One would imagine, that this grand production had not
received the last hand of the maker; so little finished is every
part, and so coarse are the strokes with which it is executed.
Thus, the winds are requisite to convey the vapours along the
surface of the globe, and to assist men in navigation: but how
oft, rising up to tempests and hurricanes, do they become
pernicious? Rains are necessary to nourish all the plants and
animals of the earth: but how often are they defective? how often
excessive? Heat is requisite to all life and vegetation; but is
not always found in the due proportion. On the mixture and
secretion of the humours and juices of the body depend the health
and prosperity of the animal: but the parts perform not regularly
their proper function. What more useful than all the passions of
the mind, ambition, vanity, love, anger? But how oft do they
break their bounds, and cause the greatest convulsions in
society? There is nothing so advantageous in the universe, but
what frequently becomes pernicious, by its excess or defect; nor
has Nature guarded, with the requisite accuracy, against all
disorder or confusion. The irregularity is never perhaps so great
as to destroy any species; but is often sufficient to involve the
individuals in ruin and misery.
On the concurrence, then, of these four circumstances, does
all or the greatest part of natural evil depend. Were all living
creatures incapable of pain, or were the world administered by
particular volitions, evil never could have found access into the
universe: and were animals endowed with a large stock of powers
and faculties, beyond what strict necessity requires; or were the
several springs and principles of the universe so accurately
framed as to preserve always the just temperament and medium;
there must have been very little ill in comparison of what we
feel at present.
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