If every thing in the universe be conducted by general laws,
and if animals be rendered susceptible of pain, it scarcely seems
possible but some ill must arise in the various shocks of matter,
and the various concurrence and opposition of general laws; but
this ill would be very rare, were it not for the third
circumstance, which I proposed to mention, viz. the great
frugality with which all powers and faculties are distributed to
every particular being. So well adjusted are the organs and
capacities of all animals, and so well fitted to their
preservation, that, as far as history or tradition reaches, there
appears not to be any single species which has yet been
extinguished in the universe. Every animal has the requisite
endowments; but these endowments are bestowed with so scrupulous
an economy, that any considerable diminution must entirely
destroy the creature. Wherever one power is increased, there is a
proportional abatement in the others. Animals which excel in
swiftness are commonly defective in force. Those which possess
both are either imperfect in some of their senses, or are
oppressed with the most craving wants. The human species, whose
chief excellency is reason and sagacity, is of all others the
most necessitous, and the most deficient in bodily advantages;
without clothes, without arms, without food, without lodging,
without any convenience of life, except what they owe to their
own skill and industry.
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