THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
526 9 
from any fixed necessity in nature, that what is frequently 
applied to the senses should of course become agreeable to 
them. It is, so far as it subsists, a power of accommoda¬ 
tion provided in these senses by the Author of their struc¬ 
ture, and forms a part of their perfection. 
In whichever way we regard the senses, they appear to 
be specific gifts, ministering, not only to preservation, but 
to pleasure. But what we usually call the senses are prob¬ 
ably themselves far from being the only vehicles of enjoy¬ 
ment, or the whole of our constitution, which is calculated 
for the same purpose. We have many internal sensations 
of the most agreeable kind, hardly referable to any of the 
five senses. Some physiologists have holden, that all se¬ 
cretion is pleasurable; and that the complacency which in 
health, without any external assignable object to excite it, 
we derive from life itself, is the effect of our secretions go¬ 
ing on well within us. All this may be true; but if true, 
what reason can be assigned for it, except the will of the 
Creator? It may reasonably be asked, why is anything a 
pleasure? and I know of no answer which can be returned 
to the question, but that which refers it to appointment. 
We can give no account whatever of our pleasures in the 
simple and original perception; and, even when physical 
sensations are assumed, we can seldom account for them in 
the secondary and complicated shapes in which they take 
the name of diversions. I never yet met with a sportsman, 
who could tell me in what the sport consisted; who could 
resolve it into its principle, and state that principle. I 
have been a great follower of fishing myself, and in its 
cheerful solitude have passed some of the happiest hours of 
a sufficiently happy life; but to this moment, I could never 
trace out the source of the pleasure which it afforded me. 
The “ quantum in rebus inane!” whether applied to our 
amusements or to our graver pursuits, (to which in truth 
it sometimes equally belongs,) is always an unjust com¬ 
plaint. If trifles engage, and if trifles make us happy, the 
true reflection suggested by the experiment, is upon the 
tendency of nature to gratification and enjoyment; which 
is, in other words, the goodness of its Author toward his 
sensitive creation. 
Rational natures also, as such, exhibit qualities which 
help to confirm the truth of our position. The degree of 
understanding found in mankind, is usually much greater 
than what is necessary for mere preservation. The pleasure 
of choosing for themselves, and of prosecuting the object 
