ON SUBJECTS OF SCIENCE CONNECTED WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY: BEING THE CONCLUDING VOLUMES OF THE NEW EDITION OF PALEY'S WORK. BY HENRY LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S., AND MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: C. KNIGHT AND CO., 22, LUDGATE-STREFT. 1839. DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. THE question which has more than any other harassed metaphysical reasoners, but especially theologians, and upon which it is probable that no very satisfactory conclusion will ever be reached by the human faculties in our present state, is the Origin and Sufferance of Evil. Its existence being always assumed, philosophers have formed various theories for explaining it, but they have also drawn very different inferences from it. The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence of the Deity, because they held that the existence of Evil either proved him to be limited in power or of a malignant nature; either of which imperfections is inconsistent with the first notions of a divine being. In this kind of reasoning they have been followed VOL. II. B |