But supposing the Author
of Nature to be finitely perfect, though far exceeding mankind, a
satisfactory account may then be given of natural and moral evil,
and every untoward phenomenon be explained and adjusted. A less
evil may then be chosen, in order to avoid a greater;
inconveniences be submitted to, in order to reach a desirable
end; and in a word, benevolence, regulated by wisdom, and limited
by necessity, may produce just such a world as the present. You,
P/HILO\, who are so prompt at starting views, and reflections,
and analogies, I would gladly hear, at length, without
interruption, your opinion of this new theory; and if it deserve
our attention, we may afterwards, at more leisure, reduce it into
form.
My sentiments, replied P/HILO\, are not worth being made a
mystery of; and therefore, without any ceremony, I shall deliver
what occurs to me with regard to the present subject. It must, I
think, be allowed, that if a very limited intelligence, whom we
shall suppose utterly unacquainted with the universe, were
assured, that it were the production of a very good, wise, and
powerful Being, however finite, he would, from his conjectures,
form beforehand a different notion of it from what we find it to
be by experience; nor would he ever imagine, merely from these
attributes of the cause, of which he is informed, that the effect
could be so full of vice and misery and disorder, as it appears
in this life.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137