Page:God Manifest.djvu/260

250 is not very hard to be answered. A certain degree of regard for self is plainly necessary to every being, in order to preserve its very existence. Without some thought or care for ourselves, we should starve, or freeze, or fall into a ditch and be drowned. An instinct of self-preservation and self-protection is necessarily given to every animate being. And from this no harm arises. For, in the Creator's good providence, there was provided, in the original and orderly state of being, enough and an abundance for all; so that self-preservation and proper self-care did not necessarily imply any injury to others, nor consequently any evil. Such self-regard, then, as is implanted by our Maker, is a very different thing from self-love, which has been pointed out as the root of all evil. It was, in fact, a pretty and needful plant—a hedge-flower, as it were, of £den; but by mis-cultivation and abuse, it was changed into that monstrous fungus growth, that organically diseased thing, which is called.

But how came that abuse? is the next question. What was its starting-point, and first moving principle? We reply, that it was a consequence (though not a necessary consequence) of that power of self-reflection, which, as before shown, is implied in the possession of the faculty of rationality or reason. For, observe, the inferior animals have no self-love (that is, the good and gentle animals:-— how the bad and fierce animals came into existence, will be considered here-after). A horse, for instance, however swift or beautiful, has no vanity, at least none such as will make him offensive or haughty to his fellows. While in the heat of the race, indeed, he may feel himself roused by the shouts and sights around him, as well as by his