NECESSITY, PHILOSOPHICAL. 
tends strongly to excite and cherish the 
benevolent affections. It represents hu- 
man agents as merely instrumental to the 
views and scliemes of Deity, under whose 
hands all intelligent creatures resemble the 
toys upon the chequered table, directed to 
bis purpose, and impelled by his energy, 
A consideration this, admirably calculated 
to substitute compassion for resentment, to 
check the thirst of vengeance, and the seve- 
rity of punishment. The propriety indeed 
and indispensablcness of exhibiting to the 
paind motives or applications of a painful 
character, are admitted to be more clearly 
perceivable upon this system than on any 
other; and in truth are, only upon tliis sys- 
tem, perceivable at all. Authority must 
rebuke, law must menace, tribunals must 
sentence. 
Tlie accomplishment of individual refor- 
mation, and the prevention of public cor- 
ruption, must be attempted by the means 
best adapted to these objects, and these 
means, from the constitution of human 
nature, include a certain portion of physical 
evil ; but this is admitted, on the doctrine 
of necessity, only as remedial, or preven- 
tive of greater evil. Punishment upon this 
system proceeds not from revenge, but 
from benevolence. The offender is consi- 
dered as having been urged to the act of 
guilt by circumstances controlling his will 
with the most rigid and in;esistible domi- 
nion; as impelled not more by voluntary 
determination than by necessitating mo- 
tive. He is considered as requiring, in- 
deed, inflictions of a description highly 
impressive and penal, to enable him to 
break the bands of vicious habits ; but the 
indispensibleness of these inflictions is per- 
ceived with extreme regret, and yielded to 
with extreme reluctance. The persecutor 
is even more compassionated than his victim, 
and the tear of pity accompanies the lash 
of punishment, 
It has been urged, that the doctrine of 
necessity tends to discourage exertion as 
useless, and to produce a total stagnation 
and torpor of the soul, since every thought 
and act of every individual being deter- 
mined by necessary influences, and regu- 
lated by eternal laws, These can no more 
be counteracted by him, than he can pliiclf 
the moon from her orbit ; or comprehend 
the ocean in a span. Whatever be the 
pressure of this difficulty, it is by no means 
peculiar to the doctrine in question, but 
applies with equal force to all who main- 
tain the pre-science of the Supreme Being, 
and who are, in fact, nearly all that do not 
deny his existence. 
Foreknowledge unquestionably includes 
the certainty of those events which are 
foreknown, yet the advocates of liberty 
and prescience by no means regard this 
absolute certainty as precluding the em- 
ployment of means, But necessity is merely 
another word for certainty, and the remon- 
strances and exhortations, the deliberations 
and efforts, which are admitted to be usefully 
instrumental with respect to events decid- 
edly foreknown, must be allowed equally 
applicable with regard to such as are fixed 
by the eternal series of necessary causation 
and production. The events in both cases 
are equally certain, and, on that account 
merely, equally inevitable, and equally 
necessitated. In reality, whatever be the 
certainty or necessity of future events, the 
ignorance of man respecting them will 
always operate upon him as if they were 
actually uncertain or contingent. The 
conviction felt by every one that the pe- 
riod and circumstances of his dissolution 
are perfectly known to God, and conse- 
quently unalterable by prayers or efforts, 
does not diminish his exertions for the pre- 
servation of his life ; and the farmer culti- 
vates his ground with equal attention and 
assiduity, though, he knows, it is clearly fore- 
seen by God whether the reaper shall gather 
a crop of grain or mildew. If ends are cer- 
tain and necessary, so likewise are means. 
Those who neglect the latter, are pre- 
cluded from the former. The seed depo- 
sited in the ground may not always mature 
into the golden harvest, but unless the seed 
be deposited no harvest whatever can appear. 
The regular application of food and air will 
not always preserve the human frame in 
vitality and vigour; but without air and 
food its strength and life must inevitably 
perish. 
Voluntary action is an essential link in 
the chain of causes. The whole course of 
moral nature ascertains its necessity to the 
accomplishment of various objects of hu- 
man wishes, and the man who, possessing 
ardent desires for any paiticular object, 
declines the employment of those efforts 
without which it must be miraculous or 
impossible that he should obtain it, must 
be considered as exhibiting an instance of 
something worse than absurd reasoning, in 
proportion as madness is more pitiable than 
absurdity. 
Finally, upon the principles of necessity, 
God is undoubtedly the author of evil ; a 
