was poured out. Would to GOD that our Epicureans were chargeable with indifference only to the hand which is continually loading them with benefits! But it is from the very lap of plenteousness and pleasure that the voice of murmuring against Providence now arises. From their Libraries stored with so many sources of knowledge, issue forth the black clouds which have obscured the hopes and the virtues of Europe.

STUDY

STUDY THIRD.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST PROVIDENCE.

"THE

HERE is no God," say these self-constituted "From the work form your judg

sages. "ment of the workman.* Observe first of all this "Globe of ours, so destitute of proportion and sym

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metry. Here it is deluged by vast seas; there it "is parched with thirst, and presents only wilder"nesses of barren sand. A centrifrugal force, occa"sioned by it's diurnal rotation, has heaved out it's 66 Equator into enormous mountains, while it flat"tened the Poles: for the Globe was originally in a "state of softness; whether it was a mud recovered "from the empire of the Waters, or what is more "probable, a scum detached from the Sun. The

volcanos which are scattered over the whole Earth "demonstrate, that the fire which formed it is still "under our feet. Over this scoria, so wretchedly "levelled, the rivers run as chance directs. Some of "them inundate the plains; others are swallowed

up, or precipitate themselves in cataracts, and no "one of them presents any thing like a regular current. The Islands are merely fragments of the Continent, violently separated from it by the

VOL. I.

* See replies to this objection in Study IV.
I

"Ocean;

"Ocean; and what is the Continent itself, but a "mass of hardened clay? Here the unbridled Deep "devours it's shores; there it deserts them, and ex"hibits new mountains which had been formed in "it's womb. Amidst this conflict of contending ele"ments, this baked lump grows harder and harder, "colder and colder, every day. The ices of the Poles "and of the lofty mountains advance into the plains, " and insensibly extend the uniformity of an eternal "Winter over this mass of confusion, ravaged by "the Winds, the Fire, and the Water.

"In the vegetable World the disorder increases upon us.* Plants are a fortuitous production, of “ humid and dry, of hot and cold, the mould of the "Earth merely. The heat of the Sun makes them "spring up, the cold of the Poles kills them. Their

sap obeys the same mechanical laws with the liquid " in the thermometer, and in capillary tubes. Dilated by heat, it ascends through the wood, and re-de"scends through the rind, following in it's direction "the vertical column of the air which impresses that "direction. Hence it is that all vegetables rise per

pendicularly, and that the inclined plane of a "mountain can contain no more than the horizon"tal plane of it's base, as may be demonstrated by "Geometry. Besides, the Earth is an ill-assorted garden, which presents almost every where useless "weeds, or mortal poisons.

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"As to the animals which we know better, be"cause they are brought nearer to us by similar "affections and similar wants, they present still

greater absurdities. They proceeded at first "from the expansive force of the Earth in the first

Ages of the World, and were formed out of the "fermented mire of the Ocean and of the Nile, as "certain Historians assure us; among others Hero"dotus, who had his information from the Priests "of Egypt. Most of them are out of all proportion. "Some have enormous heads and bills, such as the "toucan; others long necks and long legs, like the "crane these have no feet at all, those have them "by hundreds; others have theirs disfigured by su

perfluous excrescences, such as the meaningless spurs of the hog, which appended at the distance "of some inches from his feet, can be of no service "to him in walking.

"There are animals scarcely capable of motion, "and which come into the World in a paralytic state, such as the sloth or sluggard, who cannot "make out fifty paces a day, and screams out la❝mentably as he goes.

"Our cabinets of Natural History are filled with "monsters; bodies with two heads; heads with three

eyes, sheep with six feet, &c. which demonstrate "that Nature acts at random, and proposes to her"self no determinate end, unless it be that of com

bining all possible forms: and after all this plan "would denote an intention which it's monotony "disavows. Our Painters will always imagine many "more beings than can possibly be created. Add "to all this, the rage and fury which desolate every

ડ

'thing that breathes: the hawk devours the harm"less dove in the face of Heaven.

"But the discord which rages among animals is "nothing, compared to that which consumes the "human race.* First, several different species of men, scattered over the earth, demonstrate that they do "not all proceed from the same original.. There are "some black, others white, red, copper-coloured, "lead-coloured. There are some who have wool "instead of hair; others who have no beard. There "are

are dwarfs and giants. Such are in part the va"rieties of the human species, every where equally "odious to Nature. No where does she nourish him "with perfect good will. He is the only sensible 'being laid under the necessity of cultivating the "earth in order to subsist; and as if this unnatural “mother were determined to persecute with unre"lenting severity the child whom she has brought "forth, insects devour the seed as he sows it, hurri"canes sweep away his harvests, ferocious animals prey on his cattle, volcanos and earthquakes destroy his cities; and the pestilence which from time "to time makes the circuit of the Globe, threatens at length his utter extermination.

"He is indebted to his own hands for his intelligence, his morality is the creature of climate, his governments are founded in force, and his religion "in fear. Cold gives him energy; heat relaxes him. "Warlike and free in the North, he is a coward and "a slave between the Tropics. His only natural laws

*The reply is in Study VII.