Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/518

 creation, the consequence is fairly drawn, and very evident, that "God is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."

This is certain of the whole of God's works, and is peculiarly apparent in man, the principal inhabitant of this earth. For, as his welfare, dignity, and satisfaction, nay his happiness, and even the end of his being, depend on, and arise from, his regularity and constancy in virtue, what an infinite concern hath the Deity expressed about it? What, that can consist with liberty, hath been omitted by supreme wisdom, in this most important affair? To incline him to be moderate in all his gratifications, true pleasure proceeds from nothing else. To keep off intemperate indulgence, and to guard him against all voluptuous excesses, it is so ordained, that extravagance and inconvenience are near together, and that vice and pain are, though not immediate and inseparable associates, never far asunder; and that it is impossible for that soul to be calm and at ease, which iniquity has stained, and which impenitent guilt corrodes.

The parts of man's body are wonderfully designed, and curiously constructed; regularly disposed of, and most accurately proportioned for the safety and advantage of the whole. As apt as we may be to quarrel with our nature, suppose an instinct was struck out of our frame, or a single passion taken from us; suppose our senses any ways altered, by being either strengthened, or impaired; or even reason refined and abstracted to such a degree as to render us wholly negligent of food and raiment, necessary exercises, and secular concerns; in any of these instances, the imaginary emendation would be a real deficiency, and a proportionable deduction from the moment and quantity of our happiness.

It is evidently the same with respect to all the other creatures we are acquainted with. Their nature and condition, their qualities and circumstances, are so adapted to one another, that, as the intellectual powers of a being of a more exalted nature would not probably suit an inha