CHAPTER XVIII. "Miser chi mal oprando si confida Ch'ognor star debbia il malefecio occulto: JUST SO! Earth, Air, Water-ay, and Fire to boot, may proclaim the deed; Stones may cry and sticks rattle to shew the power of Providence, and confound the culprit: but is the wronged one righted by all this? If the brother of one, who, weakened by disease, is unable to distinguish 'twixt that he wills to will and what he wills not will: besiege him on his death-bed, and giving a sly pull at his lawyer's sleeve, straight find himself writ down for a hundred thousand pounds, then purchases the wine, books, and moveables for nothing, and the new plate for an old song.I've heard o' such things!-If, I say, this should happen, the transaction may, perchance, afterwards be known, and infamy attend the faytor; but, will the children of the deceased be one jot the better for all this? Will it restore one hundred pence of the said one hundred thousand pounds into their pockets, or bring back any of the wine, books, moveables, or new plate?-I wot not!-Wise and witty was Martin's answer to his friend Candide.-" True, God has punished the villanous captain who stole your sheep, but it must needs have been the Devil himself who drowned the innocent passengers on board his vessel!" Again. If this person who got himself writ down for one hundred thousand pounds, then purchased the wine, books, and other moveables, for nothing, and the new plate for an old song, should afterwards keep his brother's widow from her own, and do his best to starve her; then, besides this, refuse-out of Morality-pure Morality-no plea in the world so convenient as Morality it suits every man's purpose!-to help one of his nieces over a stile.-If this should be, then stones may cry until they cry themselves hoarse, and sticks rattle like a dead man's bones upon a gibbet: but will the said person be the worse for it?-Will folk be less ready to shake him by the hand, or to eat his dinners? The question is curious. It is a strange world we live in! Tragedy and Comedy trudge on hand in hand, keeping so close to one another that a spectator must needs laugh with one eye whilst weeping with the other. "But"—as our old friend Pope somewhere says-" to be grave.' This subject might be continued to a great length-farther far than I will venture going at present. Yet this much let me say.— It is absolutely impossible for any reasoning mind to determine whether things in this world are or are not for the best. In our researches on the subject we invariaby argue as the humour of the moment dictates.-We suffer some misfortune, and, in our anger, curse Arimanes. We enjoy some blessing, and instantly proclaim Orozomanes as the Deity who guides the universe. Thus, it is feeling, temper, passion, and not reason, which helps us to our opinions. Yet, in truth, is our way so dark, intricate, and inscrutable, that even-supposing Passion to be absent-Reason herself can conduct us to no certain goal. We are at the disposal of some superior Power, who orders the creation as he deems fit; and both we and events are in his hands, just as cards are in those of a juggler, who shuffles and shuffles them for no apparent purpose, as it seems to the lookers on, but that of confounding the ones with the others; yet, who, nevertheless, has a different design, and, by this very seeming confusion, enables himself to deal them * See the Rational Recreation, by Hutton, where it is said. "That the very act of shuffling the cards, which seems to preclude collusion, favours it."-Of course only when shuffled in a certain way. out, so as to suit his own purpose, and excite the surprise of all unacquainted with the trick. Now-applying the simile-it still remains to enquire if this deal is or is not for our eventual good. It is, I think, idle to attempt deciding the question in the affirmative, by pointing at the apparent rewards which are bestowed, and the punishments inflicted upon others; as no one but the person himself can tell whether he merited reward or deserved punishment: nor even, whether he is rewarded or is punished; as, though crimes and virtues can never change their nature, but must always remain crimes or virtues, yet, the actors may be more or less criminal or virtuous according to the circumstances under which they acted; and are, also, themselves, the sole judges of the degree of pain they feel from punishment, or of pleasure from reward. To answer the question, it is necessary that a man-but I must here be understood to speak of those men only who have naturally good feelings-should consider with himself, firstlywhether, when he has behaved ill, the pain |