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MORAL EVIL POSITIVE.

least likely of the two; and certainly, as far as probability of reasoning goes, I see nothing to support the Acharya's theory of life. It seems born out of a confusion between the spiritual passing of thought into action, and the materialistic transformation of the Maker's mind into the thing He makes. Or, even if that be not so, our daily experience of life being given for a while and then resumed in such ways as it is, seems to justify us in considering it as properly a gift rather than an emanation, and distinct, as Madhwa conceived it to be, from the ineffable being of the life-giving God.

"Now suppose for a moment, that evil, either considered. positively, or as I have represented it to be, the mere negation of good, were far greater than it is in reality, still you would admit that sinful creatures could not feel justified in murmuring at it with the confidence of perfect beings. For if our need of forgiveness is a reason, as you Hindús appear to admit, for our forgiving injuries from men, much more it may suggest to us patience under any evils which our Maker might impose. I say this would be a fair view of the case, even on the theory that human sinfulness were only an accidental accompaniment of pain, and not at all a cause of it. Whereas, we have next to observe, that all the possibilities of the idea of good being imperfectly realised, which I have enumerated above as forming the appearances of evil, must be infinitely multiplied, when the scheme of the world is seen to contain not only things but persons; that is, not only objects and physical contingencies, but thinkers and doers of right or wrong, such as technically are termed moral agents. For if all these are to act, in any real sense of action, they must enjoy some degree of freedom, or apparent choice. With the freedom then of every living man, there is imported into our practical problem a new element, and that one of some degree of uncertainty; for whoever makes a choice must be supposed capable of choosing otherwise, though the motives on one side or the other may preponderate. Any man then choosing wrong, may be expected, on the supposi

EVIL IN FREE AGENTS.

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tion of the world having a moral Governor, to bring on himself pain, or some other kind of evil; and perhaps here is the first footstep we have found of anything which can properly be termed positive evil, and this is of such a kind, as not to be any argument against a good and wise God, but rather to follow from His being such. But again, whoever chooses evil for himself, is likely to persuade others to follow him; for every one desires companionship; and thus the freedom of every moral agent, which originally admitted of being somewhat biassed by motives, may receive a decided impulse for evil instead of for good, by having its motives tampered with, or that knowledge of truth, which is the strongest of all motives to the reasonable will, debased. Suppose then, we took all these things, and wrought them into a sum in a kind of moral arithmetic. If we took all those necessary conditions, and all the drawbacks, chances, and contingencies, which might impede the realisation of any idea, even in dealing with malleable matter, and multiplied them tenfold by a like idea of uncertainty as applied to the motives and choices of free agents, and again multiplied whatever possibility of error, crime, and pain might thus arise, by all the corrupting contacts with each other of men who do wrong, we should have rather a formidable amount of either evil, or tendency to evil, which yet might form no part of the design legible in the constitution of the world, and therefore no impeachment of the wisdom of a Creator, still less a reason why we worms of an hour should shut our eyes to His existence.

"To sum up briefly this part, allow something for the probability of our judgments being mistaken; allow very much for what I will venture to call by a word of my own, circumstantiation, which I conceive to be what many old speculators have intended when they spoke of the perversity of matter; and again, allow still more for the possible self-perversion of all free agents, and subsequently for their mutual corruption; then I think the result of our speculation will approximate somewhat

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to the Christian doctrine of original sin, or at any rate justify us in ascribing wisdom to our Creator, notwithstanding certain marks of crookedness in the creature. One remark only, which was half implied, I wish to draw out a little, and I have done. Just as fear may be an instrument not only in curbing, but in educating the world, thus many other pains, may be not only punishments of our moral disobedience, (which would be a sufficient account of them,) but they may be even benevolent remedies for the same mischief, considered as a disease. You fancy the indiscrete' or primary element straining itself into all possible forms. I, for my part, fancy the Mind of man straining itself under the influence of many sufferings which appear grievous to it, into far higher conceptions either of contrivance and ingenuity, or else of manly fortitude and patient meekness. Many men have become greater through suffering, and I believe also, some far happier, than if they had not so learnt either to do, or dare, or endure. Do not then let us be frightened by things, which after all, perhaps, are to real evil that which you suppose the spectacle of nature may be made by the soul, or what the A'charya would call Máyá, a mere passage of shadows, below which may lie a substance of blessedness upheld by wisdom. To me evil, considered as a positive element in the constitution of the world, appears to become more and more shadowy the more we examine it. That only is true evil, which comes of voluntary doers starting aside from duty, and so failing in that part of the plan which devolved upon them as fellow-workers with God. Perhaps even this may not be without remedy; for certainly in remorse and in forgiveness, even among men, we find instruments to both sides of moral health. But whether my account of evil be correct, or whether any one has anything better to advance, the utmost inference which can be drawn from its appearance is, that our view of the world's design, as a merciful one, may require to be less hopeful, and not, as you seem to argue, that there has been no design at all.

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Nothing, in short, which can be argued on this subject, ought to obscure the proofs of a Supreme and Wise Creator; I humbly trust, for myself, that nothing need shake our confidence in a righteous Governor and a merciful Father."

NOTE ON CHAPTER V.

The Yoga Aphorisms explain the Theistic section of the Sankhya, which is probably an accretion upon the older and more negative system. For Vigaya, see Turner's Mahawansa, pp. 52, 53. For Sánkhya sources of Buddhism, Lassen, B. II. p. 830, B. 1, and PP. 66-80, B. 2. For the legends and maxims, E. Burnouf; and as regards Ceylon, the Missionary Hardy. For Chinese comparisons, A. Rémusat's Mélanges. The Virgin-birth was ascribed to Sákya as early as St Jerome's time: but the age of the Bauddha legends generally is an unsettled, and a highly interesting question. Will not some scholar in India investigate it?

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ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN.

CHAPTER VI.

Farther Criticisms of Hindú Systems, particularly of the Vedántine-Design-Moral Government-Need of Hopefulness-Pantheism and Idolatry-Two Aspects of one Evil.

"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to Atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to Religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity."-Bacon.

"Our Morphology ought not to prejudice our Teleology."-Whewell.

"You have not forgotten I hope," said Wolff, as there was here a slight pause in Blancombe's speech, "your promise to explain, why the argument from design, which you still hold by, does not appear to me so satisfactory as you think it ought." "Perhaps," answered Blancombe, "this will be as convenient a time as any for me to do so. The first impression, I suppose you will allow with people in general, which we derive from the varieties of animal life, is, that they are designed so as to carry out some purpose, or that their structure is full of means applied to ends. The wings of birds, for example, seem intended for flying: just as the webbed feet of water-fowl and the fins of fishes are for swimming; our own hands, with our thumb, as you see, placed conveniently opposite the fingers, appear designed on purpose for us to have the power of grasping, and certainly if our thumb with its complicated arrangement of joint and muscle had been differently placed where our little finger is, we should have been comparatively helpless; and much more so, if the hand had ended, as on any principle of chance it might, like a serpent's tail; just so the claws of fowl in general are arranged with an eye to convenience of walking, or of clinging to their perch; while the solid hoof of the horse, and indeed his whole shape, points him out as fitted for the purposes upon which men actually employ him. Nor is it only the general varieties of

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