Page:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Hume (1748).djvu/171

 can be trac'd up, by a necessary Chain, to the Deity, they can never be criminal; on account of the infinite Goodness and Perfection of that Being, from whom they are deriv'd, and who can intend nothing but what is altogether good and right. Or Secondly, if they be criminal, we must retract those Attributes of Goodness and Perfection, which we ascribe to the Deity, and must acknowledge him to be the ultimate Author of Guilt and moral Turpitude in all his Creatures.

Answer to the first Objection seems obvious and convincing. There are many Philosophers, who, after an exact Scrutiny of all the Phaenomena of Nature, conclude, that the, consider'd as one System, is, in every Period of its Existence, order'd with perfect Benevolence and Goodness; and that the utmost possible Happiness will, in the End, result to every created Being, without any Mixture of positive or absolute Ill and Misery. Every physical Ill, say they, makes an essential Part of this benevolent System, and could not possibly be remov'd, even by the Deity himself, consider'd as a wise Agent, without giving Entrance to greater Ill, or excluding greater Good, which will result from it. From this Theory, some Philosophers, and the antient Stoics among the rest, deriv'd a Topic of Consolation, under all Afflictions, while they taught their Pupils, that those Ills,