obtain all 

 the realizable 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 ex- 

 pose ourselves to palpable dangers, under the notion that 

 we shall, for some reason, have a dispensation or exemp 



