Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 2.djvu/24

RV 20 (Rh) only of some other System. And if it be allow'd, that there is in like manner a of all Things, and a Universal Nature; there can be no particular Being or System which is not either good or ill in that general one of the Universe: For if it be insignificant and of no use, it is a Fault or Imperfection, and consequently ill in the general System.

if any Being be wholly and really, it must be ill with respect to the Universal System; and then the System of the Universe is ill, or imperfect. But if the Ill of one private System be the Good of others; if it makes still to the Good of the general System, (as when one Creature lives by the Destruction of another; one thing is generated from the Corruption of another; or one planetary System or Vortex may swallow up another) then is the Ill of that private System no real Ill in itself; any more than the pain of breeding Teeth is ill, in a System or Body which is so constituted, that without this occasion of Pain, it wou'd suffer worse, by being defective.

that we cannot say of any Being, that it is wholly and absolutely ill, unless we can positively shew and ascertain, that what we call is no where  besides, in any other