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Ego vero omni de re facetius puto poffe ab bomine non inurbano, quam de ipfis facetiis, dif

putari.

Cicero.

CHAP. I.

Introduction. The Subject proposed. Opinions of Philofophers, I. Ariftotle-II. Hobbes III. Hutchefon - IV. Akenfide.

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creation

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F Man, it is obferved by Homer, that he is the most wretched, and, by Addison and others, that he is the merrieft animal in the whole and both opinions are plaufible, S f

VOL. II.

and

and both perhaps may be true. If, from the acuteness and delicacy of his perceptive powers, from his remembrance of the past, and his anticipation of what is to come, from his reftlefs and creative fancy, and from the various fenfibilities of his moral nature, Man be expofed to many evils, both imaginary and real, from which the brutes are exempted, he does alfo from the fame fources derive innumerable delights, that are far beyond the reach of every other animal. That our pre-eminence in pleasure should thus, in fome degree, be counterbalanced by our pre-eminence in pain, was neceffary to exercife our virtue, and wean our hearts from fublunary enjoyment; and that beings thus befet with a multitude of forrows fhould be fupplied from fo many quarters with the means of comfort, is fuitable to that benign economy which characterises every operation of nature.

When a brute has gratified thofe few appetites that minifter to the fupport of the fpecies, and of the individual, he may be faid to have attained the fummit of happinefs, above which a thoufand years of profperity could not raife him a fingle ftep. But for Man, her favourite child, Nature has made a more liberal provifion. He, if he have only guarded against the neceffities of life, and indulged the animal part of his conftitution, has experienced but little of that felicity whereof he is capable. To fay nothing

nothing at present of his moral and religious gratifications, is he not furnished with faculties that fit him for receiving pleasure from almost every part of the vifible univerfe? Even to those perfons, whofe powers of obfervation are confined within a narrow circle, the exercise of the neceffary arts may open inexhaustible fources of amufement, to alleviate the cares of a folitary and laborious life. Men of more enlarged understanding, and more cultivated taste, are still more plentifully fupplied with the means of innocent delight. For fuch, either from acquired habit, or from innate propensity, is the foul of man, that there is hardly any thing in art or nature from which we may not derive gratification. What is great,. overpowers with pleafing aftonishment; what is little, may charm by its nicety of proportion, or beauty of colour; what is diverfified, pleases by fupplying a series of novelties; what is uniform, by leading us to reflect on the fkill difplayed in the arrangement of its parts; order and connection gratify our fenfe of propriety; and certain forms of irregularity and unfuitableness raife within us that agreeable emotion whereof LAUGHTER is the outward fign.

RISIBILITY, confidered as one of the characters that diftinguish man from the inferior animals, and as an inftrument of harmless, and even of profitable recreation, to every age, condition, and capacity, of S f 2

human

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