templating the satisfaction and happiness, which in the general course of things are experienced by all the animals below us. But the happy effects of this law are not confined to the brutal creation. They are likewise experienced by man. They are without doubt experienced by the highest order of created intelligences. The exercise of all our bodily organs, in that degree which answers the purposes for which they were given us, is always attended with pleasure. The eye takes pleasure in seeing; the ear in hearing; all our senses are the inlets of enjoyment. The gratification of every natural appetite and propensity is a source of satisfaction and delight. The same law takes place with respect to our mental faculties. The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our rational powers is always attended with pleasure. That this is the consequence of a wise and benevolent general law, appears from this consideration. The proper exercise of all our powers both of body and mind,

VOL. II.

is productive of usefulness either to ourselves or others. We have no faculties either of enjoyment or action which have not their respective uses. And because this is the case, it is wisely ordered that when they are not employed, we experience very disagreeable sensations. Excepting the time which nature has allotted for the repose of our active powers, we can never be happy when they are unemployed; and I have just observed that whenever they are employed they may be useful. Even the exercise of the passions, in a moderate degree, is likewise pleasing, those only excepted which are founded on Fear and Hatred. Now it is impossible that the object of Fear should be pleasing, because it is the design of that passion to make us run away from, and avoid it. And if the exercise of Hatred had been agreeable, we should have taken delight in a state of war and slaughter. But all the other passions, when moderately exercised, afford pleasure: such

as admiration, joy, love, and all its various modifications. Nay, there is something soothing and agreeable in grief, if it proceed from a generous cause and such as the moral sense approves.

“Ask the faithful youth

Why the cold urn of her whom long he lov'd,
So often fills his arms; so often draws

His lonely footsteps at the silent hour,
To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?
O! he will tell thee that the wealth of worlds
Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego
That sacred hour, when stealing from the noise
Of care and envy, sweet remembrance soothes
With virtue's kindest looks his aching breast,
And turns his tears to rapture."

AKENSIDE.

It is therefore most wisely and kindly ordered that all the active powers with which every animal being is endued, when properly exercised, afford pleasure. Did not this general law prevail, the whole animal world would experience perpetual misery. They would be miserable when in action, and they would be miserable when unemployed. In such circumstances, many of the wheels

of nature would stand still. All new discoveries in the useful arts would be prevented, and a total inactivity would take place in every part of the animal

creation.

LECTURE XXXVII.

In the prosecution of our design to illustrate the Goodness of God from the consideration of the benevolent tendency of some of the known general Laws of Nature, in the Material, the Animal, and the Intellectual world, we considered, under the first of these heads, the Law of Attraction; and under the second, the three following Laws:

In the first place, The Law which ordains that one species of animals should prey upon another:

Secondly, The Law by which the several species of animals are kept distinct :

And in the third place, this general law, which takes place in the animal

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