THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
283 
Did mortality follow any fixed rule, it would produce a se¬ 
curity in those that were at a distance from it, which would 
lead to the greatest disorders; and a horror in those who 
approached it, similar to that which a condemned prisoner 
feels on the night before his execution. But, that death be 
uncertain, the young must sometimes die, as well as the 
old. Also, were deaths never sudden, they who are in 
health would be too confident of life. The strong and the 
active, who want most to be warned and checked, would 
live without apprehension or restraint. On the other hand, 
were sudden deaths very frequent, the sense of constant 
jeopardy would interfere too much with the degree of ease 
and enjoyment intended for us; and human life be too pre¬ 
carious for the business and interests which belong to it. 
There could not be dependence either upon our own lives, 
or the lives of those with whom we are connected, suffi¬ 
cient to carry on the regular offices of human society. 
The manner, therefore, in which death is made to occur, 
conduces to the purposes of admonition, without overthrow¬ 
ing the necessary stability of human affairs. 
Disease being the forerunner of death, there is the same 
reason for its attacks coming upon us under the appear¬ 
ance of chance, as there is for uncertainty in the time ot 
death itself. 
The seasons are a mixture of regularity and chance. 
They are regular enough to authorise expectation, whilst 
their being in a considerable degree irregular, induces, on 
the part of the cultivators of the soil, a necessity for per¬ 
sonal attendance, for activity, vigilance, precaution. It is 
this necessity which creates farmers; which divides the 
profit of the soil between the owner and the occupier; which, 
by requiring expedients, by increasing employment, and 
by rewarding expenditure, promotes agricultural arts and 
agricultural life, of all modes of life the best, being the 
most conducive to health, to virtue, to enjoyment. I 
believe it to be found in fact, that where the soil is the 
most fruitful, and the seasons the most constant, there the 
condition of the cultivators of the earth is the most de¬ 
pressed. Uncertainty, therefore, has its use, even to those 
who sometimes complain of it the most. Seasons of scar¬ 
city themselves are not without their advantages. They 
call forth new exertions; they set contrivance and ingenui¬ 
ty at work; they give birth to improvements in agriculture 
and economy; they promote the investigation and manage¬ 
ment of public resources. 
