440 



ON HUMAN HAPPINESS. 



purpose, by their own parents at their own homes, that first induced tJial 

 excellent prelate, Pope Gregory I., to plan a mission for the conversion of 

 our barbarous forefathers to Christianity, from the horror he felt at their 

 conduct, and the pity with which he beheld the little outcasts. 



In the view of history, therefore, as well as in the language of Scrip- , 

 ture, man, in a state of nature, is prone to evil, and his heart is desperately 

 wicked : or as it is given most exquisitely in the poetical language of the 

 Pfeaimist, 



* ' Behold tbe dark places of the earth 

 ''■'* Are full of the habitations of cruelty !"* 



The sentiment, then, tliat exists in human nature in favour of virtue, or 

 a virtuous conduct, though general, is not universal, and consequently 

 cannot proceed from any original instincts or innate ideas. What, then, 

 are the other causes to which it has been ascribed by moralists ? The in- 

 trinsic loveliness of virtue itself Because its attribut es are generally use- 

 iul and agreeable. Because it conducts to human happiness. Because 

 it is tl^e will of God. 



Now all these answers, however diversified, may be resolved into two 

 general ideas — human happiness and the will of God : for we can only 

 regard that as lovely or an object of love which contributes to our happi- 

 ness: and we can only regard that as useful or agreeable which conduces 

 to the same end. 



The subject, therefore, becomes considerably narrowed, and the only 

 substantial replies that appear capable of being given to the question, 

 AVhat is the source of this general settlement among mankind in favour of 

 virtue ? are, Because it is the path to happiness : or, Because it is the will 

 of God. 



But may not the subject be still farther narrowed, and both these re- 

 plies be resolved into one identical proposition ? may not human happi- 

 ness and the will of God be^the same thing ? If so, we shall then only 

 have to inquire farther, v/hether virtue be the real path to human happi- 

 ness ? for if it be, then, necessarily, he who pursues that path obeys the 

 will of God. 



Both questions are important: the first, however, may be settled in a 

 few words. To discover the will of an intelligent agent, nothing more is 

 necessary than to examine the general drift or tendency of his contrivance, 

 so far as we are able to make it out. Taking it, then, for granted, that 

 the world is the work of an intelligent agent, does it exhibit proof of 

 having been devised for the general accommodation and happiness of man ? 

 for his general misery, — or for neither ? It cannot have been devised for 

 neither, because that would be to relinquish the very foundation of our 

 present position, and to deny that the world exhibits contrivance, or has 

 been formed by an inteUigent agent ? Is, then, the world, with its gene- 

 ral furniture, is the frame of man itself calculated to promote man's hap- 

 piness or his misery ? It is impossible to answer this question more strongly 

 than in the words of Archdeacon Paley : — 



"Contrivance proves design, and the predominanttendency of the con- 

 trivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds 

 with contrivances ; and all the contrivances with which we are acquainted 

 are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil, no doubt, exists : but is never. 



* I\sal«^lxxiv. 20 



/ 



