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    our constitutions ? Ifc seems to have been the design of Providence to make our happiness or misery chiefly depend upon ourselves , that we should learn by experience what was conducive to the one , and what was productive of the other . And are not all

    advantages prized the more , in proportion to the pains which must be taken to obtain them ? Could we have ever } ' thing that we . wish for without any effort of our own , would not all blessings be undervalued ? Had we no evil to dread

    how could we become sufficiently sensible of the value of the good which we enjoy ? How could virtue exist if there were . no tempta - tions to vice ? Is there any virtue in performing good actions if there be no inducement to commit bad

    ones ? And if there be incitements to evil what can restrain us but a fear of the consequences ? And tow shall we learn the consequences but from our own or others' experience ? And how can experience be gained at the commencement of existence ? Is not

    then an imaginary paradise an actual chimera ? Is it not probably a state which cannot be produced , even by infinite wisdom and power , till rational beings , gradually improved , are qualified to en-4 ° yJ > . ' ¦ ..

    My argument is brie fly this . There are in the universe evident displays of power and wisdom far beyond our conception ; nor are there wanting innumerable tokens of goodness in the provision which is made far the enjoyment of anihial and rational cjeatures . Yet Wtwithstanding these reasons for ascribing such attributes to the Deity , evil exists ! and we are at a-loss to -reconcile it with his infi-

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    nite perfections . But is it not , highly probable that the supposition of happiness urrallayed , with , out being gradually trained up for * its enjoyment , were our faculties , equal to a perfect comprehension ,

    ot the subject , would be found to involve a contradiction ? Can any other solution of this difficulty be given which appears more satisfactory ? Would it be more rational to infer from the existence

    of evil that the Creator is imper ^ feet ? or that there is no Creator ? Yet one of these hypotheses must be admit ted or the inquiry must be relinquished ,, as too profound for the human understanding . Much might be said on the

    evils which appear to result necessarily from the government of the universe by general laws ; and on the other hand much might be argued in favour of adhering

    strictly to general laws , in preference to frequent interpositions , 1 must decline entering on this subject , and beg to refer the reader to Priestley ' s Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion .

    But to those who expect com * plete satisfaction on this perplex * , ing theme , probably nothing that ever has , or can be written , will be thought sufficient . I readily admit the . difficulties with which

    it is attended , and embrace that solution which appears to be en * compassed with the fewest . I cannot demonstrate its truth ; and if it be objected to , can only re * quest that something rnore satis * factory may be proposed in its stead .

    An inquirer who declares that he * ' has no other motive in this application than an ardent with ta become a believer in the diving origin of the Christian religion , **

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    3 $ 2 Mr . Attehin- on the Necessity of Pain and EviL

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1809, page 332, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1737/page/30/