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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the
+Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
+
+Author: E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+Release Date: August, 2005  [EBook #8654]
+Posting Date: July 28, 2009
+Last Updated: November 2, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALLEN STAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Deley
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+
+and,
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+by Lord Brougham
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHER’S PREFACE
+
+RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his _American Dictionary of the English
+Language_, is derived from “Religo, to bind anew;” and, in this _History
+of a False Religion_, our author has shown how easily its votaries were
+insnared, deceived, and mentally bound in a labyrinth of falsehood and
+error, by a designing knave, who established a new religion and a new
+order of priesthood by imposing on their ignorance and credulity.
+
+The history of the origin of one supernatural religion will, with slight
+alterations, serve to describe them all. Their claim to credence rests
+on the exhibition of so-called miracles--that is, on a violation of
+the laws of nature,--for, if religions were founded on the demonstrated
+truths of science, there would be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no
+miracles, no skepticism, no false religion. We would have only verified
+truths and demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief. But this
+simple foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude. They
+demand signs, portents, mysteries, wonders and miracles for their faith
+and the supply of prophets, knaves and impostors has always been found
+ample to satisfy this abnormal demand of credulity.
+
+Designing men, even at the present day, find little difficulty in
+establishing new systems of faith and belief. Joseph Smith, who invented
+the Mormon religion, had more followers and influence in this country
+at his death, than the Carpenter’s Son obtained centuries ago from the
+unlettered inhabitants of Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success
+among educated people in this so-called enlightened age, while Jesus
+taught in an age of semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
+asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles and even fishes
+understood human language, were often gifted with human speech, and
+sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary human intelligence.
+
+They taught that the serpent, using the language of sophistry, beguiled
+Eve in Eden, who in turn corrupted Adam, her first and only husband. At
+the baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan, the voice of a dove
+resounded in the heavens, saying, quite audibly and distinctly, “Thou
+art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Balaam disputed with
+his patient beast of burden, on their celebrated journey in the land
+of Moab, and the ass proved wiser in the argument that ensued than the
+inspired prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes left his
+native element and taught philosophy to the Chaldeans on dry land.
+One reputable woman, of Jewish lineage,--the mother of an interesting
+family--was changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom while another female of
+great notoriety known to fame as the celebrated “Witch of Endor,” raised
+Samuel from his grave in Ramah. Saint Peter found a shilling in the
+mouth of a fish which he caught in the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky
+incident enabled the impecunious apostle to pay the “tribute money” in
+Capernaum. Another famous Israelite,--so it is said,--broke the record
+of balloon ascensions in Judea, and ascended into heaven in a chariot of
+fire.
+
+In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies occur, and miracles
+become common, The untaught masses are easily deceived, and their
+unreasoning credulity enables them to proudly boast of their
+unquestioning faith. When their feelings are excited and their passions
+aroused by professional evangelists, they even profess to believe that
+which they cannot comprehend; and, in the satirical language of Bulwer,
+they endeavor to “_assist their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+superstition_.”
+
+Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing religions which afflict
+mankind, it is self-evident that but one religion may justly claim the
+inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident to all reasoning minds
+that that religion is the religion of kindness and humanity,--the
+religion of noble thoughts and generous deeds,--which removes the
+enmities of race and creed, and “makes the whole world kin!” And which,
+in its observance is blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and
+love.
+
+This religion needs no creed, no profession of faith, no incense, no
+prayer, no penance, no sacrifice. Its whole duty consists in comforting
+the afflicted, assisting the unfortunate, protecting the helpless, and
+in honestly fulfilling our duties to our fellow mortals. In the language
+of Confucius, the ancient Chinese Sage, it is simply “to behave to
+others as I would require others to behave to me.”
+
+“Do unto others as you would they should do unto you,” says Jesus; and
+in the Epistle of James, we are told that “Pure Religion and undefiled
+before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in
+their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
+
+The same benign and generous conduct is commended in even grander and
+nobler language in the lectures to the French Masonic Lodges: “Love one
+another, teach one another, help one another. That is all our doctrine,
+all our science, all our law.”
+
+It is believed that the learned dissertation of Lord Brougham on
+the _Origin of Evil_, which is annexed to this work, will need no
+commendation to ensure its careful perusal.
+
+                         PETER ECKLER.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+
+
+
+AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.
+
+And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night
+on which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+universal galaxy, its peculiar charge.
+
+The destinies of men and empires are then portioned forth for the coming
+year, and, unconsciously to ourselves, our fates become minioned to the
+stars.
+
+A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark gates of time
+open to receive the ghost of the dead year, and the young and radiant
+stranger rushes forth from the clouded chasms of eternity. On that
+night, it is said that there are given to the spirits that we see not, a
+privilege and a power; the dead are troubled in their forgotten graves,
+and men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are contending for their
+doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of the
+spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars;
+and they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten,
+each resembling each.
+
+Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty, and on
+their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful stillness which
+feels not, sympathizes not with the dooms over which it broods.
+
+War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall, they
+ordain, they, compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The fell and
+thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps--the parricide
+with his stealthy step, and horrent brow, and lifted knife; the unwifed
+mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders, and
+casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not--the
+splash, and does not tremble!
+
+These the starred kings behold--to these they lead the unconscious step;
+but the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither
+their unwrinkled youth.
+
+Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven
+belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a
+burning ball, and the right arm dropped over the knee as they bent down
+from their thrones; they moved not a limb or feature, save the finger
+of the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly, pointing, and
+regulated the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks the career of
+time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+crowned brethren; a star, smaller than the rest, and less luminous. The
+countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+the others; but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty
+brow.
+
+And this star said to himself--“Behold, I am created less glorious
+than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish
+are the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead
+through a dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore?--Is it mine own
+fault, or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams
+less glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
+bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral
+Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory, _I_ because of
+my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride, and _I_ from its
+discontent.”
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars; his vast
+limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume
+the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled
+his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in
+the serenity of his splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth:
+
+“He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet.”
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and
+the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused
+the course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then
+forth in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice:
+and, fulfilling the heraldry of god, to each star he appointed the duty
+and the charge, and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the majesty of the
+word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in succession,
+received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth,
+the purple and diadems of kings--the archangel addressed the lesser star
+as he sat apart from his fellows.
+
+“Behold,” said the archangel, “the rude tribes of the north, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the
+forests, that darken the mountain-tops with verdure! these be thy
+charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O star of the
+sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy
+brethren; for the peasant is not less to thy master and mine than the
+monarch; nor doth the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than
+on the herd. The passions and the heart are the dominion of the stars--a
+mighty realm; nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd,
+than the jewelled robes of eastern kings.”
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+archangel:
+
+“Lo!” he said, “ages have past, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe
+into him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its
+steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one
+whom I may lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold,
+O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my
+solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath
+gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the
+tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are swayed, and tracked
+the steps that lead weakness into power; and fain would I be the ruler
+of one who, if abased, shall aspire to rule.”
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of
+the archangel.
+
+“Proud and melancholy star,” said the herald, “thy wish would war with
+the courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far above, sways
+and harmonizes all; the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?”
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+answered:
+
+“Yea!--grant me but one trial!”
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the heaven was
+rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with
+his hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with the consciousness of
+unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star:
+
+“The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon
+yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
+thy influence, may be moulded to thy will.”
+
+The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+far-distant worlds.
+
+But the soul of the discontented star exulted within itself; and it
+said, “I will call forth a king from the valley of the herdsmen, that
+shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render the charge
+of the contemned star more glorious than the minions of its favored
+brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect--thus shall I prove my claim
+hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!”
+
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
+pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence, which
+our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of
+our race in the northern hemisphere was then what _we_, in our imperfect
+lore, have conceived to be among the earliest.
+
+
+
+
+FORMING A NEW RELIGION.
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a
+lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just
+passed from the earth--the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars
+looked down upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the
+roar of the waves and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile: the white sheep lay scattered on the
+plain, and slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the
+foes of a neighboring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed
+with himself:
+
+“The king sits upon his throne, and is honored by a warrior race, and
+the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman
+is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is sung at night round the
+pine-fires, by the lips of the bard; and the bard himself hath honor in
+the hail. But I, who belong not to the race of kings, and whose limbs
+can bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle
+and the haunts of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and
+whose voice is harsh in the song; _I_ have neither honor nor command,
+and men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the
+consciousness of a great power that should rule my species--not obey.
+My eye pierces the secret hearts of men--I see their thoughts ere their
+lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the vices
+which I never shared. I laugh at the madness of the warrior--I mock
+within my soul at the tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in
+man’s nature more fitted to command--more worthy of renoun, than the
+sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+birth!”
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking
+at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from
+its place, and speeding through the silent air, till it as suddenly
+paused right over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile
+of stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect, the spirit of a great design.
+A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth, snatched the star from his
+sight; but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme
+that had come to him as he gazed.
+
+When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+the herd, and he went away, but not to his father’s home. Musingly he
+plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline
+of his daring hope.
+
+While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and, fearful
+lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that way, he ascended
+one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure the winter
+had not denied the shelter he sought, and, concealed by its branches, he
+looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
+
+And IT came--it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing tread upon
+the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed the soil--it came--it
+came, the monster that the world now holds no more--the mighty mammoth
+of the North!
+
+Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes
+glittered through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart, showed the
+grinders with which it snapped asunder the young oaks of the forest;
+and the vast tusks, which, curved downward to the midst of its massive
+limbs, glistened white and ghastly, curdling the blood of one destined
+hereafter to be the dreaded ruler of the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman,
+even amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused--it glared upon
+him--its jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder,
+seemed to the son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after
+glaring on him for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its
+terrible way, crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last
+sound of its heavy tread died away upon his ear.
+
+Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned the courage to descend the
+tree, he saw the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood,
+and presently a small hand of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was
+perfectly hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+one say to another:
+
+“The night covers all things; why attack them by day?”
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered “Right. To-night, when
+they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo! they will be drenched
+in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.”
+
+“But where, O chief,” said a third of the band, “shall our men hide
+during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the
+Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm
+their race against our coming.”
+
+“I have prepared for that,” answered the chief. “Is not the dark
+cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the
+victims?”
+
+Then the men laughed, and shouting, they went their way adown the
+forest.
+
+When they were gone Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt.
+
+As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the
+streets (if streets they might be called), their half garments parting
+from their huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spears
+in their hands, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him,
+cried:
+
+“Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple! what dost thou among men?”
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly.
+
+At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail pile, in which some old
+men dwelt by themselves, and counseled the king when times of danger,
+or when the failure of the season, the famine, or the drought, perplexed
+the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering
+birds. Filled (by the voices of the elements, and the variety of
+mysteries which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal
+reasoning of all experience, which assigns causes to effects) with
+the notion of superior powers, _they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition_. But as yet they knew no craft
+and practiced no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the
+mysteries, which had created their faith, to seek to belie them. They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream had never dared to cross
+men thus worn and grey with age, of governing their warriors and their
+kings by the wisdom of deceit.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+approached the place at the upper end of the hall, where the old men sat
+in conclave.
+
+“How, base-torn and craven limbed!” cried the eldest, who had been
+a noted warrior in his day; “darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the
+secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the
+penalty is death?”
+
+“Slay me, if thou wilt,” answered Morven “but hear!
+
+“As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending,
+as my father bade me, the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce
+tribe of Alrich should descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd,
+a storm came darkly on; and when the storm, had ceased and I looked
+above on the sky, I saw a star descend from its height towards me, and
+a voice from the star said, ‘Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the
+council of the wise men, and say unto them, that they take thee as one
+of their number, or that sudden will be the destruction of them, and
+theirs.’
+
+“But I had courage to answer the voice, and I said, ‘Mock not the poor
+son of the herdsman. Behold they will kill me if I utter so rash a word,
+for I am poor and valueless in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and
+the great in deeds and the grey of hair alone sit in the council of the
+wise men.’
+
+“Then the voice said, ‘Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+thou comest from the powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men that this very night if they
+refuse to receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.’
+
+“Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over the star; and I communed
+with myself, and came, O dread fathers, mournfully unto you. For I
+feared that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye
+would, sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be
+given even to the sons of kings.”
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other and marvelled much, nor
+knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman’s son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, “Surely there must be truth in the
+son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of
+heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we
+might doubt the truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of
+night?”
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and
+said:
+
+“Shall we take the herdsman’s son as our equal? No!”
+
+The name of the man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were
+pleasing to the elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out:
+
+“Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not to be an equal with
+yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace, and serve you as
+the son of Osslah may serve;” and he bowed his head humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others,
+“But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless
+the star hath informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we
+take thee into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we
+refuse.”
+
+Morven answered meekly: “Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only
+what he has uttered.”
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves and
+they differed much; but though fierce men and bold at the war cry of a
+human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved
+to take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and towed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stats of the twilight
+began to glimmer, when Morven started front his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has
+pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the
+stony earth.
+
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+“Heard ye not the voice of the star?” he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, “Nay, we heard no sound.”
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+“To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councilors of the
+king! summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant. For lo! the star
+hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beast of the forests.”
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+amazed.
+
+“Why, pause ye?” he cried. “Do the gods of the night lie? On my head
+rest the peril if I deceive ye.”
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first,
+still looking up at the star; and he motioned them to be silent, and
+move with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the cave of Oderlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men
+on either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the hushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a
+noise in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man;
+and the spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of
+the cave. Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was
+heard the warcry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow
+bed, the river of armed men.
+
+And the Sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe were sorely
+perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and the darkness
+of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain,
+and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them, and great was the joy thereof.
+
+So they went back in triumph to the city, and they carded the brave son
+of Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted forth, “Glory to the servant
+of the star.”
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he
+loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honored them not, for he had
+blinded the wisest of their elders.
+
+He shunned their feasts and merriment and lived apart and solitary.
+
+The austerity of his life increased the mysterious homage which his
+commune with the stars had won him, and the boldest of the warriors
+bowed his head to the favorite of the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large
+bird of prey rise from the earth, and give chase to a hawk that had not
+yet gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary
+Morven had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the
+mighty stream, the habits of the things which nature had submitted to
+man; and looking now on the birds, he said to himself, “Thus is it ever;
+by cunning or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind.”
+
+While thus, moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and
+it fell terrified and panting at his feet.
+
+Morven took the hawk in his hands, and the vulture shrieked above him,
+wheeling nearer and nearer to its protected prey; but Morven scared away
+the vulture, and placing the hawk in his bosom, he carried it home, and
+tended it carefully, and fed it from his hand until it had regained its
+strength; and the hawk knew him, and followed him as a dog.
+
+And Morven said, smiling to himself, “Behold, _the credulous fools
+around me put faith in the flight and motions of birds_. I will teach
+this poor hawk to minister to my ends.”
+
+So he tamed the bird, and tutored it according to its nature; but he
+concealed it carefully from others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+The king of the country was old and like to die, and the eyes of the
+tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier
+to reign.
+
+And Morven passing through the forest one evening, saw the younger of
+the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and
+looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+“Wherefore musest thou, O swift footed Siror?” said the son of Osslah;
+“and wherefore art thou sad?”
+
+“Thou canst not assist me,” answered the prince, sternly; “take thy
+way.”
+
+“Nay,” answered Morven, “thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+favorite of the stars?”
+
+“Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk
+not to inc of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in.”
+
+“Hush,” said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; “hush! lest the
+heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me
+to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts
+of thine.”
+
+“Speak out, base-born!”
+
+“Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+name of thy brother; yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head,
+and to sit at the high seat of thy father?”
+
+The young man turned pale.
+
+“Thou hast truth in thy lips,” said he, with a faltering voice.
+
+“Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth.”
+
+“Can the stars grant my wish?”
+
+“They can; let us meet to-morrow.” Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+“I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power
+that I prayed for, but on one condition.”
+
+“Name it.”
+
+“That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars thou must build up a
+heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the
+pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt then reign.”
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at
+the pale front of Morven.
+
+“Tremble,” said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. “Hark to the gods,
+who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+against their servant!”
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+the early summer was about to break.
+
+The spear dropped from the prince’s hand; he sat down and cast his eyes
+on the ground.
+
+“Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?” said Morven.
+
+“I will!” cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+“This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither,
+alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones.”
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock
+that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their
+way.
+
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sum when the last song of the
+birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day.
+
+
+“Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?” said Gina; “and why doth
+thy lip quiver? and why dost thou tarn away thy face?”
+
+“Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt us forth, my sister?”
+
+“And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?”
+
+“Let others answer; _I_ piled them not.”
+
+“Thou tremblest brother: we will return.”
+
+“Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft pierced to-day; a bird
+of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee.”
+
+“We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?”
+
+“Here!” cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the
+heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages;
+and from the oak, or from the heavens; broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice:
+
+“Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou
+shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou
+shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite of the stars. Arise, and go
+thy way!”
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+
+“Alas!” said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+prince; “alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts
+of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy fatter’s
+plumed crown, I yield me to their will.”
+
+“But,” said the prince, “not until I am king can I give thee my sister
+in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust,
+if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+Osslah.”
+
+“Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not: but, when thou
+art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can
+I dare to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the
+night!--Who shall gainsay their word?”
+
+“The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine,” answered the prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself,
+“the king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!” and he
+began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time.
+
+Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly, that night advanced, and
+he had lost his path among the thick woods, and knew not how to regain
+his home; so he lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day
+dawned.
+
+Then hunger came upon him and he searched among the bushes for such
+simple roots as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he
+was used to appease the cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of
+a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his
+eyes swim, and a deadly sickness come over him. For several hours he lay
+convulsed on the ground expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+recovered slowly, and after great anguish: but he went with feeble steps
+back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father’s herds, and seizing a lamb,
+forced some of the berries into its stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+secret to one of his father’s servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence alone, he said
+unto him, “How fares my lord?”
+
+The king sat on a couch, made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs and huge was his stature,
+and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none
+living could bend the bow he had bent in youth. Grey, gaunt and worn, as
+some mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth--a
+relic of the strength of old.
+
+And the king said, faintly, and with a ghastly laugh:
+
+“The men of my years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I
+been born a cripple like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in
+growing old.”
+
+The red flash passed over Morven’s brow; but he bent humbly--
+
+“O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could
+restore to thee the vigor which distinguished thee above the sons of
+men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?”
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said:
+
+“What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great
+wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the old young?”
+
+“Tempt them not by doubt,” said Morven, reverently. “All things are
+possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves
+thy servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, ‘Arise, and go
+unto the king; and tell him that the stars honor the tribe of Oestrich,
+and remember how the king bent his bow against the Sons of Alrich;
+wherefore, look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy
+dwelling--even beside the pine-tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of
+clay, and in the vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make
+the king thy master forget his age forever.’
+
+“Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went forth, and looked
+under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I have brought it
+hither to my lord, the king.”
+
+“Quick--slave--quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!”
+
+“Nay, listen, O king! farther said the star to me:
+
+“‘It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+will avail; wherefore, the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+
+“‘And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the
+hand of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and
+when men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+reveals their benefits shall surely die.’”
+
+“Fear not,” said the king, grasping the vessel; “none shall know: and,
+behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons--wrangling for my
+crown--verily, I shall be younger than they!”
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+stars, neither did he promise him reward: for the kings in those days
+had little thought--save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, “Shall I not attend my lord? for without me,
+perchance, the drug might fail of its effect.”
+
+“Aye,” said the king, “rest here.”
+
+“Nay,” replied Morven; “thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door
+of the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is
+midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the
+liquid with thy wine.”
+
+“So be it,” said the king. “Thou art wise though thy limbs are crooked
+and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man.”
+
+Then the king laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was
+danger in the mirth of the son of Osslah.
+
+
+The night had began to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, “Woe, woe! Awake ye sons of Oestrich--woe!”
+
+Then forth, wild--haggard--alarmed--spear in hand, rushed the giant sons
+of the rugged tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the
+city, shrieking, “Woe!” and it was Morven, the son of Osslah!
+
+And he said unto them, as they gathered round him, “Men and warriors,
+tremble as ye hear.
+
+“The star of the west hath spoken to me and thus saith the star:
+
+“‘Evil shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich--yea, ere the
+morning dawns; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake
+the inhabitants to woe!’
+
+“So I rose and did the bidding of the star.”
+
+And while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king’s house ran up
+to the crowd, crying loudly:
+
+“The king is dead!”
+
+So they went into the palace and found the king stark upon his couch,
+and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by the pangs of death,
+and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe--the foe of all living
+flesh!
+
+Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on Morven with a deeper
+awe than the boldest warrior would have called forth: and they bore him
+back to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing and clashing their
+arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon:
+
+“_Honor to Morven, the prophet!_”
+
+And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in those
+countries.
+
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king’s death, Siror sought Morven,
+and he said:
+
+“Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at sunset
+to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will surely
+choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not, therefore.”
+
+“Peace, boy!” said Morven, sternly; “nor dare to question the truth of
+the gods of night.”
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings.
+
+And the voice silenced the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+“Behold,” said Morven, taking up a chaplet of colored plumes, “wear
+this on thy head, and put on a brave face--for the people like a hopeful
+spirit--and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is
+to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars.
+
+“But, above all things, forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by
+the gods of night.”
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled
+in the place where the new king was to be elected.
+
+And the voices of the many favored Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror,
+for he had slain twelve foeman with his spear; and verily, in those
+days, that was a great virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out:
+
+“Way for Morven, the prophet, the prophet!”
+
+For the people held the son of Osslah in even greater respect than did
+the chiefs.
+
+Now, since he had become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air
+which the son of the herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit
+his stature was short, and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was
+grave and high.
+
+He only of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head
+was bare, and his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely
+was change or human passion seen in his calm aspect.
+
+He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor was his presence frequent in the
+streets.
+
+He laughed not, neither did he smile, save when alone in the forest--and
+then he laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor
+to the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a
+staff of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+silence.
+
+Then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:
+
+“Princes, wantons and bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+hunters of the forests, and snarers of the fishes of the streams! harken
+to Morven, the son of Osslah.
+
+“Ye know that I am lowly of race, and weak of limb; but did I not give
+into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye not slay them in the
+dead of night with a great slaughter?
+
+“Surely, ye must know that this of himself did not the herdsman’s son;
+surely he was but the agent of the bright gods that love the children of
+Oestrich.
+
+“Three nights since, when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice
+heard in the streets?
+
+“Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and verily the
+dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no more.
+
+“Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as the
+voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+
+“Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars?
+
+“Behold, last night, I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were
+hushed around, and not a breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that
+counsels the son of Osslah; and I said:
+
+“‘Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy beauty in the
+streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence; behold thy
+servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and many foes
+surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they should have
+a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the stars.
+
+“‘Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors
+of Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe,
+wherefore, I pray thee, give unto the people a token that they may
+choose that king whom the gods of the night prefer!’
+
+“Then a low voice sweeter than the music of the bard, stole along the
+silence.
+
+“‘Thy love for thy race is grateful to the stars of night: go then, son
+of Osslah, and seek the meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a
+king, and tell them not to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase
+and little known in war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense
+for all.
+
+“‘Say unto the people that as the wise men of the council shape their
+lessons by the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds stall a token
+be given unto them, and they shall choose their kings.
+
+“‘For,’ said, the star of right, ‘the birds are children of the winds,
+they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds
+that are the warships of the gods.
+
+“‘And their music is but broken melodies which they gleam from the harps
+above.
+
+“‘Are they not the messengers of the storm?
+
+“‘Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye
+not, by the wail of birds and their low circles over the earth, that the
+tempest is at hand?
+
+“‘Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air are the fit
+interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the world above.
+
+“‘Say then to the people and the chiefs, that they shall take, from
+among the doves that nest in the roof of the palace, a white dove, and
+they shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods of the night
+shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and they shall
+send a messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich
+a king worthy of themselves.’
+
+“With that the star spoke no more.”
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+“Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?”
+
+But the people and the warriors shouted:
+
+“Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle according as the
+bird flies--shall we not by the same token choose him by whom the battle
+should be led?”
+
+And the thing seemed natural to them, for it was after the custom of the
+tribe.
+
+Then they took one of the doves that built in the roof of the palace,
+and they bought it to the spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to
+the stars and muttering to himself, released the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees a little distance from the spot, and as the
+dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd,
+when, lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with
+a sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+Siror.
+
+“Behold,” cried Morven in a loud voice, “behold your king!”
+
+“Hail, all hail the king!” shouted the people. “All hail the chosen of
+the stars!”
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand, and the hawk left the prince, and
+alighted on Morven’s shoulder.
+
+“Bird of the gods!” said he, reverently, “hast thou not a secret message
+for my ear?” Then the hawk put its beak to Morven’s ear, and Morven
+bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested with Morven from that
+moment and would not be scared away.
+
+And Morven said:
+
+“The stars have sent me this bird, that, in the day-time, when I see
+them not, we may never be without a counsellor in distress.”
+
+So Siror was made king, and Maven the son of Osslah was constrained by
+the king’s will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honored Morven, the prophet, above all the elders of the tribe.
+
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, “Am I not already equal with
+the king? nay, is not the king my servant? did I not place him over the
+heads of his brothers? am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he
+is? shall I not push him from his seat?
+
+“It is a troublesome and stormy office to reign over the wild men of
+Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hail, and to lead die warriors to the
+fray.
+
+“Surely, if I feasted not, neither went out to war, they might say,
+‘This is no king, but the cripple Morven;’ and some of the race of Siror
+might slay me secretly.
+
+“But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+govern them, living as now at mine own ease?
+
+“_Verily, the stars shall give me a new palace, and many subjects_.”
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said “It were better to TRUST this man than to BLIND, for
+surely I want a helpmate and a friend.”
+
+So he said to the wise man as he sat alone watching the setting sun:
+
+“It seemeth to me, O Darvan! I that we ought to build a great pile in
+honor of the stars and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+palaces of the chiefs and the palaces of the king; for are not the stars
+our masters?
+
+“And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace, and we
+would serve the gods of night, and fatten their altars with the choicest
+of the herd, and the freshest of the fruits of the earth.”
+
+And Darvan said:
+
+“Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But will the people
+help to build the pile, for they are a war-like race and they love not
+toil?”
+
+And Morven answered:
+
+“_Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done. Fear not_.”
+
+“In truth thou art a wondrous man, thy words ever come to pass,” answered
+Darvan; “and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+stars.”
+
+“Assuredly if thou servest me thou shalt know,” answered the proud
+Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman
+should command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much.
+
+Now she loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not
+savage and fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his
+fame among the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and
+asked her why she wept.
+
+Then she told him that her brother, the king, had visited her and had
+spoken bitter words of Morven.
+
+“He taketh from me the affection of my people,” said Siror, “and
+blindeth them with lies. And since he hath made me king, what if he take
+my kingdom from me? Verily, a new tale of the stars might undo the old.”
+
+And the king had ordered her to keep watch on Morven’s secrecy, and to
+see whether truth was in him when he boasted of his commune with the
+Powers of Night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+all.
+
+And Morven resented the king’s ingratitude, and was troubled much, for
+a king is a powerful foe; but tie comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven’s house in which he kept the sacred hawk,
+and wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future
+need, and the door of the cave was always barred.
+
+And one day he was thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall, that
+he had never noted before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he
+looked he perceived the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a
+human face peering in through the chink.
+
+And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+
+
+Morven ran hastily from the cave, but the spy had disappeared among the
+trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down.
+
+Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned pale
+when he saw Morven.
+
+But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a feast, which, for
+the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the moon, in honor of
+the stars.
+
+And going out of Darvan’s chamber, he returned to his wife, and bade her
+hair, and go at the dawn of day to the king, her brother, and complain
+bitterly of Morven’s treatment, and pluck the black schemes from the
+breast of the king. “For surely,” said he, “Darvan hath lied to thy
+brother, and some evil awaits me that I would fain know.”
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said:
+
+“The herdsman’s son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; stall
+I not be avenged?”
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword.
+
+“Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have learned from one of the elders
+that which convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the
+base-born shall surely die.
+
+“Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest my brother and
+I will fall upon him and smite him to the death.”
+
+And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.
+
+“Fly now, O my beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my brethren, or
+surely the sword of Siror will end thy days.”
+
+Then the son of Osslab folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she
+had implored him to fly.
+
+“Fly!” he said at length. “Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven, the prophet,
+conquers by arms mightier than the sword.”
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+himself from the vengeance of the king.
+
+
+Now, while Morven was musing hopelessly, he heard a roar of waters;
+and behold the river, for it was now the end of autumn, had burst its
+bounds, and was rushing along the valley to the houses of the city.
+
+And now the men of the tribe, and the women, and the children, came
+running, and with shrieks to Morven’s house, crying:
+
+“Behold the river has burst upon us!--Save us, O ruler of the stars!”
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven and he resolved to risk his
+fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said:
+
+“Ye know not what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have
+brought it on yourselves.”
+
+And they cried: “How? O son of Osslah--we are ignorant of our crime.”
+
+And he answered:
+
+“Go down to the king’s palace and wait before it, and surely I will
+follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred this punishment
+from the gods.”
+
+Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a receding sea; and when it was
+gone from the place, Morven went alone to the house of Darvan, which was
+next his own: and Darvan was greatly terrified, for he was of a great
+age, and had no children, neither friends, and he feared that he could
+not of himself escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him, soothingly:
+
+“Lo, the people love me, and I will see that thou art saved for verily
+thou hast been friendly to me, and done me much service with the king.”
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+forth, and saw that they were quite alone; then he seized the old man by
+the throat, and ceased not his grip till he was quite dead.
+
+And leaving the body of the elder on the floor, Morven, stole from the
+house and shut the gate.
+
+And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when, hearing
+the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and afar off the shrieks of
+women, he lifted up his head, and said proudly:
+
+“No! in this hour terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save
+the power of my soul.”
+
+So, leaning on his pine staff, he strode down to the palace.
+
+And it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they
+might see each other’s faces in the universal fear.
+
+Red flashed the quivering flames on the dark robes and pale front of
+Morven; and he seemed mightier than the rest, because his face alone was
+calm amidst the tumult.
+
+And louder and hoarser came the roar of the waters; and swift rusted the
+shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice:
+
+“Where is the king; and wherefore is he absent from his people in the
+hour of dread?”
+
+Then the gate of the palace opened; and, behold Siror was sitting in the
+hall by the vast pine-fire and his brother by his side, and his chiefs
+around him: for they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the
+bidding of the herdsman’s son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the
+same rack whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:
+
+“Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you.
+
+“Learn then, that the stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an
+insult to their servants and delegates below.
+
+“Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye have surnamed
+the Prophet!
+
+“He harms not man or beast; he lives alone; and, far from the wild joys
+of the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and fear the Powers of Night!
+
+“So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger--so is he able to save
+ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your warriors bold;
+and thus do your cattle bring forth their young, and the earth its
+fruits.
+
+“What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear?
+
+“Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my life; and there
+are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against the bosom that
+is only filled with love for you.
+
+“Therefore have the stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the
+river--therefore doth this evil menace ye.
+
+“Neither will it pass away until they who dig the pit for the servant of
+the stars are buried in the same.”
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth:
+
+“Name them who conspired against thy life, O holy prophet! and surely
+they shall be torn limb from limb.”
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he
+said:
+
+“Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe
+the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves
+I swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down
+upon yourselves, and your children’s children, the anger of the throned
+stars, gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,” he cried,
+lifting up his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall
+where the king sat by the pine-fire--“yes, thou whom by my voice the
+stars chose above thy brother--yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy
+sword, and come hither--strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the
+Prophet of the Gods!”
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+silence.
+
+Morven resumed:
+
+“Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch, his brother, and
+Darvan, the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to
+devise new benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!”
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+spear quivered in his hand.
+
+“Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father’s herdsman! and for
+thy sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy
+power with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear
+thee: wherefore put him to death.”
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed:
+
+“Hear him, O dread ones of the night--hark how he blasphemeth.”
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried:
+
+“He blasphemeth--he blasphemeth against the prophet!”
+
+But the king and the chiefs who hated Morven, because of his power with
+the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their
+chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+
+And Siror cried:
+
+“Summon Darvan to us, for he bath watched the steps of Morven, and he
+shall lift the veil from my people’s eyes.”
+
+Then three of the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice:
+
+“Hark! thus saith the star who, now riding through yonder cloud breaks
+forth upon my eyes--‘For the lie that the elder hath uttered against my
+servant, the curse of the stars shall fall upon him.’ Seek, and as ye
+find him, so may ye find ever the foes of Morven and the gods.”
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms.
+
+And hark--far and fast came on the war-steeds of the wave--the people
+heard them marching to the land, and tossing their white manes in the
+roaring wind.
+
+“Lo, as ye listen,” said Morven, calmly, “the river sweeps on. Haste,
+for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king.”
+
+“Slave!” shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind.
+
+Then the people, wroth at the danger of their beloved seer, uttered a
+wild yell, and gathered round him with brandished swords, facing their
+chieftains and their king.
+
+But at that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the
+three warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and
+laid him at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly:
+
+“Thus found we the elder in the centre of his own hall.”
+
+And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the prediction of
+Morven was thus verified.
+
+“So perish the enemies of Morven and the Stars!” cried the son of
+Osslah. And the people echoed the cry.
+
+Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword above his
+head, he plunged into the crowd:
+
+“Thy blood, base-born, or mine.”
+
+“So be it!” answered Morven, quailing not. “People, smite the
+blasphemer. Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths. On, on, or ye perish!”
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+“Smite! smite!” cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+round the king.
+
+And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the cries of the
+dying, and the yell of the trampling people, mingled with the roar of
+the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of
+their own tribe. And the last cry of the victors was, “_Morven the
+prophet_--MORVEN THE KING!”
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley,
+led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women and their
+children, to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun.
+
+But Orna sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and
+her race had perished from the earth.
+
+And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the
+greater part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of
+the vale.
+
+Then Morven said to the people: “The star kings are avenged, and their
+wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the water have melted into the
+crevices of the soil.”
+
+And on the fourth day they returned to the city, and no man dared to
+name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling
+the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty
+temple in honor of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the
+tribe held most precious.
+
+And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of the tribe;
+and he took also ten from among the men who had served him best, and
+he ordained that they should serve the stars in the great temple: and
+Morven was their chief.
+
+And he put away the crown they pressed upon him, and he chose from among
+the elders a new king.
+
+And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the
+great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council,
+and proclaim war: but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to
+make merry in the banquet halls.
+
+And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first who, in the
+North, _sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards human flesh_,
+upon the altars.
+
+And he drew auguries from the entrails of the victim, and made schools
+for the science of the prophet; and Morven’s piety was the wonder of the
+tribe, in that he refused to be a king.
+
+And Morven, the high-priest, was _ten thousand times mightier than the
+king_.
+
+He taught the people to till the ground, and to sow the herb; and by
+his wisdom, and the valor that his prophecies instilled into men, he
+conquered all the neighboring tribes.
+
+And the sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire, and
+with them spread the name and the laws of Morven.
+
+And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them to build a
+temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the years of Morven.
+
+The sister of Siror bowed down her head and survived not long the
+slaughter of her race.
+
+And she left Morven childless.
+
+And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught, for her only in the world
+had his heart the power to love.
+
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:
+
+“Lo: I have conquered and travailed; and never before in the world did
+man conquer what I have conquered.
+
+“Verily, the empire of the iron thews and the giant limbs is no more;
+I have found a new power, that henceforth shall sway the lands;--_the
+empire of plotting brain and a commanding mind_.
+
+“But, behold, my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will grow
+neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age.
+
+“Desolate and lonely shall I pass away unto my grave.
+
+“O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like unto thee, and to thy
+love do I owe my glory and my life.
+
+“Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+heart--would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine.
+
+“Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that thy love was dearer to me
+than the fear of others.”
+
+And Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely to the cares of his
+calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was left
+soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love, _and
+he forbade love and marriage to the priest_.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose OTHER prophets; for the world had
+grown wiser even by Morven’s wisdom, and some did say unto themselves:
+
+“Behold Morven, the herdsman’s son, is a king of kings: this did the
+stars for their servant; shall we not, therefore, be also servants to
+the star?”
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+what the stars foretold them.
+
+And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more than other men, knew
+that the prophets lied; wherefore he went forth against them with the
+ministers of the temple, and he took them and burned them by a slow
+fire: for thus said Morven to the people:
+
+“_A true prophet hath honor, but I only am a true prophet!_”
+
+“To all false prophets there shall be surely death.”
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honor; and they carved his effigy on a
+mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made _Religion the
+stepping stone to Power_.
+
+Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The
+night was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and
+frequent hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.
+But ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and
+were again swallowed up in the graves of darkness.
+
+And far below his brethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat
+the discontented star that had watched over the hunters of the North.
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,
+voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming
+from the abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne
+of the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled
+on his throne when the form stood before him face to face. And the shape
+said: “Hail, brother!--all hail!”
+
+“I know thee not,” answered the star: “thou art not the archangel that
+visitests the kings of night.”
+
+And the shape laughed loud. “I am the fallen star of the morning.--I am
+Lucifer, thy brother. Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine?
+and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above
+and given it to me by _darkening the souls of men with the religion
+of fear?_ Wherefore come, brother, come;--thou hast a throne prepared
+beside my own in the fiery gloom. Come.--The heavens are no more for
+thee.” Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of
+Lucifer. For ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the
+soul of pride.
+
+And slowly they sank down to the gulf of gloom. It was the first night
+of the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby throne, and watched
+with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow dimmed the bright faces
+of the kings of night, for they mourned in silence and in fear for a
+fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound,
+and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel
+gave to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord; and to
+each star was his appointed charge.
+
+And when the heraldry seemed done, there came a laugh from the abyss of
+gloom, and half way from the gulf rose the lurid shape of Lucifer, the
+fiend.
+
+“Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd. Behold! one star is
+missing from the three thousand and ten.”
+
+“Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath been
+filled.”
+
+And lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all
+lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was so
+soft to look upon, that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon
+its splendor unabashed; but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its
+lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe,
+he plunged backwards into the gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God:
+
+“Behold! _on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of hope;
+and he that breathed into mankind the Religion of Fear hath a successor
+in him who shall teach earth the Religion of Love._”
+
+And evermore the Star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the Star of Love
+keeps vigil in heaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+By Lord Brougham
+
+
+
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
+
+The question which has more than, any other harassed metaphysical
+reasoners, but especially theologians, and upon which it is probable
+that no very satisfactory conclusion will ever be reached by the human
+faculties, is the Origin and Sufferance of Evil.
+
+Its existence being always assumed, philosophers have formed various
+theories for explaining it, but they have always drawn very different
+inferences from it.
+
+The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence of the Deity,
+because they held that the existence of Evil either proved him to be
+limited in power or of a malignant nature; either of which imperfections
+is inconsistent with the first notions of a divine being.
+
+In this kind of reasoning they have been followed both by the atheists
+and sceptics of later times.
+
+Bayle regarded the subject of evil as one of the great arsenals from
+whence his weapons were to be chiefly drawn. None of the articles in his
+famous Dictionary are more labored than those in which he treats of
+this subject. _Monichian_, and still more _Paulician_, almost assume the
+appearance of formal treatises upon the question; and both _Marchionite_
+and _Zoroaster_ treat of the same subject. All these articles are of
+considerable value; they contain the greater part of the learning upon
+the question; and they are distinguished by the acuteness of reasoning
+which was the other characteristic of their celebrated author.
+
+Those ancient philosophers who did not agree with Epicurus in arguing
+from the existence of evil against the existence of a providence that
+superintended and influenced the destinies of the world, were put to no
+little difficulty in accounting for the fact which they did not deny,
+and yet maintaining the power of a divine ruler. The doctrine of a
+double principle, or of two divine beings of opposite natures, one
+beneficent, the other mischievous, was the solution which one class of
+reasoners deemed satisfactory, and to which they held themselves driven
+by the phenomena of the universe.
+
+Others unable to deny, the existence of things which men denominate
+evil, both physical and moral, explain them in a different way. They
+maintained that physical evil only obtains the name from our imperfect
+and vicious or feeble dispositions; that to a wise man there is no such
+thing; that we may rise superior to all such groveling notions as make
+us dread or repine at any events which can befall the body; that pain,
+sickness, loss of fortune or of reputation, exile, death itself, are
+only accounted ills by a weak and pampered mind; that if we find the
+world tiresome, or woeful, or displeasing, we may at any moment quit
+it; and that therefore we have no right whatever to call any suffering
+connected with existence on earth an evil, because almost all sufferings
+can be borne by a patient and firm mind; since if the situation we are
+placed in becomes either intolerable, or upon the whole more painful
+than agreeable, it is our own fault that we remain in it.
+
+But these philosophers took a further view of the question which
+especially applied to moral evil. They considered that nothing could be
+more groundless than to suppose that if there were no evil there could
+be any good in the world; and they illustrated this position by asking
+how we could know anything of temperance, fortitude or justice, unless
+there were such things as excess, cowardice and injustice.
+
+These were the doctrines of the Stoics, from whose sublime and
+impracticable philosophy they seemed naturally enough to flow. Aulus
+Gellius relates that the last-mentioned argument was expounded by
+Chrysippus, in his work upon providence. The answer given by Plutarch
+seems quite sufficient: “As well might you say that Achilles could not
+have a fine head of hair unless Thersites had been bald; or that one
+man’s limbs could not be all sound if another had not the gout.”
+
+In truth, the Stoical doctrine proceeds upon the assumption that all
+virtue is only the negative of vice; and is as absurd, if indeed it
+be not the very same absurdity, as the doctrine which should deny the
+existence of affirmative or positive truths, resolving them all into the
+opposite of negative propositions. Indeed, if we even were to admit this
+as an abstract position, the actual existence of evil would still be
+unnecessary to the idea, and still more to the existence, of good. For
+the conception of evil, the bare idea of its possibility, would be quite
+sufficient, and there would be no occasion for a single example of it.
+
+The other doctrine, that of two opposite principles, was embraced by
+most of the other sects, as it should seem, at some period or other
+of their inquiries. Plato himself, in his later works, was clearly
+a supporter of the system; for he held that there were at least two
+principles, a good and an evil; to which he added a third, the moderator
+or mediator between them.
+
+Whether this doctrine was, like many others, imported into Greece from
+the East, or was the natural growth of the schools, we cannot ascertain.
+Certain it is that the Greeks themselves believed it to have been taught
+by Zoroaster in Asia, at least five centuries before the Trojan war; so
+that it had an existence there long before the name of philosophy was
+known in the western world.
+
+Zoroaster’s doctrine agreed in every respect with Plato’s; for besides
+Oomazes, the good, and Arimanius, the evil principle, he taught that
+there was a third, or mediatory one, called Mithras. That it never
+became any part of the popular belief in Greece or Italy is quite clear.
+All the polytheism of those countries recognized each of the gods
+as authors alike of good and evil. Nor did even the chief of the
+divinities, under whose power the rest were placed, offer any exception
+to the general rule; for Jupiter not only gave good from one urn and ill
+from another, but he was also, according to the barbarous mythology of
+classical antiquity, himself a model at once of human perfections and of
+human vices.
+
+After the light of the Christian religion had made some way toward
+supplanting the ancient polytheism, the doctrine of two principles was
+broached; first by Marcion, who lived in the time of Adrian and Antonius
+Pius, early in the second century; and next by Manes, a hundred years
+later. He was a Persian slave, who was brought into Greece, where he
+taught this doctrine, since known by his name, having learned it, as is
+said, from Scythianus, an Arabian. The Manichean doctrines, afterwards
+called also Paulician, from a great teacher of them in the seventh
+century, were like almost all the heresies in the primitive church, soon
+mixed up with gross impurities of sacred rites as well as extravagant
+absurdities of creed.
+
+The Manicheans were, probably as much on this account as from the spirit
+of religious intolerance, early the objects of severe persecution; and
+the Code of Justinian itself denounces capital punishment against any of
+the sect, if found within the Roman dominions.
+
+It must be confessed that the theory of two principles, when kept free
+from the absurdities and impurities which were introduced into the
+Manichean doctrine, is not unnaturally adopted by men who have no
+aid from the light of revelation,[1] and who are confounded by the
+appearance of a world where evil and good are mixed together, or seem to
+struggle with one another, sometimes the one prevailing, and sometimes
+the other; and accordingly, in all countries, in the most barbarous
+nations, as well as among the most refined, we find plain traces of
+reflecting men having been driven to this solution of the difficulty.
+
+It seems upon a superficial view to be very easily deducible from
+the phenomena; and as the idea of infinite power, with which it is
+manifestly inconsistent, does by no means so naturally present itself to
+the mind, as long as only a very great degree of power, a power which in
+comparison of all human force may be termed infinite, is the attribute
+with which the Deity is believed to be endued. Manichean hypothesis is
+by no means so easily refuted. That the power of the Deity was supposed
+to have limits even in the systems of the most enlightened heathens is
+unquestionable. They, generally speaking, believed in the eternity
+of matter, and conceived some of its qualities to be so essentially
+necessary to its existence that no divine agency could alter them.
+They ascribed to the Deity a plastic power, a power not of creating or
+annihilating, but only of moulding, disposing and moving matter. So over
+mind they generally give him the like power, considering it as a kind
+of emanation from his own greater mind or essence, and destined to be
+re-united with him hereafter. Nay, over all the gods, and of superior
+potency to any, they conceived fate to preside; an overruling and
+paramount necessity, of which they formed some dark conceptions, and to
+which the chief of all the gods was supposed to submit. It is, indeed,
+extremely difficult to state precisely what the philosophic theory of
+theology was in Greece and Rome, because the wide difference between the
+esoteric and exoteric doctrines, between the belief of the learned
+few and the popular superstition, makes it very difficult to avoid
+confounding the two, and lending to the former some of the grosser
+errors with which the latter abounded. Nevertheless, we may rely upon
+what has been just stated, as conveying, generally speaking, the opinion
+of philosophers, although some sects certainly had a still more scanty
+measure of belief.
+
+But we shall presently find that in the speculation of the much more
+enlightened moderns, Christians of course, errors of a like kind are
+to be traced. They constantly argue the great question of evil upon a
+latent assumption, that the power of the Deity is restricted by some
+powers or qualities inherent in matter; notions analogous to that of
+faith are occasionally perceptible; not stated or expanded indeed into
+propositions, but influencing the course of the reasoning; while the
+belief of infinite attributes is never kept steadily in view, except
+when it is called in as requisite to refute the Manichean doctrines.
+Some observers of the controversy have indeed not scrupled to affirm
+that those of whom we speak are really Manicheans without knowing it;
+and build their systems upon assumptions secretly borrowed from the
+disciples of Zoroaster, without ever stating those assumptions openly in
+the form of postulates or definition.
+
+The refutation of the Manichean hypothesis is extremely easy if we
+be permitted to assume that both the principles which it supposes are
+either of infinite power or of equal power. If they are of infinite
+power, the supposition of their co-existence involves a contradiction in
+terms; for the one being in opposition to the other, the power of each
+must be something taken from that of the other; consequently neither
+can be of infinite power. If, again, we only suppose both to be of equal
+power, and always acting against each other, there could be nothing
+whatever done, neither good or evil; the universe would be at a
+standstill; or rather no act of creation could ever have been performed,
+and no existence could be conceived beyond that of the two antagonistic
+principles.
+
+Archbishop Tillotson’s argument, properly speaking, amounts to this
+last proposition, and is applicable to equal and opposite principles,
+although he applies it to two beings, both infinitely powerful and
+counteracting one another. When he says they would tie up each other’s
+bands, he might apply this argument to such antagonistic principles if
+only equal, although not infinitely powerful. The hypothesis of their
+being both infinitely powerful needs no such refutation; it is a
+contradiction in terms. But it must be recollected that the advocates of
+the Manichean doctrine endeavor to guard themselves against the attack
+by contending, that the conflict between the two principles ends in a
+kind of compromise, so that neither has it all his own way; there is a
+mixture of evil admitted by the good principle, because else the whole
+would beat a standstill; while there is much good admitted by the evil
+principle, else nothing, either good or evil, would be done. Another
+answer is therefore required to this theory than what Tillotson and his
+followers have given.
+
+_First_, we must observe that this reasoning of the Manicheans proceeds
+upon the analogy of what we see in mortal contentions; where neither
+party having the power to defeat the other, each is content to yield
+a little to his adversary, and so, by mutual concession, both are
+successful to some extent, and both to some extent disappointed. But in
+a speculation concerning the nature of the Deity, there seems no place
+for such notions.
+
+_Secondly_, the equality of power is not an arbitrary assumption; it
+seems to follow from the existence of the two opposing principles. For
+if they are independent of one another as to existence, which they must
+needs be, else one would immediately destroy the other, so must they
+also, in each particular instance, be independent of each other, and
+also equal each to the other, else one would have the mastery, and
+the influence of the other could not be perceived. To say that in some
+things the good principle prevails and in others the evil, is really
+saying nothing more than that good exists here and evil there. It
+does not further the argument one step, nor give anything like an
+explanation. For it must always be borne in mind that the whole question
+respecting the Origin of Evil proceeds upon the assumption of a wise,
+benevolent and powerful Being having created the world. The difficulty,
+and the only difficulty, is, how to reconcile existing evil with such
+a Being’s attributes; and if the Manichean only explains this by saying
+the good Being did what is good, and another and evil Being did what is
+bad in the universe, he really tells us nothing more than the fact; he
+does not apply his explanation to the difficulty; and he supposes the
+existence of a second Deity gratuitously and to no kind of purpose.
+
+But, _thirdly_, in whatever light we view the hypothesis, it seems
+exposed to a similar objection, namely, of explaining nothing in its
+application, while it is wholly gratuitous in itself. It assumes, of
+course, that creation was the act of the good Being; and it also assumes
+that Being’s goodness to have been perfect, though his power is limited.
+Then as he must have known the existence of the evil principle and
+foreseen the certainty of misery being occasioned by his existence, why
+did he voluntarily create sentient beings, to put them, in some respects
+at least, under the evil one’s power, and thus be exposed to suffering?
+The good Being, according to this theory, is the remote cause of the
+evil which is endured, because but for his act of creation the evil
+Being could have had, no subjects whereon to work mischief; so that
+the hypothesis wholly fails in removing, by more than one step, the
+difficulty which it was invented to solve.
+
+_Fourthly_, there is no advantage gained to the argument by supposing
+two Beings, rather than one Being of a mixed nature. The facts lead
+to this supposition just as naturally as to the hypothesis of two
+principles. The existence of the evil Being is as much a detraction from
+the power of the good one, as if we only at once suppose the latter to
+be of limited power, and that he prefers making and supporting creatures
+who suffer much less than they enjoy, to making no creatures at all. The
+supposition that he made them as happy as he could, and that not being
+able to make them less miserable, he yet perceived that upon the whole
+their existence would occasion more happiness than if they never had
+any being at all, will just account for the phenomena as well as
+the Manichean theory, and will as little as that theory assume any
+malevolence in the power which created and preserved the universe. If,
+however, it be objected that this hypothesis leaves unexplained the
+fetters upon the good Being’s power, the answer is obvious; it leaves
+those fetters not at all less explained than the Manichean theory does;
+for that theory gives no explanation of the existence of a counteracting
+principle, and it assumes both an antagonistic power, to limit the
+Deity’s power, and a malevolent principle to set the antagonistic power
+in motion; whereas our supposition assumes no malevolence at all, but
+only a restraint upon the divine power.
+
+_Fifthly_, this leads us to another and most formidable objection.
+To conceive the eternal existence of one Being infinite in power,
+“self-created and creating all others,” is by no means impossible.
+Indeed, as everything must have had a cause, nothing we see being
+by possibility self-created, we naturally mount from particulars to
+generals, until finally we rise to the idea of a first cause, uncreated,
+and self-existing, and eternal. If the phenomena compels us to affix
+limits to his goodness, we find it impossible to conceive limits to
+the power of a creative, eternal, self-existing principle. But even
+supposing we could form the conception of such a Being having his power
+limited as well as his goodness, still we can conceive no second Being
+independent of him. This would necessarily lead to the supposition
+of some third Being, above and antecedent to both, and the creator of
+both--the real first cause--and then the whole question would be to
+solve over again,--Why these two antagonistic Beings were suffered to
+exist by the great Being of all?
+
+The Manichean doctrine, then, is exposed to every objection to which
+a theory can be obnoxious. It is gratuitous; it is inapplicable to the
+facts; it supposes more causes than are necessary; it fails to explain
+the phenomena, leaving the difficulties exactly where it found them.
+Nevertheless, such is the theory, how easily soever refuted when openly
+avowed and explicitly stated, which in various disguises appears to
+pervade the explanations, given of the facts by most of the other
+systems; nay, to form, secretly and unacknowledged, their principal
+ground-work. For it really makes very little difference in the matter
+whether we are to account for evil by holding that the Deity has created
+as much happiness as was consistent with “the nature of things,” and
+has taken every means of avoiding all evil except “where it necessarily
+existed” or at once give those limiting influences a separate and
+independent existence, and call them by a name of their own, which is
+the Manichean hypothesis.
+
+The most remarkable argument on this subject, and the most distinguished
+both for its clear and well ordered statement, and for the systematic
+shape which it assumes, is that of Archbishop King. It is the great
+text-book of those who study this subject; and like the famous legal
+work of Littleton, it has found an expounder yet abler and more learned
+than the author himself. Bishop Law’s commentary is full of information,
+of reasoning and of explication; nor can we easily find anything
+valuable upon the subject which is not contained in the volumes of
+that work. It will, however, only require a slight examination of the
+doctrines maintained by these learned and pious men, to satisfy us that
+they all along either assume the thing to be proved, or proceed
+upon suppositions quite inconsistent with the infinite power of the
+Deity--the only position which raises a question, and which makes the
+difficulty that requires to be solved.
+
+According to all the systems as well as this one, evil is of two
+kinds--physical and moral. To the former class belong all the sufferings
+to which sentient beings are exposed from the qualities and affections
+of matter independent of their own acts; the latter class consists of
+the sufferings of whatever kind which arise from their own conduct. This
+division of the subject, however, is liable to one serious objection;
+it comprehends under the second head a class of evils which ought more
+properly to be ranged under the first. Nor is this a mere question of
+classification: it affects the whole scope of the argument. The second
+of the above-mentioned classes comprehends both the physical evils which
+human agency causes, but which it would have no power to cause unless
+the qualities of matter were such as to produce pain, privation and
+death; and also the moral evil of guilt which may possibly exist
+independent of material agency, but which, whether independent or not
+upon that physical action, is quite separable from it, residing wholly
+in the mind. Thus a person who destroys the life of another produces
+physical evil by means of the constitution of matter, and moral evil
+is the source of his wicked action. The true arrangement then is this:
+Physical evil is that which depends on the constitution of matter,
+or only is so far connected with the constitution of mind as that the
+nature and existence of a sentient being must be assumed in order to its
+mischief being felt. And this physical evil is of two kinds; that which
+originates in human action, and that which is independent of human
+action, befalling us from the unalterable course of nature. Of the
+former class are the pains, privations and destruction inflicted by men
+one upon another; of the latter class are diseases, old age and death.
+Moral evil consists in the crimes, whether of commission or omission,
+which men are guilty of--including under the latter head those
+sufferings which we endure from ill-regulated minds through want of
+fortitude or self-control. It is clear that as far as the question
+of the origin of evil is concerned, the first of these two classes,
+physical evil, depends upon the properties of matter, and the last
+upon those of mind. The second as well as the first subdivision of the
+physical class depends upon matter; because, however ill-disposed the
+agent’s mind may be, he could inflict the mischief only in consequence
+of the constitution of matter. Therefore, the Being, who created matter
+enabled him to perpetrate the evil, even admitting that this Being did
+not, by creating the mind also give rise to the evil disposition; and
+admitting that, as far as regards this disposition it has the same
+origin with the evil of the second class, or moral evil, the acts of a
+rational agent.
+
+It is quite true that many reasoners refuse to allow any distinction
+between the evil produced by natural causes and the evils caused by
+rational agents, whether as regards their own guilt, or the mischief it
+caused to others. Those reasoners deny that the creation of man’s will
+and the endowing it with liberty explains anything; they hold that the
+creation of a mind whose will is to do evil, amounts to the same thing,
+and belongs to the same class, with the creation of matter whose nature
+is to give pain and misery. But this position, which involves
+the doctrine of necessity, must, at the very least, admit of one
+modification. Where no human agency whatever is interposed, and the
+calamity comes without any one being to blame for it, the mischief seems
+a step, and a large step, nearer the creative or the superintending
+cause, because it is, as far as men go, altogether inevitable. The main
+tendency of the argument, therefore, is confined to physical evil; and
+this has always been found the most difficult to account for, that is to
+reconcile with the government of a perfectly good and powerful Being.
+It would indeed be very easily explained, and the reconcilement would be
+readily made, if we were at liberty to suppose matter independent in
+its existence, and in certain qualities, of the divine control; but this
+would be to suppose the Deity’s power limited and imperfect, which is
+just one horn of the Epicurean dilemma, _“Aut vult et non potest;”_ and
+in assuming this, we do not so much beg the question as wholly give it
+up and admit we cannot solve the difficulty. Yet obvious as this is, we
+shall presently see that the reasoners who have undertaken the solution,
+and especially King and Law, under such phrases as “the nature of
+things,” and “the laws of the material universe,” have been constantly,
+through the whole argument, guilty of this _petitio principii_ (begging
+the question), or rather this abandonment of the whole question, and
+never more so than at the very moment when they complacently plumed
+themselves upon having overcome the difficulty.
+
+Having premised these observations for the purpose of clearing the
+ground and avoiding confusion in the argument, we may now consider that
+Archbishop King’s theory is in both its parts; for there are in truth
+two distinct explanations, the one resembling an argument _a priori_,
+the other an argument _a posteriori_. It is, however, not a little
+remarkable that Bishop Law, in the admirable abstract or analysis which
+he gives of the Archbishop’s treatise at the end of his preface, begins
+with the second branch, omitting all mention of the first, as if he
+considered it to be merely introductory matter; and yet his fourteenth
+note (t. cap. I s. 3.) shows that he was aware of its being an argument
+wholly independent of the rest of the reasonings; for he there says
+that the author had given one demonstration _a priori_, and that no
+difficulties raised by an examination of the phenomena, no objection _a
+posteriori_, ought to overrule it, unless these difficulties are equally
+certain and clear with the demonstration, and admit of no solution
+consistent with that demonstration.
+
+The necessity of a first cause being shown, and it being evident that
+therefore this cause is uncreated and self-existent, and independent of
+any other, the conclusion is next drawn that its power must be infinite.
+This is shown by the consideration that there is no other antecedent
+cause, and no other principle which was not created by the first cause,
+and consequently which was not of inferior power; therefore, there is
+nothing which can limit the power of the first cause; and there being no
+limiter or restrainer, there can be no limitation or restriction.
+
+Again, the infinity of the Deity’s power is attempted to be proved in
+another way.
+
+The number of possible things is infinite; but every possibility implies
+a power to do the possible thing; and as one possible thing implies
+a power to do it, an infinite number of possible things implies an
+infinite power. Or as Descartes and his followers put it, we can have no
+idea of anything that has not either an actual or a possible existence;
+but we have an idea of a Being of infinite perfection; therefore,
+he must actually exist; for otherwise there would be one perfection
+wanting, and so he would not be infinite, which he either is actually
+or possibly. It is needless to remark that this whole argument, whatever
+may be said of the former one, is a pure fallacy, and a _petitio
+principii_ throughout. The Cartesian form of it is the most glaringly
+fallacious, and indeed exposes itself; for by that reasoning we might
+prove the existence of a fiery dragon or any other phantom of the brain.
+But even King’s more concealed sophism is equally absurd. What ground
+is there for saying that the number of possible things is infinite? He
+adds, “at least in power,” which means either nothing or only that we
+have the power of conceiving an infinite number of possibilities. But
+because we can conceive or fancy an infinity of possibilities, does it
+follow that there actually exists this infinity? The whole argument is
+unworthy of a moment’s consideration. The other is more plausible,
+that restriction implies a restraining power. But even this is not
+satisfactory when closely examined. For although the first cause must
+be self-existent and of eternal duration, we only are driven by the
+necessity of supposing a cause whereon all the argument rests, to
+suppose one capable of causing all that actually exists; and, therefore,
+to extend this inference and suppose that the cause is of infinite power
+seems gratuitous. Nor is it necessary to suppose another power limiting
+its efficacy, if we do not find it necessary to suppose its own
+constitution and essence such as we term infinitely powerful. However,
+after noticing this manifest defect in the fundamental part of the
+argument, that which infers infinite power, let us for the present
+assume the position to be proved either by these or by any other
+reasons, and see if the structure raised upon it is such as can stand
+the test of examination.
+
+Thus, then, an infinitely powerful Being exists, and he was the creator
+of the universe; but to incline him towards the creation there could be
+no possible motive of happiness to himself, and he must, says King, have
+either sought his own happiness or that of the universe which he made.
+Therefore his own ideas must have been the communication of happiness to
+the creature. He could only desire to exercise his attributes without,
+or eternally to himself, which before creating other beings he could not
+do. But this could only gratify his nature, which wants nothing, being
+perfect in itself, by communicating his goodness and providing for the
+happiness of other sentient beings created by him for this purpose.
+Therefore, says King, “it manifestly follows that the world is as
+well as it could be made by infinite power and goodness; for since the
+exercise of the divine power and the communication of his goodness are
+the ends, for which the world is formed, there is no doubt but God
+has attained these ends.” And again, “If then anything inconvenient or
+incommodious be now, or was from the beginning in it, that certainly
+could not be hindered or removed even by infinite power, wisdom and
+goodness.”
+
+Now certainly no one can deny, that if God be infinitely powerful and
+also infinitely good, it must follow that whatever looks like evil,
+either is not really evil, or that it is such as infinite power could
+not avoid. This is implied in the very terms of the hypothesis. It may
+also be admitted that if the Deity’s only object in his dispensation be
+the happiness of his creatures, the same conclusion follows even without
+assuming his nature to be infinitely good; for we admit what, for the
+purpose of the argument, is the same thing, namely, that there entered
+no evil into his design in creating or maintaining the universe. But
+all this really assumes the very thing to be proved. King gets over the
+difficulty and reaches his conclusion by saying, “The Deity could
+have only one of two objects--his own happiness or that of his
+creatures.”--The skeptic makes answer, “He might have another object,
+namely, the misery of his creatures;” and then the whole question is,
+whether or not he had this other object; or, which is the same thing,
+whether or not his nature is perfectly good. It must never be forgotten
+that unless evil exists there is nothing to dispute about--the question
+falls. The whole difficulty arises from the admission that evil exists,
+or what we call evil, exists. From this we inquire whether or not the
+author of it can be perfectly benevolent? or if he be, with what view he
+has created it? This assumes him to be infinitely powerful, or at
+least powerful enough to have prevented the evil; but indeed we are now
+arguing with the Archbishop on the supposition that he has proved the
+Deity to be of infinite power. The skeptic rests upon his dilemma, and
+either alternative, limited power or limited goodness, satisfies him.
+
+It is quite plain, therefore, that King has assumed the thing to be
+proved in his first argument, or argument _a priori_. For he proceeds
+upon the postulates that the Deity is infinitely good, and that he only
+had human happiness in view when he made the world. Either supposition
+would have served his purpose; and making either would have been taking
+for granted the whole matter in dispute. But he has assumed both; and
+it must be added, he has made his assumption of both as if he was only
+laying down a single position. This part of the work is certainly more
+slovenly than the rest. It is the third section of the first chapter.
+
+It is certainly not from any reluctance to admit the existence of evil
+that the learned author and his able commentator have been led into this
+inconclusive course of reasoning. We shall nowhere find more striking
+expositions of the state of things in this respect, nor more gloomy
+descriptions of our condition, than in their celebrated work. “Whence
+so many, inaccuracies,” says the Archbishop, “in the work of a most good
+and powerful God? Whence that perpetual war between the very elements,
+between animals, between men? Whence errors, miseries and vices, the
+constant companions of human life from its infancy? Whence good to evil
+men, evil to the good? If we behold anything irregular in the work
+of men, if any machine serves not the end it was made for, if we find
+something in it repugnant to itself or others, we attribute that to
+the ignorance, impatience or malice of the workman. But since these
+qualities have no place in God, how come they to have place in anything?
+Or why does God suffer his works to be deformed by them?”--Chap. ii. s.
+3. Bishop Law, in his admirable preface, still more cogently puts the
+case: “When I inquire how I got into the world, and came to be what
+I am, I am told that an absolutely perfect being produced me out of
+nothing, and placed me here on purpose to communicate some part of his
+happiness to me, and to make me in some manner like himself. This end is
+not obtained--the direct contrary appears--I find myself surrounded with
+nothing but perplexity, want and misery--by whose fault I know not--how
+to better myself I cannot tell. What notions of good and goodness can
+this afford me? What ideas of religion? What hopes of a future state?
+For if God’s aim in producing me be entirely unknown, if it be either
+his glory (as some will have it), which my present state is far from
+advancing, nor mine own good, which the same is equally inconsistent
+with, how know I what I have to do here, or indeed in what manner I must
+endeavor to please him? Or why should I endeavor it at all? For if I
+must be miserable in this world, what security have I that I shall not
+be so in another too (if there be one), since if it were the will of
+my Almighty Creator, I might (for aught I see) have been happy in
+both.”--Pref. viii. The question thus is stated. The difficulty is
+raised in its full and formidable magnitude by both these learned and
+able men; that they have signally failed to lay it by the argument _a
+priori_ is plain. Indeed, it seems wholly impossible ever to answer by
+an argument _a priori_ any objection whatever which arises altogether
+out of the facts made known to us by experience alone, and which are
+therefore in the nature of contingent truths, resting upon contingent
+evidence, while all demonstrations _a priori_ must necessarily proceed
+upon mathematical truths. Let us now see if their labors have been more
+successful in applying to the solution of the difficulty the reasoning
+_a posteriori._
+
+Archbishop King divides evil into three kinds--imperfection, natural
+evil and moral evil--including under the last head all the physical
+evils that arise from human actions, as well as the evils which consists
+in the guilt of those actions.
+
+The existence of imperfection is stated to be necessary, because
+everything which is created and not self-existent must be imperfect;
+consequently every work of the Deity, in other words, everything but
+the Deity himself, must have imperfection in its nature. Nor is the
+existence of some beings which are imperfect any interference with
+the attributes of others. Nor the existence of beings with many
+imperfections any interference with others having pre-eminence. The
+goodness of the Deity therefore is not impugned by the existence of
+various orders of created beings more or less approaching to perfection.
+His creating none at all would have left the universe less admirable and
+containing less happiness than it now does. Therefore, the act of mere
+benevolence which called those various orders into existence is not
+impeached in respect of goodness any more than of power by the variety
+of the attributes possessed by the different beings created.
+
+He now proceeds to grapple with the real difficulty of the question. And
+it is truly astonishing to find this acute metaphysician begin with an
+assumption which entirely begs that question. As imperfection, says he,
+arises from created beings having been made out of nothing, so natural
+evils arise “from all natural things having a relation to matter, and
+on this account being necessarily subject to natural evil.” As long as
+matter is subject to motion, it must be the subject of generation and
+corruption. “These and all other natural evils,” says the author, “are
+so necessarily connected with the material origin of things that they
+cannot be separated from it, and thus the structure of the world either
+ought not to have been formed at all, or these evils must have been
+tolerated without any imputation on the divine power and goodness.”
+ Again, he says, “corruption could not be avoided without violence done
+to the laws of motion and the nature of matter.” Again, “All manner
+of inconveniences could not be avoided because of the imperfection of
+matter and the nature of motion. That state of things were therefore
+preferable which was attained with the fewest and the least
+inconveniences.” Then follows a kind of menace, “And who but a very
+rash, indiscreet person will affirm that God has not made choice of
+this?”--when every one must perceive that the bare propounding of the
+question concerning evil calls upon us to exercise this temerity and
+commit this indiscretion.--Chap. iv. s. I, div. 7. He then goes into
+more detail as to particular cases of natural evil; but all are handled
+in the same way. Thus death is explained by saying that the bodies of
+animals are a kind of vessels which contain fluids in motion, and being
+broken, the fluids are spilt and the motions cease; “because by the
+native imperfection of matter it is capable of dissolution, and the
+spilling and stagnation must necessarily follow, and with it animal life
+must cease.”--Chap. iv. s. 3. Disease is dealt with in like manner. “It
+could not be avoided unless animals had been made of a quite different
+frame and constitution.”--Chap. iv. s. 7. The whole reasoning is summed
+up in the concluding section of this part, where the author somewhat
+triumphantly says, “The difficult question then, whence comes evil? is
+not unanswerable. For it arises from the very nature and
+constitution of created beings, and could not be avoided without a
+contradiction.”--Chap. iv. s. 9. To this the commentary of Bishop Law
+adds (Note 4i), “that natural evil has been shown to be, in every case,
+unavoidable, without introducing into the system a greater evil.”
+
+It is certain that many persons, led away by the authority of a great
+name, have been accustomed to regard this work as a text-book, and have
+appealed to Archbishop King and his learned commentator as having solved
+the question. So many men have referred to the _Principia_ as showing
+the motions of the heavenly bodies, who never read, or indeed could
+read, a page of that immortal work. But no man ever did open it who
+could read it and find himself disappointed in any one particular;
+the whole demonstration is perfect; not a link is wanting; nothing is
+assumed. How different the case here! We open the work of the prelate
+and find it from the first to last a chain of gratuitous assumptions,
+and, of the main point, nothing whatever is either proved or explained.
+Evil arises, he says, from the nature of matter. Who doubts it? But is
+not the whole question why matter was created with such properties as
+of necessity to produce evil? It was impossible, says he, to avoid it
+consistently with the laws of motion and matter. Unquestionably; but
+the whole dispute is upon those laws. If indeed the laws of nature, the
+existing constitution of the material world, were assumed as necessary,
+and as binding upon the Deity, how is it possible that any question ever
+could have been raised? The Deity having the power to make those laws,
+to endow matter with that constitution, and having also the power to
+make different laws and to give matter another constitution, the whole
+question is, how his choosing to create the present existing order of
+things--the laws and the constitution which we find to prevail--can be
+reconciled with perfect goodness. The whole argument of the Archbishop
+assumes that matter and its laws are independent of the Deity; and the
+only conclusion to which the inquiry leads us is that the Creator has
+made a world with as little of evil in it as the nature of things,--that
+is, as the laws of nature and matter--allowed him; which is nonsense,
+if those laws were made by him, and leaves the question where it was, or
+rather solves it by giving up the omnipotence of the Creator, if these
+laws were binding upon him.
+
+It must be added, however, that Dr. King and Dr. Law are not singular in
+pursuing this most inconclusive course of reasoning.
+
+Thus Dr. J. Clarke, in his treatise on natural evil, quoted by Bishop
+Law (Note 32), shows how mischiefs arise from the laws of matter; and
+says this could not be avoided “without altering those primary laws,
+i. e., making it something else than what it is, or changing it into
+another form; the result of which would only be to render it liable to
+evils of another kind against which the same objections would equally
+lie.” So Dr. J. Burnett, in his discourses on evil, at the Boyle Lecture
+(vol. ii. P. 201), conceives that he explains death by saying that the
+materials of which the body is composed “cannot last beyond seventy
+years, or thereabouts, and it was originally intended that we should die
+at that age.” Pain, too, he imagines is accounted for by observing that
+we are endowed with feelings, and that if we could not feel pain,
+so neither could we pleasure (p. 202). Again, he says that there are
+certain qualities which “in the nature of things matter is incapable of”
+ (p. 207). And as if he really felt the pressure of this difficulty, he
+at length comes to this conclusion, that life is a free gift, which we
+had no right to exact, and which the Deity lay under no necessity to
+grant, and therefore we must take it with the conditions annexed (p.
+210); which is undeniably true, but is excluding the discussion and
+not answering the question proposed. Nor must it be forgotten that
+some reasoners deal strangely with the facts. Thus Derham, in his
+_Physico-Theology_, explaining the use of poison in snakes, first
+desires us to bear in mind that many venomous ones are of use
+medicinally in stubborn diseases, which is not true, and if it were,
+would prove nothing, unless the venom, not the flesh, were proved to be
+medicinal; and then says, they are “scourges upon ungrateful and sinful
+men;” adding the truly astounding absurdity, “that the nations which
+know not God are the most annoyed with noxious reptiles and other
+pernicious creatures.” (Book ix. c. I); which if it were true would
+raise a double difficulty, by showing that one people was scourged
+because another had neglected to preach the gospel among them. Dr. J.
+Burnett, too, accounts for animals being suffered to be killed as food
+for man, by affirming that they thereby gain all the care which man is
+thus led to bestow upon them, and so are, on the whole, the better for
+being eaten. (Boyle Lecture, II. 207). But the most singular error has
+perhaps been fallen into by Dr. Sherlock, and the most, unhappy--which
+yet Bishop Law has cited as a sufficient answer to the objection
+respecting death: “It is a great instrument of government, and makes men
+afraid of committing such villanies as the laws of their country have
+made capital.” (Note 34). So that the greatest error in the criminal
+legislation of all countries forms part of the divine providence, and
+man has at length discovered, by the light of reason, the folly and
+the wickedness of using an instrument expressly created by divine
+Omniscience to be abused!
+
+The remaining portion of King’s work, filling the second volume of
+Bishop Law’s edition, is devoted to the explanation of Moral Evil; and
+here the gratuitous assumption of the “nature of things,” and the “laws
+of nature,” more or less pervade the whole as in the former parts of the
+Inquiry.
+
+The fundamental position of the whole is, that man having been endowed
+with free will, his happiness consists in making due elections, or in
+the right exercise of that free will. Five causes are then given of
+undue elections, in which of course his misery consists as far as that
+depends on himself; these causes are error, negligence, over-indulgence
+of free choice, obstinacy or bad habit, and the importunity of natural
+appetites; which last, it must in passing be remarked, belongs to the
+head of physical evil, and cannot be assumed in this discussion without
+begging the question. The great difficulty is then stated and grappled
+with, namely, how to reconcile these undue elections with divine
+goodness. The objector states that free will might exist without the
+power of making undue elections, he being suffered to range, as it were,
+only among lawful objects of choice. But the answer to this seems sound,
+that such a will would only be free in name; it would be free to choose
+among certain things, but would not be free-will. The objector again
+urges, that either the choice is free and may fall upon evil objects,
+against the goodness of God, or it is so restrained as only to fall on
+good objects. Against freedom of the will King’s solution is, that
+more evil would result from preventing these undue elections than from
+suffering them, and so the Deity has only done the best he could in the
+circumstances; a solution obviously liable to the same objection as that
+respecting Natural Evil. There are three ways, says the Archbishop, in
+which undue elections might have been prevented; not creating a free
+agent--constant interference with his free-will--removing him to another
+state where he would not be tempted to go astray in his choice. A fourth
+mode may, however, be suggested--creating a free-agent without any
+inclination to evil, or any temptation from external objects. When
+our author disposes of the second method, by stating that it assumes a
+constant miracle, as great in the moral as altering the course of the
+planets hourly would be in the material universe, nothing can be more
+sound or more satisfactory. But when he argues that our whole happiness
+consists in a consciousness of freedom of election, and that we should
+never know happiness were we restrained in any particular, it seems
+wholly inconceivable how he should have omitted to consider the
+prodigious comfort of a state in which we should be guaranteed against
+any error or impropriety of choice; a state in which we should both
+be unable to go astray and always feel conscious of that security. He,
+however, begs the question most manifestly in dealing with the two other
+methods stated, by which undue elections might have been precluded. “You
+would have freedom,” says he, “without any inclination to sin; but
+it may justly be doubted if this is possible _in the present state of
+things_,” (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 2); and again, in answering the question
+why God did not remove us into another state where no temptation could
+seduce us, he says: “It is plain that _in the present state of things_
+it is impossible for men to live without natural evils or the danger of
+sinning.” (_Ib_.) Now the whole question arises upon the constitution of
+the present state of things. If that is allowed to be inevitable, or is
+taken as a datum in the discussion, there ceases to be any question at
+all.
+
+The doctrine of a chain of being is enlarged upon, and with much
+felicity of illustration. But it only wraps up the difficulty in other
+words, without solving it. For then the question becomes this--Why did
+the Deity create such a chain as could not be filled up without misery?
+It is, indeed, merely restating the fact of evil existing; for whether
+we say there is suffering among sentient beings--or the universe
+consists of beings more or less happy, more or less miserable--or there
+exists a chain of beings varying in perfection and in felicity--it is
+manifestly all one proposition. The remark of Bayle upon this view of
+the subject is really not at all unsound, and is eminently ingenious:
+“Would you defend a king who should confine all his subjects of a
+certain age in dungeons, upon the ground that if he did not, many of the
+cells he had built must remain empty?” The answer of Bishop Law to this
+remark is by no means satisfactory. He says it assumes that more misery
+than happiness exists. Now, in this view of the question, the balance is
+quite immaterial. The existence of any evil at all raises the question
+as much as the preponderance of evil over good, because the question
+conceives a perfectly good Being, and asks how such a Being can have
+permitted any evil at all. Upon this part of the subject both King
+and Law have fallen into an error which recent discoveries place in a
+singularly clear light. They say that the argument they are dealing with
+would lead to leaving the earth to the brutes without human inhabitants.
+But the recent discoveries in Fossil Osteology have proved that the
+earth, for ages before the last 5,000 or 6,000 years, was left to the
+lower animals; nay, that in a still earlier period of its existence no
+animal life at all was maintained upon its surface. So that, in fact,
+the foundation is removed of the _reductio ad absurdum_ attempted by the
+learned prelates.
+
+A singular argument is used towards the latter end of the inquiry.
+When the Deity, it is said, resolved to create other beings, He must of
+necessity tolerate imperfect natures in his handiwork, just as he must
+the equality of a circle’s radii when he drew a circle. Who does not
+perceive the difference? The meaning of the word circle is that the
+radii are all equal; this equality is a necessary truth. But it is not
+shown that men could not exist without the imperfections they labor
+under. Yet this is the argument suggested by these authors while
+complaining (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 7, div. 7), that Lactantius had not
+sufficiently answered the Epicurean dilemma; it is the substitute
+propounded to supply that father’s deficiency.--“When, therefore,” says
+the Archbishop, “matter, motion and free-will are constituted, the Deity
+must necessarily permit corruption of things and the abuse of
+liberty, or something worse, for these cannot be separated without a
+contradiction, and God is no more important, because he cannot separate
+equality of radii from a circle.”--Chap. v. s. 5, subs. 7. If he could
+not have created evil, he would not have been omnipotent; if he would
+not, he must let his power lie idle; and rejecting evil have
+rejected all the good. “Thus,” exclaims the author with triumph and
+self-complacency, “then vanishes this Herculean argument which induced
+the Epicureans to discard the good Deity, and the Manicheans to
+substitute an evil one.” (_Ib._ subs. 7, _sub. fine._) Nor is the
+explanation rendered more satisfactory, or indeed more intelligible,
+by the concluding passage of all, in which we are told that “from a
+conflict of two properties, namely, omnipotence and goodness, evils
+necessarily arise. These attributes amicably conspire together, and yet
+restrain and limit each other.” It might have been expected from hence
+that no evil at all should be found to exist. “There is a kind of
+struggle and opposition between them, whereof the evils in nature bear
+the shadow and resemblance. Here, then, and no where else, mar we find
+the primary and most certain rise and origin of evils.”
+
+Such is this celebrated work; and it may safely be affirmed that a more
+complete failure to overcome a great and admitted difficulty--a more
+unsatisfactory solution of an important question--is not to be found in
+the whole history of metaphysical science.
+
+Among the authors who have treated of this subject, a high place is
+justly given to Archdeacon Bulguy, whose work on _Divine Benevolence_ is
+always referred to by Dr. Paley with great commendation. But certain it
+is that this learned and pious writer either had never formed to himself
+a very precise notion of the real question under discussion, namely, the
+compatibility of the appearances which we see and which we consider as
+evil, with a Being infinitely powerful as well as good; or he had in his
+mind some opinions respecting the divine nature, opinions of a limitary
+kind, which he does not state distinctly, although he constantly suffers
+them to influence his seasonings. Hence, whenever he comes close to the
+real difficulty he appears to beg the question. A very few instances
+of what really pervades the whole work will suffice to show how
+unsatisfactory its general scope is, although it contains, like
+the treatise of Dr. King and Dr. Law’s Commentary, many valuable
+observations on the details of the subject.
+
+And first we may perceive that what he terms a _“previous remark,”_ and
+desires the reader “to carry along through the whole proof of divine
+benevolence,” really contains a statement that _the difficulty is to be
+evaded and not met._ “An intention of producing good,” says he, “will be
+sufficiently apparent in any particular instance if the thing considered
+can neither be changed nor taken away without loss or harm, _all other
+things continuing the same._ Should you suppose _various_ things in the
+system changed _at once_, you can neither judge of the possibility
+nor the consequences of the changes, having no degree of experience to
+direct you.” Now assuredly this postulate makes the whole question as
+easy a one as ever metaphysician or naturalist had to solve. For it is
+no longer--Why did a powerful and benevolent Being create a world in
+which there is evil--but only--The world being given, how far are its
+different arrangements consistent with one another? According to this,
+the earthquake at Lisbon, Voltaire’s favorite instance, destroyed
+thousands of persons, because it is in the nature of things that
+subterraneous vapors should explode, and that when houses fall on human
+beings they should be killed. Then if Dr. Balguy goes to his other
+argument, on which he often dwells, that if this nature were altered,
+we cannot possibly tell whether worse might not ensue; this, too, is
+assuming a limited power in the Deity, contrary to the hypothesis.
+It may most justly be said, that if there be any one supposition
+necessarily excluded from the whole argument, it is the fundamental
+supposition of the “previous remark,” namely, “all other things
+continuing the same.”
+
+But see how this assumption pervades and paralyzes the whole argument,
+rendering it utterly inconclusive. The author is to answer an objection
+derived from the constitution of our appetites for food, and his reply
+is, that “we cannot tell how far it was _possible_ for the stomachs and
+palates of animals to be differently formed, unless by some remedy worse
+than the disease.” Again, upon the question of pain: “How do we know
+that it was _possible_ for the uneasy sensation to be confined to
+particular cases?” So we meet the same fallacy under another form,
+as evil being the result of “general principles.” But no one has ever
+pushed this so far as Dr. Balguy, for he says, “that in a government so
+conducted, many events are likely to happen contrary to the intention
+of its author.” He now calls in the aid of chance, or accident.--“It is
+probable,” he says, “that God should be good, for evil is more likely
+to be _accidental_ than appears from experience in the conduct of men.”
+ Indeed, his fundamental position of the Deity’s benevolence is rested
+upon this foundation, that “pleasures only were intended, and that
+the pains are accidental consequences, although the means of producing
+pleasures.” The same recourse to accident is repeatedly had. Thus, “the
+events to which we are exposed in this imperfect state appear to be the
+_accidental_, not natural, effects of our frame and condition.” Now can
+any one thing be more manifest than that the very first notion of a wise
+and powerful Being excludes all such assumptions as things happening
+contrary to His intention; and that when we use the word chance or
+accident, which only means our human ignorance of causes, we at once
+give up the whole question, as if we said, “It is a subject about
+which we know nothing.” So again as to power. “A good design is more
+_difficult_ to be executed, and therefore more likely to be executed
+_imperfectly_, than an evil one, that is, with a mixture of effects
+foreign to the design and opposite to it.” This at once assumes the
+Deity to be powerless. But a general statement is afterwards made more
+distinctly to the same effect. “Most sure it is that he can do all
+things possible. But are we in any degree competent judges of the bounds
+of possibility?” So again under another form nature is introduced as
+something different from its author, and offering limits to his
+power. “It is plainly not the method of nature to obtain her ends
+instantaneously.” Passing over such propositions as that “_useless_ evil
+is a thing never seen,” (when the whole question is why the same ends
+were not attained without evil), and a variety of other subordinate
+assumptions contrary to the hypothesis, we may rest with this general
+statement, which almost every page of Dr. Balguy’s book bears out, that
+the question which he has set himself to solve is anything rather than
+the real one touching the Origin of Evil; and that this attempt at
+a solution is as ineffectual as any of those which we have been
+considering.
+
+Is, then, the question wholly incapable of solution, which all these
+learned and ingenious men have so entirely failed in solving? Must
+the difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and only be approached to
+discover that it is insuperable? _Must the subject, of all others the
+most interesting for us to know well, be to us always as a sealed book,
+of which we can never know anything?_ From the nature of the thing--from
+the question relating to the operation of a power which, to our limited
+faculties, must ever be incomprehensible--there seems too much reason
+for believing that nothing precise or satisfactory ever will be attained
+by human reason regarding this great argument; and that the bounds
+which limit our views will only be passed when we have quitted the
+encumbrances of our mortal state, and are permitted to survey those
+regions beyond the sphere of our present circumscribed existence. The
+other branch of Natural Theology, that which investigates the evidences
+of Intelligence and Design, and leads us to a clear apprehension of the
+Deity’s power and wisdom, is as satisfactorily cultivated as any other
+department of science, rests upon the same species of proof, and affords
+results as precise as they are sublime. This branch will never be
+distinctly known, and will always so disappoint the inquirer as to
+render the lights of Revelation peculiarly acceptable, although
+even those lights leave much of it still involved in darkness--still
+mysterious and obscure.[2]
+
+Yet let us endeavor to suggest some possible explication, while we admit
+that nothing certain, nothing entirely satisfactory can be reached. The
+failure of the great writers whose works we have been contemplating may
+well teach us humility, make us distrust ourselves, and moderate within
+us any sanguine hopes of success. But they should not make us wholly
+despair of at least showing in what direction the solution of the
+difficulty is to be sought, and whereabouts it will probably be found
+situated, when our feeble reason shall be strengthened and expanded.
+For one cause of their discomfiture certainly has been their aiming too
+high, attempting a complete solution of a problem which only admitted of
+approximation, and discussion of limits.
+
+It is admitted on all hands that the demonstration is complete which
+shows the existence of intelligence and design in the universe. The
+structure of the eye and ear in exact confirmity to the laws of optics
+and acoustics, shows as clearly as any experiment can show anything,
+that the source, cause or origin is common both to the properties of
+light and the formation of the lenses and retina in the eye--both to the
+properties of sound and the tympanum, malleus, incus and stapes of the
+ear. No doubt whatever can exist upon the subject, any more than, if
+we saw a particular order issued to a body of men to perform certain
+uncommon evolutions, and afterwards saw the same body performing those
+same evolutions, we could doubt their having received the order. A
+designing and intelligent and skillful author of these admirably adapted
+works is equally a clear inference from the same facts. We can no more
+doubt it than we can question, when we see a mill grinding corn into
+flour, that the machinery was made by some one who designed by means of
+it to prepare the materials of bread. The same conclusions are drawn
+in a vast variety of other instances, both with respect to the parts
+of human and other bodies, and with respect to most of the other
+arrangements of nature. Similar conclusions are also drawn from our
+consciousness, and the knowledge which it gives us of the structure of
+the mind.[3] Thus we find that attention quickens memory and enables us
+to recollect; and that habit renders all exertions and all acquisitions
+easy, beside having the effect of alleviating pain.
+
+But when we carry our survey into other parts, whether of the natural
+or moral system, we cannot discover any design at all. We frequently
+perceive structures the use of which we know nothing about; parts of the
+animal frame that apparently have no functions to perform--nay, that
+are the source of pain without yielding any perceptible advantage;
+arrangements and movements of bodies which are of one particular kind,
+and yet we are quite at a loss to discern any reason why they might not
+have been of many other descriptions; operations of nature that seem to
+serve no purpose whatever; and other operations and other arrangements,
+chosen equally without any beneficial view, and yet which often give
+rise to much apparent confusion and mischief. Now, the question is,
+_first_, whether in any one of these cases of arrangement and structures
+with no visible object at all, we can for a moment suppose that there
+really is no object answered, or only conceive that we have been
+unable to discover it? _Secondly_, whether in the cases where mischief
+sometimes is perceived, and no other purpose appears to be effected,
+we do not almost as uniformly lay the blame on our own ignorance, and
+conclude, not that the arrangement was made without any design, and that
+mischief arises without any contriver, but that if we knew the whole
+case we should find a design and contrivance, and also that the apparent
+mischief would sink into the general good? It is not necessary to admit,
+for our present purpose, this latter proposition, though it brings us
+closer to the matter in hand; it is sufficient for the present to admit,
+what no one doubts, that when a part of the body, for instance, is
+discovered, to which, like the spleen, we cannot assign any function in
+the animal system, we never think of concluding that it is made for no
+use, but only that we have as yet not been able to discover its use.
+
+Now, let us ask, why do we, without any hesitation whatever, or any
+exception whatever, always and immediately arrive at this
+conclusion respecting intelligence and design? Nothing could be more
+unphilosophical, nay, more groundless, than such a process of reasoning,
+if we had only been able to trace design in one or two instances; for
+instance, if we found only the eye to show proofs of contrivance, it
+would be wholly gratuitous, when we saw the ear, to assume that it was
+adapted to the nature of sound, and still more so, if, on examination,
+we perceived it bore no perceptible relation to the laws of acoustics.
+The proof of contrivance in one particular is nothing like a proof,
+nay, does not even furnish the least presumption of contrivance in other
+particulars; because, _a priori_, it is just as easy to suppose one part
+of nature to be designed for a purpose, and another part, nay, all other
+parts, to be formed at random and without any contrivance, as to suppose
+that the formation of the whole is governed by design. Why, then, do we,
+invariably and undoubtedly, adopt the course of reasoning which has been
+mentioned, and never for a moment suspect anything to be formed without
+some reason--some rational purpose? The only ground of this belief is,
+that we have been able distinctly to trace design in so vast a majority
+of cases as leaves us no power of doubting that, if our faculties had
+been sufficiently powerful, or our investigation sufficiently diligent,
+we should also have been able to trace it in those comparatively few
+instances respecting which we still are in the dark.
+
+It may be worth while to give a few instances of the ignorance in which
+we once were of design in some important arrangements of nature, and
+of the knowledge which we now possess to show the purpose of their
+formation. Before Sir Isaac Newton’s optical discoveries, we could not
+tell why the structure of the eye was so complex, and why several lenses
+and humors were required to form a picture of objects upon the retina.
+Indeed, until Dolland’s subsequent discovery of the achromatic effect of
+combining various glasses, and Mr. Blair’s still more recent experiments
+on the powers of different refracting media, we were not able distinctly
+to perceive the operation and use of the complicacy in the structure of
+the eye. We now well understand its nature, and are able to comprehend
+how that which had at one time, nay, for ages, seemed to be an
+unnecessary complexity; forms the most perfect of all optical
+instruments, and according to the most certain laws of refraction and of
+dispersion.
+
+So, too, we had observed for some centuries the forms of the orbits in
+which the heavenly bodies move, and we had found these to be ellipses
+with a very small eccentricity. But why this was the form of those
+orbits no one could even conjecture. If any person, the most deeply
+skilled in mathematical science, and the most internally convinced of
+the universal prevalence of design and contrivance in the structure
+of the universe, had been asked what reason there was for the planets
+moving in ellipses so, nearly approaching to circles, he could not
+have given any good reason, at least beyond a guess. The force of
+gravitation, even admitting that to be, as it were, a condition of the
+creation of matter, would have made those bodies revolve in ellipses
+of any degree of eccentricity just as well, provided the angle and the
+force of projection had been varied. Then, why was this form rather,
+than any other chosen? No one knew; yet no one doubted that there was
+ample reason for it. Accordingly the sublime discoveries of Lagrange
+and La Place have shown us that this small eccentricity is one material
+element in the formula by which it is shown that all the irregularities
+of the system are periodical, and that the deviation never can exceed a
+certain amount on either hand.
+
+But, again, while we are ignorant of this, perhaps the most sublime
+truth in all science, we were always arguing as if the system had an
+imperfection, as if the disturbing forces of the different planets and
+the sun, acting on one another, constantly changed the orbits of each
+planet, and must, in a course of ages, work the destruction of the whole
+planetary arrangement which we had contemplated with so great
+admiration and with awe. It was deemed enough if we could show that
+this derangement must be extremely slow, and that, therefore, the system
+might last for many more ages without requiring any interposition of
+omnipotent skill to preserve it by rectifying its motions. Thus one of
+the most celebrated writers above cited argues that, “from the nature
+of gravitation and the concentricity of the orbits, the irregularities
+produced are so slowly operated in contracting, dilating and inclining
+those orbits, that the system may go on for many thousand years before
+any extraordinary interference becomes necessary in order to correct
+it.” And Dr. Burnett adds, that “those small irregularities cast no
+discredit on the good contrivance of the whole.” Nothing, however,
+could cast greater discredit if it were as he supposed, and as all men
+previous to the late discoveries supposed; it was only, they rather
+think, a “small irregularity,” which was every hour tending to the
+destruction of the whole system, and which must have deranged or
+confounded its whole structure long before it destroyed it. Yet now
+we see that the wisdom, to which a thousand years are as one day, not
+satisfied with constructing a fabric which might last for “many thousand
+years without His interference,” has so formed it that it may thus
+endure forever.
+
+Now if such be the grounds of our belief in the universal prevalence of
+Design, and such the different lights which at different periods of
+our progress in science we possess upon this branch of the divine
+government; if we undoubtingly believe that contrivance is universal
+only because we can trace and comprehend it in a great majority of
+instances, and if the number of exceptions to the rule is occasionally
+diminished as our knowledge of the particulars is from time to time
+extended--may we not apply the same principle to the apprehension of
+Benevolent purpose, and infer from the number of instances in which we
+plainly perceive a good intention, that if we were better acquainted
+with those cases in which a contrary intention is now apparent, we
+should there, too, find the generally pervading character of Benevolence
+to prevail? Not only is this the manner in which we reason respecting
+the Design of the Creator from examining his works; it is the manner in
+which we treat the conduct of our fellow-creatures. A man of the most
+extensive benevolence and strictest integrity in his general deportment
+has done something equivocal; nay, something apparently harsh and cruel;
+we are slow to condemn him; we give him credit for acting with a good
+motive and for a righteous purpose; we rest satisfied that “if we only
+knew everything he would come out blameless.” This arises from a just
+and a sound view of human character, and its general consistency with
+itself. The same reasoning may surely be applied with all humility and
+reverence, to the works and the intentions of the great Being who has
+implanted in our minds the principles which lead to that just and sound
+view of the deeds and motives of men.
+
+But let the argument be rested upon our course of reasoning respecting
+divine contrivance. The existence of Evil is in no case more apparent
+than the existence of Disorder seems to be in many things. To go no
+further than the last example which has been given--the mathematician
+could perceive the derangement in the planetary orbits, could
+demonstrate that it must ensue from the mutual action of the heavenly
+bodies on each other, could calculate its progress with the utmost
+exactness, could tell with all nicety how much it would alter the forms
+of the orbits in a given time, could foresee the time when the
+whole system must be irretrievably destroyed by its operation as a
+mathematical certainty. Nothing, that we call evil can be much more
+certainly perceived than this derangement, of itself an evil, certainly
+a great imperfection, if the system was observed by the mind of man
+as we regard human works. Yet we now find, from well considering some
+things which had escaped attention, that the system is absolutely free
+from derangement; that all the disturbances counterbalance each other;
+and that the orbits never can either be flattened or bulged out beyond
+a definite or very inconsiderable quantity. Can any one doubt that
+there is also a reason for even the small and limited, this regular and
+temporary derangement? Why it exists at all, or in any the least degree,
+we as yet know not. But who will presume to doubt that it has a reason
+which would at once satisfy our minds were it known to us? Nay, who will
+affirm that the discovery of it may not yet be in reserve for some later
+and happier age? Then are we not entitled to apply the same reasoning to
+what at present appears Evil in a system of which, after all we know of
+it, so much still remains concealed from our view?
+
+The mere act of creation in a Being of wisdom so admirable and power
+so vast, seems to make it extremely probable that perfect goodness
+accompanies the exertion of his perfect skill. There is something so
+repugnant to all our feelings, but also to all the conceptions of our
+reason, in the supposition of such a Being desiring the misery, for its
+own sake, of the Beings whom he voluntarily called into existence and
+endowed with a sentient nature, that the mind naturally and irresistibly
+recoils from such a thought. But this is not all. If the nature of that
+great Being were evil, his power being unbounded, there would be some
+proportion between the amounts of ills and the monuments of that power.
+Yet we are struck dumb with the immensity of His works to which no
+imperfection can be ascribed, and in which no evil can be traced, while
+the amount of mischief that we see might sink into a most insignificant
+space; and is such as a being of inconsiderable power and very limited
+skill could easily have accomplished. This is not the same consideration
+with the balance of good against evil; and inquirers do not seem to
+have sufficiently attended to it. The argument, however, deserves much
+attention, for it is purely and strictly inductive. The divine nature
+is shown to be clothed with prodigious power and incomparable wisdom and
+skill,--power and skill so vast and so exceeding our comprehension that
+we ordinarily term them infinite, and are only inclined to conceive the
+possibility of limiting, by the course of the argument upon evil, one
+alternative of which is assumed to raise an exception. But admitting on
+account of the question under discussion, that we have only a right to
+say that power and skill are prodigiously great, though possibly not
+boundless, they are plainly shown in the phenomena of the universe to
+be the attributes of a Being, who, if evil-disposed, could have made the
+monuments of Ill upon a scale resembling those of Power and Skill; so
+that if those things which seem to us evil be really the result of a
+mischievous design in such a Being, we cannot comprehend why they are
+upon so entirely different a scale. This is a strong presumption from
+the facts that we are wrong in imputing those appearances to such a
+disposition. If so, what seems evil must needs be capable of some other
+explanation consistent with divine goodness--that is to say, would not
+prove to be evil at all if we knew the whole of those facts.
+
+But it is necessary to proceed a step further, especially with a view
+to the fundamental position now contended for, the extending to the
+question of Benevolence the same principles which we apply to that of
+Intelligence. The evil which exists, or that which we suppose to be
+evil, not only is of a kind and a magnitude requiring inconceivably less
+power and less skill than the admitted good of the creation--it also
+bears a very small proportion in amount; quite as small a proportion
+as the cases of unknown or undiscoverable design bear to those
+of acknowledged and proved contrivance. Generally speaking, the
+preservation and the happiness of sensitive creatures appears to be
+the great object of creative exertion and conservative providence. The
+expanding of our faculties, both bodily and mentally, is accompanied
+with pleasure; the exercise of those powers is almost always attended
+with gratification; all labor so acts as to make rest peculiarly
+delicious; much of labor is enjoyment; the gratification of those
+appetites by which both the individual is preserved and the race is
+continued, is highly pleasurable to all animals; and it must be observed
+that instead of being attracted by grateful sensations to do anything
+requisite for our good or even our existence, we might have been just as
+certainly urged by the feeling of pain, or the dread of it, which is a
+kind of suffering in itself. Nature, then, resembles the law-giver
+who, to make his subjects obey, should prefer holding out rewards
+for compliance with his commands rather than denounce punishments for
+disobedience. But nature is yet more kind; she is gratuitously kind; she
+not only prefers inducement to threat or compulsion, but she adds more
+gratification than was necessary to make us obey her calls. How well
+might all creation have existed and been continued, though the air had
+not been balmy in spring, or the shade and the spring refreshing in
+summer; had the earth not been enamelled with flowers; and the air
+scented with perfumes! How needless for the propagation of plants was
+it that the seed should be enveloped in fruits the most savory to our
+palate, and if those fruits serve some other purpose, how foreign to
+that purpose was the formation of our nerves so framed as to be soothed
+or excited by their flavor! We here perceive design, because we trace
+adaptation. But we at the same time perceive benevolent design, because
+we perceive gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment bestowed. Thus,
+too, see the care with which animals of all kinds are tended from their
+birth. The mother’s instinct is not more certainly the means of securing
+and providing for her young, than her gratification in the act of
+maternal care is great and is also needless for making her perform that
+duty. The grove is not made vocal during pairing and incubation, in
+order to secure the laying or the hatching of eggs; for if it were as
+still as the grave, or were filled with the most discordant croaking,
+the process would be as well performed. So, too, mark the care with
+which injuries are remedied by what has been correctly called the _vis
+medicatrix_. Is a muscle injured?--Suppuration takes place, the process
+of granulation succeeds, and new flesh is formed to supply the gap, or
+if that is less wide, a more simple healing process knits together
+the severed parts. Is a bone injured?--A process commences by which
+an extraordinary secretion of bony matter takes place, and the void
+is supplied. Nay, the irreparable injury of a joint gives rise to
+the formation of a new hinge, by which the same functions may be not
+inconveniently, though less perfectly, performed. Thus, too, recovery of
+vigor after sickness is provided for by increased appetite; but there
+is here superadded, generally, a feeling of comfort and lightness, an
+enjoyment of existence so delightful, that it is a common remark how
+nearly this compensates the sufferings of the illness. In the economy
+of the mind it is the same thing. All our exertions are stimulated by
+curiosity, and the gratification is extreme of satisfying it. But it
+might have been otherwise ordered, and some painful feeling might have
+been made the only stimulant to the acquisition of knowledge. So, the
+charm of novelty is proverbial; but it might have been the unceasing
+cause of the most painful alarms. Habit renders every thing easy; but
+the repetition might have only increased the annoyance. The loss of one
+organ makes the others more acute. But the partial injury might have
+caused, as it were, a general paralysis. ‘Tis thus that Paley is well
+justified in exclaiming, “It is a happy world after all!” The pains and
+the sufferings, bodily and mental, to which we are exposed, if they
+do not sink into nothing, at least retreat within comparatively narrow
+bounds; the ills are hardly seen when we survey the great and splendid
+picture of worldly enjoyment or ease.
+
+But the existence of considerable misery is undeniable: and the question
+is, of course, confined to that. Its exaggeration, in the ordinary
+estimate both of the vulgar and of skeptical reasoners, is equally
+certain. Paley, Bishop Sumner, as well as Derham, King, Ray and others
+of the older writers, have made many judicious and generally correct
+observations upon its amount, and they, as well as some of the able
+and learned authors of the _Bridgwater Treatises_, have done much in
+establishing deductions necessary to be made, in order that we may
+arrive at the true amount. That many things, apparently unmixed evils,
+when examined more narrowly, prove to be partially beneficial, is the
+fair result of their well-meant labors; and this, although anything
+rather than a proof that there is no evil at all, yet is valuable as
+still further proving the analogy between this branch of the argument
+and that upon design; and in giving hopes that all may possibly be
+found hereafter to be good, as everything will assuredly be found to be
+contrived with an intelligent and useful purpose. It may be right to add
+a remark or two upon some evils, and those of the greatest magnitude
+in the common estimate of human happiness, with a view of further
+illustrating this part of the subject.
+
+Mere imperfection must altogether be deducted from the account. It
+never can be contended that any evil nature can be ascribed to the first
+cause, merely for not having endowed sentient creatures with greater
+power or wisdom, for not having increased and multiplied the sources
+of enjoyment, or for not having made those pleasures which we have more
+exquisitely grateful. No one can be so foolish as to argue that the
+Deity is either limited in power, or deficient in goodness, because he
+has chosen to create some beings of a less perfect order than others.
+The mere negation in the creating of some, indeed of many, nay, of
+any conceivable number of desirable attributes, is therefore no proper
+evidence of evil design or of limited power in the Creator--it is no
+proof of the existence of evil properly so called. But does not this
+also erase death from the catalogue of ills? It might well please the
+Deity to create a mortal being which, consisting of soul and body, was
+only to live upon this earth for a limited number of years. If, when
+that time has expired, this being is removed to another and a superior
+state of existence, no evil whatever accrues to it from the change;
+and all views of the government of this world lead to the important and
+consolitary conclusion, that such is the design of the Creator; that he
+cannot have bestowed on us minds capable of such expansion and culture
+only to be extinguished when they have reached their highest pitch
+of improvement; or if this be considered as begging the question by
+assuming benevolent design, we cannot easily conceive that while the
+mind’s force is so little affected by the body’s decay, the destruction
+or dissolution of the latter should be the extinction of the former. But
+that death operates as an evil of the very highest kind in two ways is
+obvious; the dread of it often embitters life, and the death of friends
+brings to the mind by far its most painful infliction; certainly the
+greatest suffering it can undergo without any criminal consciousness of
+its own.
+
+For this evil, then--this grievous and admitted evil--how shall we
+account? But first let us consider whether it be not unavoidable; not
+merely under the present dispensation, and in the existing state of
+things; for that is wholly irrelevant to the question which is raised
+upon the fitness of this very state of things; but whether it be not a
+necessary evil. That man might have been created immortal is not denied;
+but if it were the will of the Deity to form a limited being and to
+place him upon the earth for only a certain period of time, his death
+was the necessary consequence of this determination. Then as to the pain
+which one person’s removal inflicts upon surviving parties, this seems
+the equally necessary consequence of their having affections. For if
+any being feels love towards another, this implies his desire that the
+intercourse with that other should continue; or what is the same thing,
+the repugnance and aversion to its ceasing; that is, he must suffer
+affliction for that removal of the beloved object. To create sentient
+beings devoid of all feelings of affection was no doubt possible to
+Omnipotence; but to endow those beings with such feelings as would give
+the constant gratification derived from the benevolent affections, and
+yet to make them wholly indifferent to the loss of the objects of those
+affections, was not possible even for Omnipotence; because it was a
+contradiction in terms, equivalent to making a thing both exist and not
+exist at one and the same time. Would there have been any considerable
+happiness in a life stripped of these kindly affections? We cannot
+affirm that there would not, because we are ignorant what other
+enjoyments might have been substituted for the indulgence of them. But
+neither can we affirm that any such substitution could have been found;
+and it lies upon those who deny the necessary connection between the
+human mind, or any sentient being’s mind, and grief for the loss of
+friends, to show that there are other enjoyments which could furnish an
+equivalent to the gratification derived from the benevolent feelings.
+The question then reduces itself to this: Wherefore did a being, who
+could have made sentient beings immortal, choose to make them mortal?
+or, Wherefore has he placed man upon the earth for a time only? or,
+Wherefore has he set bounds to the powers and capacities which he has
+been pleased to bestow upon his creatures? And this is a question which
+we certainly never shall be able to solve; but a question extremely
+different from the one more usually put--How happens it that a good
+being has made a world full of misery and death?
+
+In the necessary ignorance wherein we are of the whole designs of the
+Deity, we cannot wonder if some things, nay, if many things, are to our
+faculties inscrutable. But we assuredly have no right to say that those
+difficulties which try and vex us are incapable of a solution, any more
+than we have to say, that those cases in which as yet we can see no
+trace of design, are not equally the result of intelligence, and equally
+conducive to a fixed and useful purpose with those in which we have been
+able to perceive the whole, or nearly the whole scheme. Great as have
+been our achievements in physical astronomy, we are as yet wholly unable
+to understand why a power pervades the system acting inversely as the
+squares of the distance from the point to which it attracts, rather
+than a power acting according to any other law; and why it has been the
+pleasure of the almighty Architect of that universe, that the orbits
+of the planets should be nearly circular instead of approaching to, or
+being exactly the same with many other trajectories of a nearly similar
+form, though of other properties; nay, instead of being curves of a
+wholly different class and shape. Yet we never doubt that there was a
+reason for this choice; nay, we fancy it possible that even on earth
+we may hereafter understand it more clearly than we now do: and never
+question that in another state of being we may be permitted to enjoy the
+contemplation of it. Why should we doubt that, at least in that higher
+state, we may also be enabled to perceive such an arrangement as shall
+make evil wholly disappear from our present system, by showing that it
+was necessary and inevitable, even in the works of the Deity; or, which
+is the same thing, that its existence conduces to such a degree
+of perfection and happiness upon, the whole, as could not, even by
+Omnipotence, be attained without it; or, which is the same thing,
+that the whole creation as it exists, taking both worlds together, is
+perfect, and incapable of being in any particular changed without being
+made worse and less perfect? Taking both worlds together--For certainly
+were our views limited to the present sublunary state, we may well
+affirm that no solution whatever could even be imagined of the
+difficulty--if we are never again to live; if those we here loved are
+forever lost to us; if our faculties can receive no further expansion;
+if our mental powers are only trained and improved to be extinguished
+at their acme--then indeed are we reduced to the melancholy and gloomy
+dilemma of the Epicureans; and evil is confessed to checker, nay, almost
+to cloud over our whole lot, without the possibility of comprehending
+why, or of reconciling its existence with the supposition of a
+providence at once powerful and good. But this inference is also an
+additional argument for a future state, when we couple it with these
+other conclusions respecting the economy of the world to which we are
+led by wholly different routes, when we investigate the phenomena around
+us and within us.
+
+Suppose, for example, it should be found that there are certain purposes
+which can in no way whatever--no conceivable way--be answered except
+by placing man in a state of trial or probation; suppose the essential
+nature of mind shall be found to be such that it could not in any
+way whatever exist so as to be capable of the greatest purity and
+improvement--in other words, the highest perfection--without having
+undergone a probation; or suppose it should be found impossible to
+communicate certain enjoyments to rational and sentient beings
+without having previously subjected them to certain trials and certain
+sufferings--as, for instance, the pleasures derived from a consciousness
+of perfect security, the certainty that we can suffer and perish no
+more--this surely is a possible supposition. Now, to continue the last
+example--Whatever pleasure there is in the contrast between ease and
+previous vexation or pain, whatever enjoyment we derive from the feeling
+of absolute security after the vexation and uncertainty of a precarious
+state, implies a previous suffering--a previous state of precarious
+enjoyment; and not only implies it but necessarily implies it, so that
+the power of Omnipotence itself could not convey to us the enjoyment
+without having given us the previous suffering. Then is it not possible
+that the object of an all powerful and perfectly benevolent being should
+be to create like beings, to whom as entire happiness, as complete and
+perfect enjoyment, should be given as any created beings--that is, any
+being, except the Creator himself--can by possibility enjoy? This is
+certainly not only a very possible supposition, but it appears to be
+quite consistent with, if it be not a necessary consequence of, his
+being perfectly good as well as powerful and wise. Now we have shown,
+therefore, that such being supposed the design of Providence, even
+Omnipotence itself could not accomplish this design, as far as one great
+and important class of enjoyments is concerned, without the previous
+existence of some pain, some misery. Whatever gratification arises
+from relief--from contrast--from security succeeding anxiety--from
+restoration of lost affections--from renewing severed connections--and
+many others of a like kind, could not by any possibility be enjoyed
+unless the correlative suffering had first been undergone. Nor will the
+argument be at all impeached by observing, that one Being may be made
+to feel the pleasure of ease and security by seeing others subjected
+to suffering and distress; for that assumes the infliction of misery on
+those others; it is “_alterius_ spectare laborem” that we are supposing
+to be sweet; and this is still partial evil.
+
+As the whole argument respecting evil must, from the nature of the
+question, resolve itself into either a proof of some absolute or
+mathematical necessity not to be removed by infinite power, or the
+showing that some such proof may be possible although we have not
+yet discovered it, an illustration may naturally be expected to be
+attainable from mathematical considerations. Thus, we have already
+adverted to the law of periodical irregularities in the solar system.
+Any one before it was discovered seemed entitled to expatiate upon the
+operation of the disturbing forces arising from mutual attraction,
+and to charge the system arranged upon the principle of universal
+gravitation with want of skill, nay, with leading to inevitable
+mischief--mischief or evil of so prodigious an extent as to exceed
+incalculably all the instances of evil and of suffering which we see
+around us in this single planet. Nevertheless, what then appeared so
+clearly to be a defect and an evil, is now well known to be the very
+absolute perfection of the whole heavenly architecture.
+
+Again, we may derive a similar illustration from a much more limited
+instance, but one immediately connected with strict mathematical
+reasoning, and founded altogether in the nature of necessary truth. The
+problem has been solved by mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton having first
+investigated it, of finding the form of a symmetrical solid, or solid of
+revolution, which in moving through a fluid shall experience the least
+possible resistance. The figure bears a striking resemblance to that of
+a fish. Now suppose a fish were formed exactly in this shape, and
+that some animal endowed with reason were placed upon a portion of its
+surface, and able to trace its form for only a limited extent, say at
+the narrow part, where the broad portion or end of the moving body were
+opposed, or seemed as if it were opposed, to the surrounding fluid when
+the fish moved--the reasoner would at once conclude that the contrivance
+of the fish’s form was very inconvenient, and that nothing could be much
+worse adapted for expeditious or easy movement through the waters.
+
+Yet it is certain that upon being afterwards permitted to view THE WHOLE
+body of the fish, what had seemed a defect and an evil, not only would
+appear plainly to be none at all, but it would appear manifest that
+this seeming evil or defect was a part of the most perfect and excellent
+structure which it was possible even for Omnipotence and Omniscience
+to have adopted, and that no other conceivable arrangement could by
+possibility have produced so much advantage, or tended so much to
+fulfill the design in view. Previous to being enlightened by such
+an enlarged view of the whole facts, it would thus be a rash and
+unphilosophical thing in the reasoner whose existence we are supposing
+to pronounce an unfavorable opinion. Still more unwise would it be if
+numerous other observations had evinced traces of skill and goodness
+in the fish’s structure. The true and the safe conclusion would be to
+suspend an opinion which could only be unsatisfactorily formed upon
+imperfect data; and to rest in the humble hope and belief that one day
+all would appear for the best.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+
+[Footnote 1: The “light of revelation,” as well as the “light of the
+Christian religion,” has not dispelled the darkness of ignorance. The
+torch of reason is a surer guide.--_Pub._]
+
+[Footnote 2: The human race has from time immemorial been afflicted with
+so-called revelations, all claiming inspiration, all conflicting, and
+all being equally “mysterious and obscure.” The wars arising among these
+sectarians have retarded civilization, and deluged the earth in blood.
+The revelations of science, founded upon reason and demonstration, have
+proved the only safe and beneficent guide.--_Pub._]
+
+[Footnote 3: While it is true that the argument of Design, here given,
+places the subject one step in advance, it is still unsatisfactory,
+because it fails to explain to us who designed the designer, and the
+mystery of creation still remains unsolved.
+
+“What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?” is the pertinent
+question which Bishop Watson, in his _Apology for the Bible_, asked, and
+vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas Paine.--_Pub._]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation
+on the Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Fallen Star, Or, the History of a False Religion, by E. L. Bulwer
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the
+Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
+
+Author: E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2009 [EBook #8654]
+Last Updated: November 2, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALLEN STAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Deley, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by E. L. Bulwer
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      and,
+    </h4>
+    <h1>
+      A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by Lord Brougham
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> PUBLISHER&rsquo;S PREFACE </a><br /><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>THE FALLEN STAR, or, <br />THE HISTORY
+        OF A FALSE RELIGION</b></big> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> FORMING A NEW RELIGION. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_CONC"> CONCLUSION </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> <big><b>ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL</b></big> </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PUBLISHER&rsquo;S PREFACE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his <i>American Dictionary of the English
+      Language</i>, is derived from &ldquo;Religo, to bind anew;&rdquo; and, in this <i>History
+      of a False Religion</i>, our author has shown how easily its votaries were
+      insnared, deceived, and mentally bound in a labyrinth of falsehood and
+      error, by a designing knave, who established a new religion and a new
+      order of priesthood by imposing on their ignorance and credulity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the origin of one supernatural religion will, with slight
+      alterations, serve to describe them all. Their claim to credence rests on
+      the exhibition of so-called miracles&mdash;that is, on a violation of the
+      laws of nature,&mdash;for, if religions were founded on the demonstrated
+      truths of science, there would be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no
+      miracles, no skepticism, no false religion. We would have only verified
+      truths and demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief. But this simple
+      foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude. They demand signs,
+      portents, mysteries, wonders and miracles for their faith and the supply
+      of prophets, knaves and impostors has always been found ample to satisfy
+      this abnormal demand of credulity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Designing men, even at the present day, find little difficulty in
+      establishing new systems of faith and belief. Joseph Smith, who invented
+      the Mormon religion, had more followers and influence in this country at
+      his death, than the Carpenter&rsquo;s Son obtained centuries ago from the
+      unlettered inhabitants of Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success
+      among educated people in this so-called enlightened age, while Jesus
+      taught in an age of semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
+      asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles and even fishes
+      understood human language, were often gifted with human speech, and
+      sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary human intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They taught that the serpent, using the language of sophistry, beguiled
+      Eve in Eden, who in turn corrupted Adam, her first and only husband. At
+      the baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan, the voice of a dove
+      resounded in the heavens, saying, quite audibly and distinctly, &ldquo;Thou art
+      my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.&rdquo; Balaam disputed with his
+      patient beast of burden, on their celebrated journey in the land of Moab,
+      and the ass proved wiser in the argument that ensued than the inspired
+      prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes left his native element
+      and taught philosophy to the Chaldeans on dry land. One reputable woman,
+      of Jewish lineage,&mdash;the mother of an interesting family&mdash;was
+      changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom while another female of great
+      notoriety known to fame as the celebrated &ldquo;Witch of Endor,&rdquo; raised Samuel
+      from his grave in Ramah. Saint Peter found a shilling in the mouth of a
+      fish which he caught in the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky incident
+      enabled the impecunious apostle to pay the &ldquo;tribute money&rdquo; in Capernaum.
+      Another famous Israelite,&mdash;so it is said,&mdash;broke the record of
+      balloon ascensions in Judea, and ascended into heaven in a chariot of
+      fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies occur, and miracles
+      become common, The untaught masses are easily deceived, and their
+      unreasoning credulity enables them to proudly boast of their unquestioning
+      faith. When their feelings are excited and their passions aroused by
+      professional evangelists, they even profess to believe that which they
+      cannot comprehend; and, in the satirical language of Bulwer, they endeavor
+      to &ldquo;<i>assist their ignorance by the conjectures of their superstition</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing religions which afflict
+      mankind, it is self-evident that but one religion may justly claim the
+      inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident to all reasoning minds
+      that that religion is the religion of kindness and humanity,&mdash;the
+      religion of noble thoughts and generous deeds,&mdash;which removes the
+      enmities of race and creed, and &ldquo;makes the whole world kin!&rdquo; And which, in
+      its observance is blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This religion needs no creed, no profession of faith, no incense, no
+      prayer, no penance, no sacrifice. Its whole duty consists in comforting
+      the afflicted, assisting the unfortunate, protecting the helpless, and in
+      honestly fulfilling our duties to our fellow mortals. In the language of
+      Confucius, the ancient Chinese Sage, it is simply &ldquo;to behave to others as
+      I would require others to behave to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do unto others as you would they should do unto you,&rdquo; says Jesus; and in
+      the Epistle of James, we are told that &ldquo;Pure Religion and undefiled before
+      God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their
+      affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The same benign and generous conduct is commended in even grander and
+      nobler language in the lectures to the French Masonic Lodges: &ldquo;Love one
+      another, teach one another, help one another. That is all our doctrine,
+      all our science, all our law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is believed that the learned dissertation of Lord Brougham on the <i>Origin
+      of Evil</i>, which is annexed to this work, will need no commendation to
+      ensure its careful perusal.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         PETER ECKLER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      by E. L. Bulwer
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+      eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night on
+      which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+      universal galaxy, its peculiar charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The destinies of men and empires are then portioned forth for the coming
+      year, and, unconsciously to ourselves, our fates become minioned to the
+      stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark gates of time open to
+      receive the ghost of the dead year, and the young and radiant stranger
+      rushes forth from the clouded chasms of eternity. On that night, it is
+      said that there are given to the spirits that we see not, a privilege and
+      a power; the dead are troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast
+      and laugh, while demon and angel are contending for their doom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of the
+      spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars; and
+      they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten, each
+      resembling each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty, and on
+      their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful stillness which
+      feels not, sympathizes not with the dooms over which it broods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall, they
+      ordain, they, compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The fell and
+      thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps&mdash;the
+      parricide with his stealthy step, and horrent brow, and lifted knife; the
+      unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders,
+      and casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not&mdash;the
+      splash, and does not tremble!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These the starred kings behold&mdash;to these they lead the unconscious
+      step; but the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither
+      their unwrinkled youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven belt,
+      graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a burning
+      ball, and the right arm dropped over the knee as they bent down from their
+      thrones; they moved not a limb or feature, save the finger of the right
+      hand, which ever and anon moved slowly, pointing, and regulated the fates
+      of men as the hand of the dial speaks the career of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+      crowned brethren; a star, smaller than the rest, and less luminous. The
+      countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of the
+      others; but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this star said to himself&mdash;&ldquo;Behold, I am created less glorious
+      than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+      destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+      empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish are
+      the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead through a
+      dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore?&mdash;Is it mine own fault,
+      or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less
+      glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will bow not my
+      crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral Lucifer before
+      me: <i>he</i> rebelled because of his glory, <i>I</i> because of my
+      obscurity; <i>he</i> from the ambition of pride, and <i>I</i> from its
+      discontent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+      were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+      and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars; his vast limbs
+      floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume the
+      glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his
+      lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the
+      serenity of his splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the children
+      of the earth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and the
+      awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused the
+      course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+      overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then forth
+      in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and,
+      fulfilling the heraldry of god, to each star he appointed the duty and the
+      charge, and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the fiat, while
+      his throne rocked and trembled at the majesty of the word. But at last,
+      when each of the brighter stars had, in succession, received the mandate,
+      and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth, the purple and diadems
+      of kings&mdash;the archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart
+      from his fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said the archangel, &ldquo;the rude tribes of the north, the fishermen
+      of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests, that
+      darken the mountain-tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their
+      destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O star of the sullen beams, that thy
+      duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant
+      is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of
+      empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and
+      the heart are the dominion of the stars&mdash;a mighty realm; nor less
+      mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd, than the jewelled robes
+      of eastern kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+      archangel:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ages have past, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+      the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+      scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+      unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into
+      him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If
+      the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may lead
+      on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O Appointer of the
+      Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my solitary throne, brooding
+      over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered wisdom from the changes
+      that shift below. Looking upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the
+      multitude are swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power;
+      and fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
+      rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of the
+      archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proud and melancholy star,&rdquo; said the herald, &ldquo;thy wish would war with the
+      courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far above, sways and
+      harmonizes all; the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+      eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+      thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+      answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea!&mdash;grant me but one trial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the heaven was rent
+      as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with his
+      hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with the consciousness of
+      unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon yon
+      solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under thy
+      influence, may be moulded to thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+      space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+      the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+      far-distant worlds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the soul of the discontented star exulted within itself; and it said,
+      &ldquo;I will call forth a king from the valley of the herdsmen, that shall
+      trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render the charge of the
+      contemned star more glorious than the minions of its favored brethren;
+      thus shall I revenge neglect&mdash;thus shall I prove my claim hereafter
+      to the heritage of the great of earth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the pilgrimage
+      of man had passed through various states of existence, which our dim
+      traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of our race in
+      the northern hemisphere was then what <i>we</i>, in our imperfect lore,
+      have conceived to be among the earliest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      FORMING A NEW RELIGION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a lonely
+      man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just passed from
+      the earth&mdash;the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars looked down
+      upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the
+      waves and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees, was heard around
+      the ruined pile: the white sheep lay scattered on the plain, and slumber
+      with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes of a neighboring
+      tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed with himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The king sits upon his throne, and is honored by a warrior race, and the
+      warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman is
+      bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is sung at night round the
+      pine-fires, by the lips of the bard; and the bard himself hath honor in
+      the hail. But I, who belong not to the race of kings, and whose limbs can
+      bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the
+      haunts of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and whose
+      voice is harsh in the song; <i>I</i> have neither honor nor command, and
+      men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the
+      consciousness of a great power that should rule my species&mdash;not obey.
+      My eye pierces the secret hearts of men&mdash;I see their thoughts ere
+      their lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the
+      vices which I never shared. I laugh at the madness of the warrior&mdash;I
+      mock within my soul at the tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in
+      man&rsquo;s nature more fitted to command&mdash;more worthy of renoun, than the
+      sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+      birth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking at
+      the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its
+      place, and speeding through the silent air, till it as suddenly paused
+      right over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of
+      stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He drank,
+      as it were, from its solemn aspect, the spirit of a great design. A dark
+      cloud rapidly passing over the earth, snatched the star from his sight;
+      but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that had
+      come to him as he gazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over the
+      herd, and he went away, but not to his father&rsquo;s home. Musingly he plunged
+      into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and shaped out
+      of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline of his daring
+      hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and, fearful
+      lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that way, he ascended one
+      of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure the winter had not
+      denied the shelter he sought, and, concealed by its branches, he looked
+      anxiously forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And IT came&mdash;it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing tread
+      upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed the soil&mdash;it
+      came&mdash;it came, the monster that the world now holds no more&mdash;the
+      mighty mammoth of the North!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes glittered
+      through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders
+      with which it snapped asunder the young oaks of the forest; and the vast
+      tusks, which, curved downward to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened
+      white and ghastly, curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the
+      dreaded ruler of the men of that distant age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+      amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused&mdash;it glared upon him&mdash;its
+      jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the
+      son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him
+      for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way, crashing
+      the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its heavy tread
+      died away upon his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned the courage to descend the
+      tree, he saw the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood,
+      and presently a small hand of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was
+      perfectly hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+      one say to another:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night covers all things; why attack them by day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered &ldquo;Right. To-night, when
+      they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo! they will be drenched in
+      wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where, O chief,&rdquo; said a third of the band, &ldquo;shall our men hide during
+      the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the Oestrich tribe,
+      and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm their race against
+      our coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have prepared for that,&rdquo; answered the chief. &ldquo;Is not the dark cavern of
+      Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the victims?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the men laughed, and shouting, they went their way adown the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were gone Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+      broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+      in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the
+      streets (if streets they might be called), their half garments parting
+      from their huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spears
+      in their hands, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple! what dost thou among men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+      his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+      unheedingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail pile, in which some old
+      men dwelt by themselves, and counseled the king when times of danger, or
+      when the failure of the season, the famine, or the drought, perplexed the
+      ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+      drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds of
+      heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering birds.
+      Filled (by the voices of the elements, and the variety of mysteries which
+      ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the wonder which pauses
+      not, the fear which believes, and that eternal reasoning of all
+      experience, which assigns causes to effects) with the notion of superior
+      powers, <i>they assisted their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+      superstition</i>. But as yet they knew no craft and practiced no <i>voluntary</i>
+      delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries, which had created their
+      faith, to seek to belie them. They counselled as they believed, and the
+      bold dream had never dared to cross men thus worn and grey with age, of
+      governing their warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+      approached the place at the upper end of the hall, where the old men sat
+      in conclave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, base-torn and craven limbed!&rdquo; cried the eldest, who had been a noted
+      warrior in his day; &ldquo;darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the secret
+      councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the penalty
+      is death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slay me, if thou wilt,&rdquo; answered Morven &ldquo;but hear!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending,
+      as my father bade me, the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe
+      of Alrich should descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm
+      came darkly on; and when the storm, had ceased and I looked above on the
+      sky, I saw a star descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the
+      star said, &lsquo;Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise
+      men, and say unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or
+      that sudden will be the destruction of them, and theirs.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I had courage to answer the voice, and I said, &lsquo;Mock not the poor son
+      of the herdsman. Behold they will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I
+      am poor and valueless in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great
+      in deeds and the grey of hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice said, &lsquo;Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+      thou comest from the powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the eagles
+      of the winds. Say unto the wise men that this very night if they refuse to
+      receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the morrow
+      shall dawn in blood.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over the star; and I communed
+      with myself, and came, O dread fathers, mournfully unto you. For I feared
+      that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye would,
+      sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given even to
+      the sons of kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the grim elders looked one at the other and marvelled much, nor knew
+      they what answer they should make to the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length one of the wise men said, &ldquo;Surely there must be truth in the son
+      of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of heaven. If
+      he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we might doubt the
+      truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we take the herdsman&rsquo;s son as our equal? No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of the man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were
+      pleasing to the elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven spoke out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not to be an equal with
+      yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace, and serve you as
+      the son of Osslah may serve;&rdquo; and he bowed his head humbly as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others, &ldquo;But
+      how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless the star
+      hath informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we take thee
+      into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven answered meekly: &ldquo;Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+      will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only what
+      he has uttered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves and
+      they differed much; but though fierce men and bold at the war cry of a
+      human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved to
+      take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+      council-hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard their decree and towed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+      down by it in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the sun went down in the west, and the first stats of the twilight
+      began to glimmer, when Morven started front his seat, and a trembling
+      appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+      possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has pierced
+      with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the stony earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+      recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heard ye not the voice of the star?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the chief of the elders answered, &ldquo;Nay, we heard no sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sighed heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councilors of the
+      king! summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+      take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant. For lo! the star
+      hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+      beast of the forests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+      amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, pause ye?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Do the gods of the night lie? On my head rest
+      the peril if I deceive ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+      men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+      and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first, still
+      looking up at the star; and he motioned them to be silent, and move with a
+      stealthy step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+      mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+      called the cave of Oderlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men on
+      either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the hushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a noise
+      in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man; and the
+      spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of the cave.
+      Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was heard the
+      warcry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow bed, the
+      river of armed men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe were sorely perplexed
+      and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and the darkness of the
+      night; and there was a great slaughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain, and
+      found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst them,
+      and great was the joy thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went back in triumph to the city, and they carded the brave son of
+      Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted forth, &ldquo;Glory to the servant of the
+      star.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+      the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+      with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he loved
+      them not, for they had mocked him; he honored them not, for he had blinded
+      the wisest of their elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shunned their feasts and merriment and lived apart and solitary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The austerity of his life increased the mysterious homage which his
+      commune with the stars had won him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed
+      his head to the favorite of the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large bird
+      of prey rise from the earth, and give chase to a hawk that had not yet
+      gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary Morven
+      had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the mighty
+      stream, the habits of the things which nature had submitted to man; and
+      looking now on the birds, he said to himself, &ldquo;Thus is it ever; by cunning
+      or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus, moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it
+      fell terrified and panting at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven took the hawk in his hands, and the vulture shrieked above him,
+      wheeling nearer and nearer to its protected prey; but Morven scared away
+      the vulture, and placing the hawk in his bosom, he carried it home, and
+      tended it carefully, and fed it from his hand until it had regained its
+      strength; and the hawk knew him, and followed him as a dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said, smiling to himself, &ldquo;Behold, <i>the credulous fools
+      around me put faith in the flight and motions of birds</i>. I will teach
+      this poor hawk to minister to my ends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he tamed the bird, and tutored it according to its nature; but he
+      concealed it carefully from others, and cherished it in secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The king of the country was old and like to die, and the eyes of the tribe
+      were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier to
+      reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven passing through the forest one evening, saw the younger of the
+      two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and looking
+      with musing eyes upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore musest thou, O swift footed Siror?&rdquo; said the son of Osslah;
+      &ldquo;and wherefore art thou sad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst not assist me,&rdquo; answered the prince, sternly; &ldquo;take thy way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; answered Morven, &ldquo;thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+      favorite of the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk not
+      to inc of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my ear
+      drinks in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; &ldquo;hush! lest the
+      heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me to
+      pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts of
+      thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak out, base-born!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+      name of thy brother; yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head, and
+      to sit at the high seat of thy father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man turned pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast truth in thy lips,&rdquo; said he, with a faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can the stars grant my wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can; let us meet to-morrow.&rdquo; Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+      forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, at noon, they met again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power that
+      I prayed for, but on one condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars thou must build up a heap
+      of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the pile, and
+      plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt then reign.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at the
+      pale front of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tremble,&rdquo; said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. &ldquo;Hark to the gods,
+      who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+      against their servant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+      the early summer was about to break.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spear dropped from the prince&rsquo;s hand; he sat down and cast his eyes on
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?&rdquo; said Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither, alone;
+      I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock that
+      Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And beautiful is the dying of the great sum when the last song of the
+      birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+      bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?&rdquo; said Gina; &ldquo;and why doth thy
+      lip quiver? and why dost thou tarn away thy face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt us forth, my sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let others answer; <i>I</i> piled them not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou tremblest brother: we will return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft pierced to-day; a bird of
+      beautiful plumage that I slew for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here!&rdquo; cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+      her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages; and
+      from the oak, or from the heavens; broke forth a loud and solemn voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou
+      shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou
+      shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite of the stars. Arise, and go thy
+      way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+      springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+      prince; &ldquo;alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+      not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+      fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+      eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+      features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of
+      love. But since they told me (as they declared to <i>thee</i>), that only
+      through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy fatter&rsquo;s
+      plumed crown, I yield me to their will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;not until I am king can I give thee my sister in
+      marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust, if I
+      asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+      Osslah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not: but, when thou
+      art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I dare
+      to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the night!&mdash;Who
+      shall gainsay their word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine,&rdquo; answered the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself, &ldquo;the
+      king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!&rdquo; and he began
+      to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly, that night advanced, and he
+      had lost his path among the thick woods, and knew not how to regain his
+      home; so he lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then hunger came upon him and he searched among the bushes for such simple
+      roots as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used
+      to appease the cravings of nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of a
+      sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+      sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his eyes
+      swim, and a deadly sickness come over him. For several hours he lay
+      convulsed on the ground expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+      frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+      recovered slowly, and after great anguish: but he went with feeble steps
+      back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+      in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he went forth among his father&rsquo;s herds, and seizing a lamb,
+      forced some of the berries into its stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+      away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+      boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+      secret to one of his father&rsquo;s servants, and the servant died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence alone, he said
+      unto him, &ldquo;How fares my lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king sat on a couch, made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+      glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs and huge was his stature, and
+      he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none living
+      could bend the bow he had bent in youth. Grey, gaunt and worn, as some
+      mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth&mdash;a
+      relic of the strength of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the king said, faintly, and with a ghastly laugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men of my years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I been
+      born a cripple like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in
+      growing old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The red flash passed over Morven&rsquo;s brow; but he bent humbly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could restore
+      to thee the vigor which distinguished thee above the sons of men, when the
+      warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great wisdom,
+      and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of the night
+      give unto thee the secret to make the old young?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tempt them not by doubt,&rdquo; said Morven, reverently. &ldquo;All things are
+      possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves thy
+      servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, &lsquo;Arise, and go unto
+      the king; and tell him that the stars honor the tribe of Oestrich, and
+      remember how the king bent his bow against the Sons of Alrich; wherefore,
+      look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy dwelling&mdash;even
+      beside the pine-tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and in the
+      vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make the king thy master
+      forget his age forever.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went forth, and looked under
+      the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I have brought it hither to
+      my lord, the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick&mdash;slave&mdash;quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, listen, O king! farther said the star to me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+      will avail; wherefore, the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+      when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand
+      of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and when
+      men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+      reveals their benefits shall surely die.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear not,&rdquo; said the king, grasping the vessel; &ldquo;none shall know: and,
+      behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons&mdash;wrangling for my
+      crown&mdash;verily, I shall be younger than they!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+      stars, neither did he promise him reward: for the kings in those days had
+      little thought&mdash;save for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him, &ldquo;Shall I not attend my lord? for without me,
+      perchance, the drug might fail of its effect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; said the king, &ldquo;rest here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; replied Morven; &ldquo;thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+      see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+      of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door of
+      the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is midway
+      in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the liquid
+      with thy wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; said the king. &ldquo;Thou art wise though thy limbs are crooked and
+      curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger
+      in the mirth of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had began to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+      in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+      streets, &ldquo;Woe, woe! Awake ye sons of Oestrich&mdash;woe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then forth, wild&mdash;haggard&mdash;alarmed&mdash;spear in hand, rushed
+      the giant sons of the rugged tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the
+      middle of the city, shrieking, &ldquo;Woe!&rdquo; and it was Morven, the son of
+      Osslah!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he said unto them, as they gathered round him, &ldquo;Men and warriors,
+      tremble as ye hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The star of the west hath spoken to me and thus saith the star:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Evil shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich&mdash;yea, ere the
+      morning dawns; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the
+      inhabitants to woe!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I rose and did the bidding of the star.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king&rsquo;s house ran up to
+      the crowd, crying loudly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The king is dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went into the palace and found the king stark upon his couch, and
+      his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by the pangs of death, and his
+      hands clenched as if in menace of a foe&mdash;the foe of all living flesh!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on Morven with a deeper awe
+      than the boldest warrior would have called forth: and they bore him back
+      to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing and clashing their arms in
+      woe, and shouting, ever and anon:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Honor to Morven, the prophet!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in those
+      countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon, on the third day from the king&rsquo;s death, Siror sought Morven, and
+      he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at sunset to
+      elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will surely choose
+      my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not, therefore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, boy!&rdquo; said Morven, sternly; &ldquo;nor dare to question the truth of the
+      gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+      speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the voice silenced the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said Morven, taking up a chaplet of colored plumes, &ldquo;wear this
+      on thy head, and put on a brave face&mdash;for the people like a hopeful
+      spirit&mdash;and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king
+      is to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, above all things, forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by
+      the gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled in
+      the place where the new king was to be elected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the voices of the many favored Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror,
+      for he had slain twelve foeman with his spear; and verily, in those days,
+      that was a great virtue in a king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Way for Morven, the prophet, the prophet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the people held the son of Osslah in even greater respect than did the
+      chiefs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, since he had become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air
+      which the son of the herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his
+      stature was short, and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and
+      high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He only of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head
+      was bare, and his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was
+      change or human passion seen in his calm aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor was his presence frequent in the
+      streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed not, neither did he smile, save when alone in the forest&mdash;and
+      then he laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor to
+      the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a staff
+      of the knotted pine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+      princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the multitude:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Princes, wantons and bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+      hunters of the forests, and snarers of the fishes of the streams! harken
+      to Morven, the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye know that I am lowly of race, and weak of limb; but did I not give
+      into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye not slay them in the dead
+      of night with a great slaughter?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, ye must know that this of himself did not the herdsman&rsquo;s son;
+      surely he was but the agent of the bright gods that love the children of
+      Oestrich.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three nights since, when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard
+      in the streets?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and verily the
+      dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as the
+      voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+      his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold, last night, I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed
+      around, and not a breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels
+      the son of Osslah; and I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy beauty in the
+      streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence; behold thy servant
+      grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and many foes surround
+      the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they should have a king
+      valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of Alrich,
+      and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore, I pray
+      thee, give unto the people a token that they may choose that king whom the
+      gods of the night prefer!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then a low voice sweeter than the music of the bard, stole along the
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Thy love for thy race is grateful to the stars of night: go then, son of
+      Osslah, and seek the meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a
+      king, and tell them not to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase
+      and little known in war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense
+      for all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Say unto the people that as the wise men of the council shape their
+      lessons by the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds stall a token be
+      given unto them, and they shall choose their kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;For,&rsquo; said, the star of right, &lsquo;the birds are children of the winds,
+      they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds that
+      are the warships of the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;And their music is but broken melodies which they gleam from the harps
+      above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Are they not the messengers of the storm?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye
+      not, by the wail of birds and their low circles over the earth, that the
+      tempest is at hand?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air are the fit
+      interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the world above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Say then to the people and the chiefs, that they shall take, from among
+      the doves that nest in the roof of the palace, a white dove, and they
+      shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods of the night shall deem
+      the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and they shall send a
+      messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich a king
+      worthy of themselves.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With that the star spoke no more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+      &ldquo;Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the people and the warriors shouted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle according as the bird
+      flies&mdash;shall we not by the same token choose him by whom the battle
+      should be led?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the thing seemed natural to them, for it was after the custom of the
+      tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they took one of the doves that built in the roof of the palace, and
+      they bought it to the spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the
+      stars and muttering to himself, released the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a copse of trees a little distance from the spot, and as the
+      dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+      and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd,
+      when, lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with a
+      sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+      Siror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; cried Morven in a loud voice, &ldquo;behold your king!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hail, all hail the king!&rdquo; shouted the people. &ldquo;All hail the chosen of the
+      stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven lifted his right hand, and the hawk left the prince, and
+      alighted on Morven&rsquo;s shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bird of the gods!&rdquo; said he, reverently, &ldquo;hast thou not a secret message
+      for my ear?&rdquo; Then the hawk put its beak to Morven&rsquo;s ear, and Morven bowed
+      his head submissively; and the hawk rested with Morven from that moment
+      and would not be scared away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stars have sent me this bird, that, in the day-time, when I see them
+      not, we may never be without a counsellor in distress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Siror was made king, and Maven the son of Osslah was constrained by the
+      king&rsquo;s will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+      honored Morven, the prophet, above all the elders of the tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day Morven said unto himself, musing, &ldquo;Am I not already equal with the
+      king? nay, is not the king my servant? did I not place him over the heads
+      of his brothers? am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he is? shall
+      I not push him from his seat?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a troublesome and stormy office to reign over the wild men of
+      Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hail, and to lead die warriors to the
+      fray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, if I feasted not, neither went out to war, they might say, &lsquo;This
+      is no king, but the cripple Morven;&rsquo; and some of the race of Siror might
+      slay me secretly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+      govern them, living as now at mine own ease?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Verily, the stars shall give me a new palace, and many subjects</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+      sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said &ldquo;It were better to TRUST this man than to BLIND, for
+      surely I want a helpmate and a friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he said to the wise man as he sat alone watching the setting sun:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemeth to me, O Darvan! I that we ought to build a great pile in
+      honor of the stars and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+      palaces of the chiefs and the palaces of the king; for are not the stars
+      our masters?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace, and we
+      would serve the gods of night, and fatten their altars with the choicest
+      of the herd, and the freshest of the fruits of the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Darvan said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But will the people
+      help to build the pile, for they are a war-like race and they love not
+      toil?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done. Fear not</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In truth thou art a wondrous man, thy words ever come to pass,&rdquo; answered
+      Darvan; &ldquo;and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+      stars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly if thou servest me thou shalt know,&rdquo; answered the proud Morven;
+      and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman should command
+      the service of an elder and a chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now she loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not
+      savage and fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame
+      among the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her
+      why she wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she told him that her brother, the king, had visited her and had
+      spoken bitter words of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He taketh from me the affection of my people,&rdquo; said Siror, &ldquo;and blindeth
+      them with lies. And since he hath made me king, what if he take my kingdom
+      from me? Verily, a new tale of the stars might undo the old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the king had ordered her to keep watch on Morven&rsquo;s secrecy, and to see
+      whether truth was in him when he boasted of his commune with the Powers of
+      Night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven resented the king&rsquo;s ingratitude, and was troubled much, for a
+      king is a powerful foe; but tie comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble and
+      complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+      unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a cave by Morven&rsquo;s house in which he kept the sacred hawk, and
+      wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future need,
+      and the door of the cave was always barred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And one day he was thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall, that
+      he had never noted before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he
+      looked he perceived the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human
+      face peering in through the chink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven ran hastily from the cave, but the spy had disappeared among the
+      trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned pale when
+      he saw Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a feast, which, for
+      the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the moon, in honor of
+      the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And going out of Darvan&rsquo;s chamber, he returned to his wife, and bade her
+      hair, and go at the dawn of day to the king, her brother, and complain
+      bitterly of Morven&rsquo;s treatment, and pluck the black schemes from the
+      breast of the king. &ldquo;For surely,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;Darvan hath lied to thy
+      brother, and some evil awaits me that I would fain know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The herdsman&rsquo;s son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; stall I
+      not be avenged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have learned from one of the elders
+      that which convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the
+      base-born shall surely die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest my brother and I
+      will fall upon him and smite him to the death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fly now, O my beloved!&mdash;fly into the forests afar from my brethren,
+      or surely the sword of Siror will end thy days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the son of Osslab folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+      thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she had
+      implored him to fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fly!&rdquo; he said at length. &ldquo;Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+      should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven, the prophet,
+      conquers by arms mightier than the sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+      himself from the vengeance of the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, while Morven was musing hopelessly, he heard a roar of waters; and
+      behold the river, for it was now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds,
+      and was rushing along the valley to the houses of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the men of the tribe, and the women, and the children, came
+      running, and with shrieks to Morven&rsquo;s house, crying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold the river has burst upon us!&mdash;Save us, O ruler of the stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven and he resolved to risk his fate
+      upon one desperate scheme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye know not what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have
+      brought it on yourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they cried: &ldquo;How? O son of Osslah&mdash;we are ignorant of our crime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go down to the king&rsquo;s palace and wait before it, and surely I will follow
+      ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred this punishment from the
+      gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a receding sea; and when it was
+      gone from the place, Morven went alone to the house of Darvan, which was
+      next his own: and Darvan was greatly terrified, for he was of a great age,
+      and had no children, neither friends, and he feared that he could not of
+      himself escape the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him, soothingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo, the people love me, and I will see that thou art saved for verily
+      thou hast been friendly to me, and done me much service with the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+      forth, and saw that they were quite alone; then he seized the old man by
+      the throat, and ceased not his grip till he was quite dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And leaving the body of the elder on the floor, Morven, stole from the
+      house and shut the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when, hearing the
+      mighty roar of the waves advancing, and afar off the shrieks of women, he
+      lifted up his head, and said proudly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! in this hour terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save
+      the power of my soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, leaning on his pine staff, he strode down to the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might
+      see each other&rsquo;s faces in the universal fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Red flashed the quivering flames on the dark robes and pale front of
+      Morven; and he seemed mightier than the rest, because his face alone was
+      calm amidst the tumult.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And louder and hoarser came the roar of the waters; and swift rusted the
+      shades of night over the hastening tide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said in a stern voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the king; and wherefore is he absent from his people in the hour
+      of dread?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the gate of the palace opened; and, behold Siror was sitting in the
+      hall by the vast pine-fire and his brother by his side, and his chiefs
+      around him: for they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the
+      bidding of the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the same
+      rack whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+      its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Learn then, that the stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an
+      insult to their servants and delegates below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye have surnamed
+      the Prophet!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He harms not man or beast; he lives alone; and, far from the wild joys of
+      the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and fear the Powers of Night!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger&mdash;so is he able to
+      save ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your warriors bold;
+      and thus do your cattle bring forth their young, and the earth its fruits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, men of Oestrich!&mdash;they have laid snares for my life; and
+      there are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against the bosom
+      that is only filled with love for you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Therefore have the stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the river&mdash;therefore
+      doth this evil menace ye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither will it pass away until they who dig the pit for the servant of
+      the stars are buried in the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+      threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name them who conspired against thy life, O holy prophet! and surely they
+      shall be torn limb from limb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe the
+      foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves I
+      swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+      yourselves, and your children&rsquo;s children, the anger of the throned stars,
+      gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,&rdquo; he cried, lifting up his
+      voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king sat by
+      the pine-fire&mdash;&ldquo;yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose above thy
+      brother&mdash;yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come hither&mdash;strike,
+      if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the Gods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven resumed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch, his brother, and
+      Darvan, the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+      even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to devise
+      new benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+      spear quivered in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father&rsquo;s herdsman! and for thy
+      sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy power
+      with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear thee:
+      wherefore put him to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+      the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear him, O dread ones of the night&mdash;hark how he blasphemeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the crowd took up the word, and cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He blasphemeth&mdash;he blasphemeth against the prophet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the king and the chiefs who hated Morven, because of his power with
+      the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor knew
+      they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their chiefs, and
+      they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Summon Darvan to us, for he bath watched the steps of Morven, and he
+      shall lift the veil from my people&rsquo;s eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then three of the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven cried out with a loud voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark! thus saith the star who, now riding through yonder cloud breaks
+      forth upon my eyes&mdash;&lsquo;For the lie that the elder hath uttered against
+      my servant, the curse of the stars shall fall upon him.&rsquo; Seek, and as ye
+      find him, so may ye find ever the foes of Morven and the gods.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+      grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+      motionless with folded arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And hark&mdash;far and fast came on the war-steeds of the wave&mdash;the
+      people heard them marching to the land, and tossing their white manes in
+      the roaring wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo, as ye listen,&rdquo; said Morven, calmly, &ldquo;the river sweeps on. Haste, for
+      the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slave!&rdquo; shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+      heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+      the trunk of the oak behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the people, wroth at the danger of their beloved seer, uttered a wild
+      yell, and gathered round him with brandished swords, facing their
+      chieftains and their king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the
+      three warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid
+      him at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus found we the elder in the centre of his own hall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the prediction of
+      Morven was thus verified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So perish the enemies of Morven and the Stars!&rdquo; cried the son of Osslah.
+      And the people echoed the cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword above his
+      head, he plunged into the crowd:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy blood, base-born, or mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it!&rdquo; answered Morven, quailing not. &ldquo;People, smite the blasphemer.
+      Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your hearths. On, on,
+      or ye perish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smite! smite!&rdquo; cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+      round the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the cries of the
+      dying, and the yell of the trampling people, mingled with the roar of the
+      elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their own
+      tribe. And the last cry of the victors was, &ldquo;<i>Morven the prophet</i>&mdash;MORVEN
+      THE KING!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley, led
+      Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women and their children, to
+      a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Orna sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and
+      her race had perished from the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the greater
+      part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of the vale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven said to the people: &ldquo;The star kings are avenged, and their
+      wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the water have melted into the
+      crevices of the soil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And on the fourth day they returned to the city, and no man dared to name
+      another, save Morven, as the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling the
+      people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty temple in
+      honor of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the tribe held
+      most precious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of the tribe; and
+      he took also ten from among the men who had served him best, and he
+      ordained that they should serve the stars in the great temple: and Morven
+      was their chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he put away the crown they pressed upon him, and he chose from among
+      the elders a new king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the
+      great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council, and
+      proclaim war: but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to make
+      merry in the banquet halls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first who, in the
+      North, <i>sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards human flesh</i>,
+      upon the altars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he drew auguries from the entrails of the victim, and made schools for
+      the science of the prophet; and Morven&rsquo;s piety was the wonder of the
+      tribe, in that he refused to be a king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven, the high-priest, was <i>ten thousand times mightier than the
+      king</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He taught the people to till the ground, and to sow the herb; and by his
+      wisdom, and the valor that his prophecies instilled into men, he conquered
+      all the neighboring tribes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire, and with
+      them spread the name and the laws of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them to build a
+      temple to the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a heavy sorrow fell upon the years of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sister of Siror bowed down her head and survived not long the
+      slaughter of her race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she left Morven childless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught, for her only in the world
+      had his heart the power to love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he sat down and covered his face, saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo: I have conquered and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+      conquer what I have conquered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Verily, the empire of the iron thews and the giant limbs is no more; I
+      have found a new power, that henceforth shall sway the lands;&mdash;<i>the
+      empire of plotting brain and a commanding mind</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, behold, my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will grow
+      neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Desolate and lonely shall I pass away unto my grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like unto thee, and to thy love
+      do I owe my glory and my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+      heart&mdash;would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for
+      verily with my life would I have purchased thine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that thy love was dearer to me
+      than the fear of others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But from that time forth he gave himself solely to the cares of his
+      calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was left
+      soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love, <i>and
+      he forbade love and marriage to the priest</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, in his latter years, there arose OTHER prophets; for the world had
+      grown wiser even by Morven&rsquo;s wisdom, and some did say unto themselves:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold Morven, the herdsman&rsquo;s son, is a king of kings: this did the stars
+      for their servant; shall we not, therefore, be also servants to the star?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+      what the stars foretold them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more than other men, knew that the
+      prophets lied; wherefore he went forth against them with the ministers of
+      the temple, and he took them and burned them by a slow fire: for thus said
+      Morven to the people:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>A true prophet hath honor, but I only am a true prophet!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To all false prophets there shall be surely death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+      temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he died full of years and honor; and they carved his effigy on a
+      mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+      ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+      calmness of unspeakable awe!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made <i>Religion the
+      stepping stone to Power</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_CONC" id="link2H_CONC">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CONCLUSION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+      ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The night was
+      dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and frequent
+      hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night. But ever and
+      anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and were again
+      swallowed up in the graves of darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And far below his brethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the
+      discontented star that had watched over the hunters of the North. And on
+      the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty gloom, from
+      which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke; and still, when
+      the great winds rested for an instant on their paths, voices of woe and
+      laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from the abyss to the
+      upper air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+      and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne of
+      the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled on
+      his throne when the form stood before him face to face. And the shape
+      said: &ldquo;Hail, brother!&mdash;all hail!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know thee not,&rdquo; answered the star: &ldquo;thou art not the archangel that
+      visitests the kings of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the shape laughed loud. &ldquo;I am the fallen star of the morning.&mdash;I
+      am Lucifer, thy brother. Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine?
+      and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above and
+      given it to me by <i>darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?</i>
+      Wherefore come, brother, come;&mdash;thou hast a throne prepared beside my
+      own in the fiery gloom. Come.&mdash;The heavens are no more for thee.&rdquo;
+       Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of Lucifer.
+      For ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the soul of
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And slowly they sank down to the gulf of gloom. It was the first night of
+      the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby throne, and watched with
+      sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow dimmed the bright faces of the
+      kings of night, for they mourned in silence and in fear for a fallen
+      brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound, and
+      the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel gave
+      to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord; and to each star
+      was his appointed charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when the heraldry seemed done, there came a laugh from the abyss of
+      gloom, and half way from the gulf rose the lurid shape of Lucifer, the
+      fiend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd. Behold! one star is
+      missing from the three thousand and ten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!&mdash;the throne of thy brother hath
+      been filled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all lustrous
+      stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was so soft to
+      look upon, that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon its
+      splendor unabashed; but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its lustre,
+      and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe, he
+      plunged backwards into the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold! <i>on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of hope;
+      and he that breathed into mankind the Religion of Fear hath a successor in
+      him who shall teach earth the Religion of Love.</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And evermore the Star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the Star of Love
+      keeps vigil in heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      By Lord Brougham
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The question which has more than, any other harassed metaphysical
+      reasoners, but especially theologians, and upon which it is probable that
+      no very satisfactory conclusion will ever be reached by the human
+      faculties, is the Origin and Sufferance of Evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its existence being always assumed, philosophers have formed various
+      theories for explaining it, but they have always drawn very different
+      inferences from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence of the Deity, because
+      they held that the existence of Evil either proved him to be limited in
+      power or of a malignant nature; either of which imperfections is
+      inconsistent with the first notions of a divine being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this kind of reasoning they have been followed both by the atheists and
+      sceptics of later times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bayle regarded the subject of evil as one of the great arsenals from
+      whence his weapons were to be chiefly drawn. None of the articles in his
+      famous Dictionary are more labored than those in which he treats of this
+      subject. <i>Monichian</i>, and still more <i>Paulician</i>, almost assume
+      the appearance of formal treatises upon the question; and both <i>Marchionite</i>
+      and <i>Zoroaster</i> treat of the same subject. All these articles are of
+      considerable value; they contain the greater part of the learning upon the
+      question; and they are distinguished by the acuteness of reasoning which
+      was the other characteristic of their celebrated author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those ancient philosophers who did not agree with Epicurus in arguing from
+      the existence of evil against the existence of a providence that
+      superintended and influenced the destinies of the world, were put to no
+      little difficulty in accounting for the fact which they did not deny, and
+      yet maintaining the power of a divine ruler. The doctrine of a double
+      principle, or of two divine beings of opposite natures, one beneficent,
+      the other mischievous, was the solution which one class of reasoners
+      deemed satisfactory, and to which they held themselves driven by the
+      phenomena of the universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Others unable to deny, the existence of things which men denominate evil,
+      both physical and moral, explain them in a different way. They maintained
+      that physical evil only obtains the name from our imperfect and vicious or
+      feeble dispositions; that to a wise man there is no such thing; that we
+      may rise superior to all such groveling notions as make us dread or repine
+      at any events which can befall the body; that pain, sickness, loss of
+      fortune or of reputation, exile, death itself, are only accounted ills by
+      a weak and pampered mind; that if we find the world tiresome, or woeful,
+      or displeasing, we may at any moment quit it; and that therefore we have
+      no right whatever to call any suffering connected with existence on earth
+      an evil, because almost all sufferings can be borne by a patient and firm
+      mind; since if the situation we are placed in becomes either intolerable,
+      or upon the whole more painful than agreeable, it is our own fault that we
+      remain in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these philosophers took a further view of the question which
+      especially applied to moral evil. They considered that nothing could be
+      more groundless than to suppose that if there were no evil there could be
+      any good in the world; and they illustrated this position by asking how we
+      could know anything of temperance, fortitude or justice, unless there were
+      such things as excess, cowardice and injustice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were the doctrines of the Stoics, from whose sublime and
+      impracticable philosophy they seemed naturally enough to flow. Aulus
+      Gellius relates that the last-mentioned argument was expounded by
+      Chrysippus, in his work upon providence. The answer given by Plutarch
+      seems quite sufficient: &ldquo;As well might you say that Achilles could not
+      have a fine head of hair unless Thersites had been bald; or that one man&rsquo;s
+      limbs could not be all sound if another had not the gout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In truth, the Stoical doctrine proceeds upon the assumption that all
+      virtue is only the negative of vice; and is as absurd, if indeed it be not
+      the very same absurdity, as the doctrine which should deny the existence
+      of affirmative or positive truths, resolving them all into the opposite of
+      negative propositions. Indeed, if we even were to admit this as an
+      abstract position, the actual existence of evil would still be unnecessary
+      to the idea, and still more to the existence, of good. For the conception
+      of evil, the bare idea of its possibility, would be quite sufficient, and
+      there would be no occasion for a single example of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other doctrine, that of two opposite principles, was embraced by most
+      of the other sects, as it should seem, at some period or other of their
+      inquiries. Plato himself, in his later works, was clearly a supporter of
+      the system; for he held that there were at least two principles, a good
+      and an evil; to which he added a third, the moderator or mediator between
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether this doctrine was, like many others, imported into Greece from the
+      East, or was the natural growth of the schools, we cannot ascertain.
+      Certain it is that the Greeks themselves believed it to have been taught
+      by Zoroaster in Asia, at least five centuries before the Trojan war; so
+      that it had an existence there long before the name of philosophy was
+      known in the western world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Zoroaster&rsquo;s doctrine agreed in every respect with Plato&rsquo;s; for besides
+      Oomazes, the good, and Arimanius, the evil principle, he taught that there
+      was a third, or mediatory one, called Mithras. That it never became any
+      part of the popular belief in Greece or Italy is quite clear. All the
+      polytheism of those countries recognized each of the gods as authors alike
+      of good and evil. Nor did even the chief of the divinities, under whose
+      power the rest were placed, offer any exception to the general rule; for
+      Jupiter not only gave good from one urn and ill from another, but he was
+      also, according to the barbarous mythology of classical antiquity, himself
+      a model at once of human perfections and of human vices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the light of the Christian religion had made some way toward
+      supplanting the ancient polytheism, the doctrine of two principles was
+      broached; first by Marcion, who lived in the time of Adrian and Antonius
+      Pius, early in the second century; and next by Manes, a hundred years
+      later. He was a Persian slave, who was brought into Greece, where he
+      taught this doctrine, since known by his name, having learned it, as is
+      said, from Scythianus, an Arabian. The Manichean doctrines, afterwards
+      called also Paulician, from a great teacher of them in the seventh
+      century, were like almost all the heresies in the primitive church, soon
+      mixed up with gross impurities of sacred rites as well as extravagant
+      absurdities of creed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Manicheans were, probably as much on this account as from the spirit
+      of religious intolerance, early the objects of severe persecution; and the
+      Code of Justinian itself denounces capital punishment against any of the
+      sect, if found within the Roman dominions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be confessed that the theory of two principles, when kept free
+      from the absurdities and impurities which were introduced into the
+      Manichean doctrine, is not unnaturally adopted by men who have no aid from
+      the light of revelation,<a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1"
+       id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> and who are confounded by the
+      appearance of a world where evil and good are mixed together, or seem to
+      struggle with one another, sometimes the one prevailing, and sometimes the
+      other; and accordingly, in all countries, in the most barbarous nations,
+      as well as among the most refined, we find plain traces of reflecting men
+      having been driven to this solution of the difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems upon a superficial view to be very easily deducible from the
+      phenomena; and as the idea of infinite power, with which it is manifestly
+      inconsistent, does by no means so naturally present itself to the mind, as
+      long as only a very great degree of power, a power which in comparison of
+      all human force may be termed infinite, is the attribute with which the
+      Deity is believed to be endued. Manichean hypothesis is by no means so
+      easily refuted. That the power of the Deity was supposed to have limits
+      even in the systems of the most enlightened heathens is unquestionable.
+      They, generally speaking, believed in the eternity of matter, and
+      conceived some of its qualities to be so essentially necessary to its
+      existence that no divine agency could alter them. They ascribed to the
+      Deity a plastic power, a power not of creating or annihilating, but only
+      of moulding, disposing and moving matter. So over mind they generally give
+      him the like power, considering it as a kind of emanation from his own
+      greater mind or essence, and destined to be re-united with him hereafter.
+      Nay, over all the gods, and of superior potency to any, they conceived
+      fate to preside; an overruling and paramount necessity, of which they
+      formed some dark conceptions, and to which the chief of all the gods was
+      supposed to submit. It is, indeed, extremely difficult to state precisely
+      what the philosophic theory of theology was in Greece and Rome, because
+      the wide difference between the esoteric and exoteric doctrines, between
+      the belief of the learned few and the popular superstition, makes it very
+      difficult to avoid confounding the two, and lending to the former some of
+      the grosser errors with which the latter abounded. Nevertheless, we may
+      rely upon what has been just stated, as conveying, generally speaking, the
+      opinion of philosophers, although some sects certainly had a still more
+      scanty measure of belief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we shall presently find that in the speculation of the much more
+      enlightened moderns, Christians of course, errors of a like kind are to be
+      traced. They constantly argue the great question of evil upon a latent
+      assumption, that the power of the Deity is restricted by some powers or
+      qualities inherent in matter; notions analogous to that of faith are
+      occasionally perceptible; not stated or expanded indeed into propositions,
+      but influencing the course of the reasoning; while the belief of infinite
+      attributes is never kept steadily in view, except when it is called in as
+      requisite to refute the Manichean doctrines. Some observers of the
+      controversy have indeed not scrupled to affirm that those of whom we speak
+      are really Manicheans without knowing it; and build their systems upon
+      assumptions secretly borrowed from the disciples of Zoroaster, without
+      ever stating those assumptions openly in the form of postulates or
+      definition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The refutation of the Manichean hypothesis is extremely easy if we be
+      permitted to assume that both the principles which it supposes are either
+      of infinite power or of equal power. If they are of infinite power, the
+      supposition of their co-existence involves a contradiction in terms; for
+      the one being in opposition to the other, the power of each must be
+      something taken from that of the other; consequently neither can be of
+      infinite power. If, again, we only suppose both to be of equal power, and
+      always acting against each other, there could be nothing whatever done,
+      neither good or evil; the universe would be at a standstill; or rather no
+      act of creation could ever have been performed, and no existence could be
+      conceived beyond that of the two antagonistic principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Archbishop Tillotson&rsquo;s argument, properly speaking, amounts to this last
+      proposition, and is applicable to equal and opposite principles, although
+      he applies it to two beings, both infinitely powerful and counteracting
+      one another. When he says they would tie up each other&rsquo;s bands, he might
+      apply this argument to such antagonistic principles if only equal,
+      although not infinitely powerful. The hypothesis of their being both
+      infinitely powerful needs no such refutation; it is a contradiction in
+      terms. But it must be recollected that the advocates of the Manichean
+      doctrine endeavor to guard themselves against the attack by contending,
+      that the conflict between the two principles ends in a kind of compromise,
+      so that neither has it all his own way; there is a mixture of evil
+      admitted by the good principle, because else the whole would beat a
+      standstill; while there is much good admitted by the evil principle, else
+      nothing, either good or evil, would be done. Another answer is therefore
+      required to this theory than what Tillotson and his followers have given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>First</i>, we must observe that this reasoning of the Manicheans
+      proceeds upon the analogy of what we see in mortal contentions; where
+      neither party having the power to defeat the other, each is content to
+      yield a little to his adversary, and so, by mutual concession, both are
+      successful to some extent, and both to some extent disappointed. But in a
+      speculation concerning the nature of the Deity, there seems no place for
+      such notions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Secondly</i>, the equality of power is not an arbitrary assumption; it
+      seems to follow from the existence of the two opposing principles. For if
+      they are independent of one another as to existence, which they must needs
+      be, else one would immediately destroy the other, so must they also, in
+      each particular instance, be independent of each other, and also equal
+      each to the other, else one would have the mastery, and the influence of
+      the other could not be perceived. To say that in some things the good
+      principle prevails and in others the evil, is really saying nothing more
+      than that good exists here and evil there. It does not further the
+      argument one step, nor give anything like an explanation. For it must
+      always be borne in mind that the whole question respecting the Origin of
+      Evil proceeds upon the assumption of a wise, benevolent and powerful Being
+      having created the world. The difficulty, and the only difficulty, is, how
+      to reconcile existing evil with such a Being&rsquo;s attributes; and if the
+      Manichean only explains this by saying the good Being did what is good,
+      and another and evil Being did what is bad in the universe, he really
+      tells us nothing more than the fact; he does not apply his explanation to
+      the difficulty; and he supposes the existence of a second Deity
+      gratuitously and to no kind of purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, <i>thirdly</i>, in whatever light we view the hypothesis, it seems
+      exposed to a similar objection, namely, of explaining nothing in its
+      application, while it is wholly gratuitous in itself. It assumes, of
+      course, that creation was the act of the good Being; and it also assumes
+      that Being&rsquo;s goodness to have been perfect, though his power is limited.
+      Then as he must have known the existence of the evil principle and
+      foreseen the certainty of misery being occasioned by his existence, why
+      did he voluntarily create sentient beings, to put them, in some respects
+      at least, under the evil one&rsquo;s power, and thus be exposed to suffering?
+      The good Being, according to this theory, is the remote cause of the evil
+      which is endured, because but for his act of creation the evil Being could
+      have had, no subjects whereon to work mischief; so that the hypothesis
+      wholly fails in removing, by more than one step, the difficulty which it
+      was invented to solve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fourthly</i>, there is no advantage gained to the argument by supposing
+      two Beings, rather than one Being of a mixed nature. The facts lead to
+      this supposition just as naturally as to the hypothesis of two principles.
+      The existence of the evil Being is as much a detraction from the power of
+      the good one, as if we only at once suppose the latter to be of limited
+      power, and that he prefers making and supporting creatures who suffer much
+      less than they enjoy, to making no creatures at all. The supposition that
+      he made them as happy as he could, and that not being able to make them
+      less miserable, he yet perceived that upon the whole their existence would
+      occasion more happiness than if they never had any being at all, will just
+      account for the phenomena as well as the Manichean theory, and will as
+      little as that theory assume any malevolence in the power which created
+      and preserved the universe. If, however, it be objected that this
+      hypothesis leaves unexplained the fetters upon the good Being&rsquo;s power, the
+      answer is obvious; it leaves those fetters not at all less explained than
+      the Manichean theory does; for that theory gives no explanation of the
+      existence of a counteracting principle, and it assumes both an
+      antagonistic power, to limit the Deity&rsquo;s power, and a malevolent principle
+      to set the antagonistic power in motion; whereas our supposition assumes
+      no malevolence at all, but only a restraint upon the divine power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fifthly</i>, this leads us to another and most formidable objection. To
+      conceive the eternal existence of one Being infinite in power,
+      &ldquo;self-created and creating all others,&rdquo; is by no means impossible. Indeed,
+      as everything must have had a cause, nothing we see being by possibility
+      self-created, we naturally mount from particulars to generals, until
+      finally we rise to the idea of a first cause, uncreated, and
+      self-existing, and eternal. If the phenomena compels us to affix limits to
+      his goodness, we find it impossible to conceive limits to the power of a
+      creative, eternal, self-existing principle. But even supposing we could
+      form the conception of such a Being having his power limited as well as
+      his goodness, still we can conceive no second Being independent of him.
+      This would necessarily lead to the supposition of some third Being, above
+      and antecedent to both, and the creator of both&mdash;the real first cause&mdash;and
+      then the whole question would be to solve over again,&mdash;Why these two
+      antagonistic Beings were suffered to exist by the great Being of all?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Manichean doctrine, then, is exposed to every objection to which a
+      theory can be obnoxious. It is gratuitous; it is inapplicable to the
+      facts; it supposes more causes than are necessary; it fails to explain the
+      phenomena, leaving the difficulties exactly where it found them.
+      Nevertheless, such is the theory, how easily soever refuted when openly
+      avowed and explicitly stated, which in various disguises appears to
+      pervade the explanations, given of the facts by most of the other systems;
+      nay, to form, secretly and unacknowledged, their principal ground-work.
+      For it really makes very little difference in the matter whether we are to
+      account for evil by holding that the Deity has created as much happiness
+      as was consistent with &ldquo;the nature of things,&rdquo; and has taken every means
+      of avoiding all evil except &ldquo;where it necessarily existed&rdquo; or at once give
+      those limiting influences a separate and independent existence, and call
+      them by a name of their own, which is the Manichean hypothesis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most remarkable argument on this subject, and the most distinguished
+      both for its clear and well ordered statement, and for the systematic
+      shape which it assumes, is that of Archbishop King. It is the great
+      text-book of those who study this subject; and like the famous legal work
+      of Littleton, it has found an expounder yet abler and more learned than
+      the author himself. Bishop Law&rsquo;s commentary is full of information, of
+      reasoning and of explication; nor can we easily find anything valuable
+      upon the subject which is not contained in the volumes of that work. It
+      will, however, only require a slight examination of the doctrines
+      maintained by these learned and pious men, to satisfy us that they all
+      along either assume the thing to be proved, or proceed upon suppositions
+      quite inconsistent with the infinite power of the Deity&mdash;the only
+      position which raises a question, and which makes the difficulty that
+      requires to be solved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to all the systems as well as this one, evil is of two kinds&mdash;physical
+      and moral. To the former class belong all the sufferings to which sentient
+      beings are exposed from the qualities and affections of matter independent
+      of their own acts; the latter class consists of the sufferings of whatever
+      kind which arise from their own conduct. This division of the subject,
+      however, is liable to one serious objection; it comprehends under the
+      second head a class of evils which ought more properly to be ranged under
+      the first. Nor is this a mere question of classification: it affects the
+      whole scope of the argument. The second of the above-mentioned classes
+      comprehends both the physical evils which human agency causes, but which
+      it would have no power to cause unless the qualities of matter were such
+      as to produce pain, privation and death; and also the moral evil of guilt
+      which may possibly exist independent of material agency, but which,
+      whether independent or not upon that physical action, is quite separable
+      from it, residing wholly in the mind. Thus a person who destroys the life
+      of another produces physical evil by means of the constitution of matter,
+      and moral evil is the source of his wicked action. The true arrangement
+      then is this: Physical evil is that which depends on the constitution of
+      matter, or only is so far connected with the constitution of mind as that
+      the nature and existence of a sentient being must be assumed in order to
+      its mischief being felt. And this physical evil is of two kinds; that
+      which originates in human action, and that which is independent of human
+      action, befalling us from the unalterable course of nature. Of the former
+      class are the pains, privations and destruction inflicted by men one upon
+      another; of the latter class are diseases, old age and death. Moral evil
+      consists in the crimes, whether of commission or omission, which men are
+      guilty of&mdash;including under the latter head those sufferings which we
+      endure from ill-regulated minds through want of fortitude or self-control.
+      It is clear that as far as the question of the origin of evil is
+      concerned, the first of these two classes, physical evil, depends upon the
+      properties of matter, and the last upon those of mind. The second as well
+      as the first subdivision of the physical class depends upon matter;
+      because, however ill-disposed the agent&rsquo;s mind may be, he could inflict
+      the mischief only in consequence of the constitution of matter. Therefore,
+      the Being, who created matter enabled him to perpetrate the evil, even
+      admitting that this Being did not, by creating the mind also give rise to
+      the evil disposition; and admitting that, as far as regards this
+      disposition it has the same origin with the evil of the second class, or
+      moral evil, the acts of a rational agent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is quite true that many reasoners refuse to allow any distinction
+      between the evil produced by natural causes and the evils caused by
+      rational agents, whether as regards their own guilt, or the mischief it
+      caused to others. Those reasoners deny that the creation of man&rsquo;s will and
+      the endowing it with liberty explains anything; they hold that the
+      creation of a mind whose will is to do evil, amounts to the same thing,
+      and belongs to the same class, with the creation of matter whose nature is
+      to give pain and misery. But this position, which involves the doctrine of
+      necessity, must, at the very least, admit of one modification. Where no
+      human agency whatever is interposed, and the calamity comes without any
+      one being to blame for it, the mischief seems a step, and a large step,
+      nearer the creative or the superintending cause, because it is, as far as
+      men go, altogether inevitable. The main tendency of the argument,
+      therefore, is confined to physical evil; and this has always been found
+      the most difficult to account for, that is to reconcile with the
+      government of a perfectly good and powerful Being. It would indeed be very
+      easily explained, and the reconcilement would be readily made, if we were
+      at liberty to suppose matter independent in its existence, and in certain
+      qualities, of the divine control; but this would be to suppose the Deity&rsquo;s
+      power limited and imperfect, which is just one horn of the Epicurean
+      dilemma, <i>&ldquo;Aut vult et non potest;&rdquo;</i> and in assuming this, we do not
+      so much beg the question as wholly give it up and admit we cannot solve
+      the difficulty. Yet obvious as this is, we shall presently see that the
+      reasoners who have undertaken the solution, and especially King and Law,
+      under such phrases as &ldquo;the nature of things,&rdquo; and &ldquo;the laws of the
+      material universe,&rdquo; have been constantly, through the whole argument,
+      guilty of this <i>petitio principii</i> (begging the question), or rather
+      this abandonment of the whole question, and never more so than at the very
+      moment when they complacently plumed themselves upon having overcome the
+      difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having premised these observations for the purpose of clearing the ground
+      and avoiding confusion in the argument, we may now consider that
+      Archbishop King&rsquo;s theory is in both its parts; for there are in truth two
+      distinct explanations, the one resembling an argument <i>a priori</i>, the
+      other an argument <i>a posteriori</i>. It is, however, not a little
+      remarkable that Bishop Law, in the admirable abstract or analysis which he
+      gives of the Archbishop&rsquo;s treatise at the end of his preface, begins with
+      the second branch, omitting all mention of the first, as if he considered
+      it to be merely introductory matter; and yet his fourteenth note (t. cap.
+      I s. 3.) shows that he was aware of its being an argument wholly
+      independent of the rest of the reasonings; for he there says that the
+      author had given one demonstration <i>a priori</i>, and that no
+      difficulties raised by an examination of the phenomena, no objection <i>a
+      posteriori</i>, ought to overrule it, unless these difficulties are
+      equally certain and clear with the demonstration, and admit of no solution
+      consistent with that demonstration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necessity of a first cause being shown, and it being evident that
+      therefore this cause is uncreated and self-existent, and independent of
+      any other, the conclusion is next drawn that its power must be infinite.
+      This is shown by the consideration that there is no other antecedent
+      cause, and no other principle which was not created by the first cause,
+      and consequently which was not of inferior power; therefore, there is
+      nothing which can limit the power of the first cause; and there being no
+      limiter or restrainer, there can be no limitation or restriction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, the infinity of the Deity&rsquo;s power is attempted to be proved in
+      another way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of possible things is infinite; but every possibility implies a
+      power to do the possible thing; and as one possible thing implies a power
+      to do it, an infinite number of possible things implies an infinite power.
+      Or as Descartes and his followers put it, we can have no idea of anything
+      that has not either an actual or a possible existence; but we have an idea
+      of a Being of infinite perfection; therefore, he must actually exist; for
+      otherwise there would be one perfection wanting, and so he would not be
+      infinite, which he either is actually or possibly. It is needless to
+      remark that this whole argument, whatever may be said of the former one,
+      is a pure fallacy, and a <i>petitio principii</i> throughout. The
+      Cartesian form of it is the most glaringly fallacious, and indeed exposes
+      itself; for by that reasoning we might prove the existence of a fiery
+      dragon or any other phantom of the brain. But even King&rsquo;s more concealed
+      sophism is equally absurd. What ground is there for saying that the number
+      of possible things is infinite? He adds, &ldquo;at least in power,&rdquo; which means
+      either nothing or only that we have the power of conceiving an infinite
+      number of possibilities. But because we can conceive or fancy an infinity
+      of possibilities, does it follow that there actually exists this infinity?
+      The whole argument is unworthy of a moment&rsquo;s consideration. The other is
+      more plausible, that restriction implies a restraining power. But even
+      this is not satisfactory when closely examined. For although the first
+      cause must be self-existent and of eternal duration, we only are driven by
+      the necessity of supposing a cause whereon all the argument rests, to
+      suppose one capable of causing all that actually exists; and, therefore,
+      to extend this inference and suppose that the cause is of infinite power
+      seems gratuitous. Nor is it necessary to suppose another power limiting
+      its efficacy, if we do not find it necessary to suppose its own
+      constitution and essence such as we term infinitely powerful. However,
+      after noticing this manifest defect in the fundamental part of the
+      argument, that which infers infinite power, let us for the present assume
+      the position to be proved either by these or by any other reasons, and see
+      if the structure raised upon it is such as can stand the test of
+      examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, then, an infinitely powerful Being exists, and he was the creator of
+      the universe; but to incline him towards the creation there could be no
+      possible motive of happiness to himself, and he must, says King, have
+      either sought his own happiness or that of the universe which he made.
+      Therefore his own ideas must have been the communication of happiness to
+      the creature. He could only desire to exercise his attributes without, or
+      eternally to himself, which before creating other beings he could not do.
+      But this could only gratify his nature, which wants nothing, being perfect
+      in itself, by communicating his goodness and providing for the happiness
+      of other sentient beings created by him for this purpose. Therefore, says
+      King, &ldquo;it manifestly follows that the world is as well as it could be made
+      by infinite power and goodness; for since the exercise of the divine power
+      and the communication of his goodness are the ends, for which the world is
+      formed, there is no doubt but God has attained these ends.&rdquo; And again, &ldquo;If
+      then anything inconvenient or incommodious be now, or was from the
+      beginning in it, that certainly could not be hindered or removed even by
+      infinite power, wisdom and goodness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now certainly no one can deny, that if God be infinitely powerful and also
+      infinitely good, it must follow that whatever looks like evil, either is
+      not really evil, or that it is such as infinite power could not avoid.
+      This is implied in the very terms of the hypothesis. It may also be
+      admitted that if the Deity&rsquo;s only object in his dispensation be the
+      happiness of his creatures, the same conclusion follows even without
+      assuming his nature to be infinitely good; for we admit what, for the
+      purpose of the argument, is the same thing, namely, that there entered no
+      evil into his design in creating or maintaining the universe. But all this
+      really assumes the very thing to be proved. King gets over the difficulty
+      and reaches his conclusion by saying, &ldquo;The Deity could have only one of
+      two objects&mdash;his own happiness or that of his creatures.&rdquo;&mdash;The
+      skeptic makes answer, &ldquo;He might have another object, namely, the misery of
+      his creatures;&rdquo; and then the whole question is, whether or not he had this
+      other object; or, which is the same thing, whether or not his nature is
+      perfectly good. It must never be forgotten that unless evil exists there
+      is nothing to dispute about&mdash;the question falls. The whole difficulty
+      arises from the admission that evil exists, or what we call evil, exists.
+      From this we inquire whether or not the author of it can be perfectly
+      benevolent? or if he be, with what view he has created it? This assumes
+      him to be infinitely powerful, or at least powerful enough to have
+      prevented the evil; but indeed we are now arguing with the Archbishop on
+      the supposition that he has proved the Deity to be of infinite power. The
+      skeptic rests upon his dilemma, and either alternative, limited power or
+      limited goodness, satisfies him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is quite plain, therefore, that King has assumed the thing to be proved
+      in his first argument, or argument <i>a priori</i>. For he proceeds upon
+      the postulates that the Deity is infinitely good, and that he only had
+      human happiness in view when he made the world. Either supposition would
+      have served his purpose; and making either would have been taking for
+      granted the whole matter in dispute. But he has assumed both; and it must
+      be added, he has made his assumption of both as if he was only laying down
+      a single position. This part of the work is certainly more slovenly than
+      the rest. It is the third section of the first chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is certainly not from any reluctance to admit the existence of evil
+      that the learned author and his able commentator have been led into this
+      inconclusive course of reasoning. We shall nowhere find more striking
+      expositions of the state of things in this respect, nor more gloomy
+      descriptions of our condition, than in their celebrated work. &ldquo;Whence so
+      many, inaccuracies,&rdquo; says the Archbishop, &ldquo;in the work of a most good and
+      powerful God? Whence that perpetual war between the very elements, between
+      animals, between men? Whence errors, miseries and vices, the constant
+      companions of human life from its infancy? Whence good to evil men, evil
+      to the good? If we behold anything irregular in the work of men, if any
+      machine serves not the end it was made for, if we find something in it
+      repugnant to itself or others, we attribute that to the ignorance,
+      impatience or malice of the workman. But since these qualities have no
+      place in God, how come they to have place in anything? Or why does God
+      suffer his works to be deformed by them?&rdquo;&mdash;Chap. ii. s. 3. Bishop
+      Law, in his admirable preface, still more cogently puts the case: &ldquo;When I
+      inquire how I got into the world, and came to be what I am, I am told that
+      an absolutely perfect being produced me out of nothing, and placed me here
+      on purpose to communicate some part of his happiness to me, and to make me
+      in some manner like himself. This end is not obtained&mdash;the direct
+      contrary appears&mdash;I find myself surrounded with nothing but
+      perplexity, want and misery&mdash;by whose fault I know not&mdash;how to
+      better myself I cannot tell. What notions of good and goodness can this
+      afford me? What ideas of religion? What hopes of a future state? For if
+      God&rsquo;s aim in producing me be entirely unknown, if it be either his glory
+      (as some will have it), which my present state is far from advancing, nor
+      mine own good, which the same is equally inconsistent with, how know I
+      what I have to do here, or indeed in what manner I must endeavor to please
+      him? Or why should I endeavor it at all? For if I must be miserable in
+      this world, what security have I that I shall not be so in another too (if
+      there be one), since if it were the will of my Almighty Creator, I might
+      (for aught I see) have been happy in both.&rdquo;&mdash;Pref. viii. The question
+      thus is stated. The difficulty is raised in its full and formidable
+      magnitude by both these learned and able men; that they have signally
+      failed to lay it by the argument <i>a priori</i> is plain. Indeed, it
+      seems wholly impossible ever to answer by an argument <i>a priori</i> any
+      objection whatever which arises altogether out of the facts made known to
+      us by experience alone, and which are therefore in the nature of
+      contingent truths, resting upon contingent evidence, while all
+      demonstrations <i>a priori</i> must necessarily proceed upon mathematical
+      truths. Let us now see if their labors have been more successful in
+      applying to the solution of the difficulty the reasoning <i>a posteriori.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Archbishop King divides evil into three kinds&mdash;imperfection, natural
+      evil and moral evil&mdash;including under the last head all the physical
+      evils that arise from human actions, as well as the evils which consists
+      in the guilt of those actions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The existence of imperfection is stated to be necessary, because
+      everything which is created and not self-existent must be imperfect;
+      consequently every work of the Deity, in other words, everything but the
+      Deity himself, must have imperfection in its nature. Nor is the existence
+      of some beings which are imperfect any interference with the attributes of
+      others. Nor the existence of beings with many imperfections any
+      interference with others having pre-eminence. The goodness of the Deity
+      therefore is not impugned by the existence of various orders of created
+      beings more or less approaching to perfection. His creating none at all
+      would have left the universe less admirable and containing less happiness
+      than it now does. Therefore, the act of mere benevolence which called
+      those various orders into existence is not impeached in respect of
+      goodness any more than of power by the variety of the attributes possessed
+      by the different beings created.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now proceeds to grapple with the real difficulty of the question. And
+      it is truly astonishing to find this acute metaphysician begin with an
+      assumption which entirely begs that question. As imperfection, says he,
+      arises from created beings having been made out of nothing, so natural
+      evils arise &ldquo;from all natural things having a relation to matter, and on
+      this account being necessarily subject to natural evil.&rdquo; As long as matter
+      is subject to motion, it must be the subject of generation and corruption.
+      &ldquo;These and all other natural evils,&rdquo; says the author, &ldquo;are so necessarily
+      connected with the material origin of things that they cannot be separated
+      from it, and thus the structure of the world either ought not to have been
+      formed at all, or these evils must have been tolerated without any
+      imputation on the divine power and goodness.&rdquo; Again, he says, &ldquo;corruption
+      could not be avoided without violence done to the laws of motion and the
+      nature of matter.&rdquo; Again, &ldquo;All manner of inconveniences could not be
+      avoided because of the imperfection of matter and the nature of motion.
+      That state of things were therefore preferable which was attained with the
+      fewest and the least inconveniences.&rdquo; Then follows a kind of menace, &ldquo;And
+      who but a very rash, indiscreet person will affirm that God has not made
+      choice of this?&rdquo;&mdash;when every one must perceive that the bare
+      propounding of the question concerning evil calls upon us to exercise this
+      temerity and commit this indiscretion.&mdash;Chap. iv. s. I, div. 7. He
+      then goes into more detail as to particular cases of natural evil; but all
+      are handled in the same way. Thus death is explained by saying that the
+      bodies of animals are a kind of vessels which contain fluids in motion,
+      and being broken, the fluids are spilt and the motions cease; &ldquo;because by
+      the native imperfection of matter it is capable of dissolution, and the
+      spilling and stagnation must necessarily follow, and with it animal life
+      must cease.&rdquo;&mdash;Chap. iv. s. 3. Disease is dealt with in like manner.
+      &ldquo;It could not be avoided unless animals had been made of a quite different
+      frame and constitution.&rdquo;&mdash;Chap. iv. s. 7. The whole reasoning is
+      summed up in the concluding section of this part, where the author
+      somewhat triumphantly says, &ldquo;The difficult question then, whence comes
+      evil? is not unanswerable. For it arises from the very nature and
+      constitution of created beings, and could not be avoided without a
+      contradiction.&rdquo;&mdash;Chap. iv. s. 9. To this the commentary of Bishop Law
+      adds (Note 4i), &ldquo;that natural evil has been shown to be, in every case,
+      unavoidable, without introducing into the system a greater evil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is certain that many persons, led away by the authority of a great
+      name, have been accustomed to regard this work as a text-book, and have
+      appealed to Archbishop King and his learned commentator as having solved
+      the question. So many men have referred to the <i>Principia</i> as showing
+      the motions of the heavenly bodies, who never read, or indeed could read,
+      a page of that immortal work. But no man ever did open it who could read
+      it and find himself disappointed in any one particular; the whole
+      demonstration is perfect; not a link is wanting; nothing is assumed. How
+      different the case here! We open the work of the prelate and find it from
+      the first to last a chain of gratuitous assumptions, and, of the main
+      point, nothing whatever is either proved or explained. Evil arises, he
+      says, from the nature of matter. Who doubts it? But is not the whole
+      question why matter was created with such properties as of necessity to
+      produce evil? It was impossible, says he, to avoid it consistently with
+      the laws of motion and matter. Unquestionably; but the whole dispute is
+      upon those laws. If indeed the laws of nature, the existing constitution
+      of the material world, were assumed as necessary, and as binding upon the
+      Deity, how is it possible that any question ever could have been raised?
+      The Deity having the power to make those laws, to endow matter with that
+      constitution, and having also the power to make different laws and to give
+      matter another constitution, the whole question is, how his choosing to
+      create the present existing order of things&mdash;the laws and the
+      constitution which we find to prevail&mdash;can be reconciled with perfect
+      goodness. The whole argument of the Archbishop assumes that matter and its
+      laws are independent of the Deity; and the only conclusion to which the
+      inquiry leads us is that the Creator has made a world with as little of
+      evil in it as the nature of things,&mdash;that is, as the laws of nature
+      and matter&mdash;allowed him; which is nonsense, if those laws were made
+      by him, and leaves the question where it was, or rather solves it by
+      giving up the omnipotence of the Creator, if these laws were binding upon
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be added, however, that Dr. King and Dr. Law are not singular in
+      pursuing this most inconclusive course of reasoning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus Dr. J. Clarke, in his treatise on natural evil, quoted by Bishop Law
+      (Note 32), shows how mischiefs arise from the laws of matter; and says
+      this could not be avoided &ldquo;without altering those primary laws, i. e.,
+      making it something else than what it is, or changing it into another
+      form; the result of which would only be to render it liable to evils of
+      another kind against which the same objections would equally lie.&rdquo; So Dr.
+      J. Burnett, in his discourses on evil, at the Boyle Lecture (vol. ii. P.
+      201), conceives that he explains death by saying that the materials of
+      which the body is composed &ldquo;cannot last beyond seventy years, or
+      thereabouts, and it was originally intended that we should die at that
+      age.&rdquo; Pain, too, he imagines is accounted for by observing that we are
+      endowed with feelings, and that if we could not feel pain, so neither
+      could we pleasure (p. 202). Again, he says that there are certain
+      qualities which &ldquo;in the nature of things matter is incapable of&rdquo; (p. 207).
+      And as if he really felt the pressure of this difficulty, he at length
+      comes to this conclusion, that life is a free gift, which we had no right
+      to exact, and which the Deity lay under no necessity to grant, and
+      therefore we must take it with the conditions annexed (p. 210); which is
+      undeniably true, but is excluding the discussion and not answering the
+      question proposed. Nor must it be forgotten that some reasoners deal
+      strangely with the facts. Thus Derham, in his <i>Physico-Theology</i>,
+      explaining the use of poison in snakes, first desires us to bear in mind
+      that many venomous ones are of use medicinally in stubborn diseases, which
+      is not true, and if it were, would prove nothing, unless the venom, not
+      the flesh, were proved to be medicinal; and then says, they are &ldquo;scourges
+      upon ungrateful and sinful men;&rdquo; adding the truly astounding absurdity,
+      &ldquo;that the nations which know not God are the most annoyed with noxious
+      reptiles and other pernicious creatures.&rdquo; (Book ix. c. I); which if it
+      were true would raise a double difficulty, by showing that one people was
+      scourged because another had neglected to preach the gospel among them.
+      Dr. J. Burnett, too, accounts for animals being suffered to be killed as
+      food for man, by affirming that they thereby gain all the care which man
+      is thus led to bestow upon them, and so are, on the whole, the better for
+      being eaten. (Boyle Lecture, II. 207). But the most singular error has
+      perhaps been fallen into by Dr. Sherlock, and the most, unhappy&mdash;which
+      yet Bishop Law has cited as a sufficient answer to the objection
+      respecting death: &ldquo;It is a great instrument of government, and makes men
+      afraid of committing such villanies as the laws of their country have made
+      capital.&rdquo; (Note 34). So that the greatest error in the criminal
+      legislation of all countries forms part of the divine providence, and man
+      has at length discovered, by the light of reason, the folly and the
+      wickedness of using an instrument expressly created by divine Omniscience
+      to be abused!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remaining portion of King&rsquo;s work, filling the second volume of Bishop
+      Law&rsquo;s edition, is devoted to the explanation of Moral Evil; and here the
+      gratuitous assumption of the &ldquo;nature of things,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;laws of nature,&rdquo;
+       more or less pervade the whole as in the former parts of the Inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fundamental position of the whole is, that man having been endowed
+      with free will, his happiness consists in making due elections, or in the
+      right exercise of that free will. Five causes are then given of undue
+      elections, in which of course his misery consists as far as that depends
+      on himself; these causes are error, negligence, over-indulgence of free
+      choice, obstinacy or bad habit, and the importunity of natural appetites;
+      which last, it must in passing be remarked, belongs to the head of
+      physical evil, and cannot be assumed in this discussion without begging
+      the question. The great difficulty is then stated and grappled with,
+      namely, how to reconcile these undue elections with divine goodness. The
+      objector states that free will might exist without the power of making
+      undue elections, he being suffered to range, as it were, only among lawful
+      objects of choice. But the answer to this seems sound, that such a will
+      would only be free in name; it would be free to choose among certain
+      things, but would not be free-will. The objector again urges, that either
+      the choice is free and may fall upon evil objects, against the goodness of
+      God, or it is so restrained as only to fall on good objects. Against
+      freedom of the will King&rsquo;s solution is, that more evil would result from
+      preventing these undue elections than from suffering them, and so the
+      Deity has only done the best he could in the circumstances; a solution
+      obviously liable to the same objection as that respecting Natural Evil.
+      There are three ways, says the Archbishop, in which undue elections might
+      have been prevented; not creating a free agent&mdash;constant interference
+      with his free-will&mdash;removing him to another state where he would not
+      be tempted to go astray in his choice. A fourth mode may, however, be
+      suggested&mdash;creating a free-agent without any inclination to evil, or
+      any temptation from external objects. When our author disposes of the
+      second method, by stating that it assumes a constant miracle, as great in
+      the moral as altering the course of the planets hourly would be in the
+      material universe, nothing can be more sound or more satisfactory. But
+      when he argues that our whole happiness consists in a consciousness of
+      freedom of election, and that we should never know happiness were we
+      restrained in any particular, it seems wholly inconceivable how he should
+      have omitted to consider the prodigious comfort of a state in which we
+      should be guaranteed against any error or impropriety of choice; a state
+      in which we should both be unable to go astray and always feel conscious
+      of that security. He, however, begs the question most manifestly in
+      dealing with the two other methods stated, by which undue elections might
+      have been precluded. &ldquo;You would have freedom,&rdquo; says he, &ldquo;without any
+      inclination to sin; but it may justly be doubted if this is possible <i>in
+      the present state of things</i>,&rdquo; (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 2); and again, in
+      answering the question why God did not remove us into another state where
+      no temptation could seduce us, he says: &ldquo;It is plain that <i>in the
+      present state of things</i> it is impossible for men to live without
+      natural evils or the danger of sinning.&rdquo; (<i>Ib</i>.) Now the whole
+      question arises upon the constitution of the present state of things. If
+      that is allowed to be inevitable, or is taken as a datum in the
+      discussion, there ceases to be any question at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctrine of a chain of being is enlarged upon, and with much felicity
+      of illustration. But it only wraps up the difficulty in other words,
+      without solving it. For then the question becomes this&mdash;Why did the
+      Deity create such a chain as could not be filled up without misery? It is,
+      indeed, merely restating the fact of evil existing; for whether we say
+      there is suffering among sentient beings&mdash;or the universe consists of
+      beings more or less happy, more or less miserable&mdash;or there exists a
+      chain of beings varying in perfection and in felicity&mdash;it is
+      manifestly all one proposition. The remark of Bayle upon this view of the
+      subject is really not at all unsound, and is eminently ingenious: &ldquo;Would
+      you defend a king who should confine all his subjects of a certain age in
+      dungeons, upon the ground that if he did not, many of the cells he had
+      built must remain empty?&rdquo; The answer of Bishop Law to this remark is by no
+      means satisfactory. He says it assumes that more misery than happiness
+      exists. Now, in this view of the question, the balance is quite
+      immaterial. The existence of any evil at all raises the question as much
+      as the preponderance of evil over good, because the question conceives a
+      perfectly good Being, and asks how such a Being can have permitted any
+      evil at all. Upon this part of the subject both King and Law have fallen
+      into an error which recent discoveries place in a singularly clear light.
+      They say that the argument they are dealing with would lead to leaving the
+      earth to the brutes without human inhabitants. But the recent discoveries
+      in Fossil Osteology have proved that the earth, for ages before the last
+      5,000 or 6,000 years, was left to the lower animals; nay, that in a still
+      earlier period of its existence no animal life at all was maintained upon
+      its surface. So that, in fact, the foundation is removed of the <i>reductio
+      ad absurdum</i> attempted by the learned prelates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A singular argument is used towards the latter end of the inquiry. When
+      the Deity, it is said, resolved to create other beings, He must of
+      necessity tolerate imperfect natures in his handiwork, just as he must the
+      equality of a circle&rsquo;s radii when he drew a circle. Who does not perceive
+      the difference? The meaning of the word circle is that the radii are all
+      equal; this equality is a necessary truth. But it is not shown that men
+      could not exist without the imperfections they labor under. Yet this is
+      the argument suggested by these authors while complaining (chap. v. s. 5,
+      sub. 7, div. 7), that Lactantius had not sufficiently answered the
+      Epicurean dilemma; it is the substitute propounded to supply that father&rsquo;s
+      deficiency.&mdash;&ldquo;When, therefore,&rdquo; says the Archbishop, &ldquo;matter, motion
+      and free-will are constituted, the Deity must necessarily permit
+      corruption of things and the abuse of liberty, or something worse, for
+      these cannot be separated without a contradiction, and God is no more
+      important, because he cannot separate equality of radii from a circle.&rdquo;&mdash;Chap.
+      v. s. 5, subs. 7. If he could not have created evil, he would not have
+      been omnipotent; if he would not, he must let his power lie idle; and
+      rejecting evil have rejected all the good. &ldquo;Thus,&rdquo; exclaims the author
+      with triumph and self-complacency, &ldquo;then vanishes this Herculean argument
+      which induced the Epicureans to discard the good Deity, and the Manicheans
+      to substitute an evil one.&rdquo; (<i>Ib.</i> subs. 7, <i>sub. fine.</i>) Nor is
+      the explanation rendered more satisfactory, or indeed more intelligible,
+      by the concluding passage of all, in which we are told that &ldquo;from a
+      conflict of two properties, namely, omnipotence and goodness, evils
+      necessarily arise. These attributes amicably conspire together, and yet
+      restrain and limit each other.&rdquo; It might have been expected from hence
+      that no evil at all should be found to exist. &ldquo;There is a kind of struggle
+      and opposition between them, whereof the evils in nature bear the shadow
+      and resemblance. Here, then, and no where else, mar we find the primary
+      and most certain rise and origin of evils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is this celebrated work; and it may safely be affirmed that a more
+      complete failure to overcome a great and admitted difficulty&mdash;a more
+      unsatisfactory solution of an important question&mdash;is not to be found
+      in the whole history of metaphysical science.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the authors who have treated of this subject, a high place is justly
+      given to Archdeacon Bulguy, whose work on <i>Divine Benevolence</i> is
+      always referred to by Dr. Paley with great commendation. But certain it is
+      that this learned and pious writer either had never formed to himself a
+      very precise notion of the real question under discussion, namely, the
+      compatibility of the appearances which we see and which we consider as
+      evil, with a Being infinitely powerful as well as good; or he had in his
+      mind some opinions respecting the divine nature, opinions of a limitary
+      kind, which he does not state distinctly, although he constantly suffers
+      them to influence his seasonings. Hence, whenever he comes close to the
+      real difficulty he appears to beg the question. A very few instances of
+      what really pervades the whole work will suffice to show how
+      unsatisfactory its general scope is, although it contains, like the
+      treatise of Dr. King and Dr. Law&rsquo;s Commentary, many valuable observations
+      on the details of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And first we may perceive that what he terms a <i>&ldquo;previous remark,&rdquo;</i>
+      and desires the reader &ldquo;to carry along through the whole proof of divine
+      benevolence,&rdquo; really contains a statement that <i>the difficulty is to be
+      evaded and not met.</i> &ldquo;An intention of producing good,&rdquo; says he, &ldquo;will
+      be sufficiently apparent in any particular instance if the thing
+      considered can neither be changed nor taken away without loss or harm, <i>all
+      other things continuing the same.</i> Should you suppose <i>various</i>
+      things in the system changed <i>at once</i>, you can neither judge of the
+      possibility nor the consequences of the changes, having no degree of
+      experience to direct you.&rdquo; Now assuredly this postulate makes the whole
+      question as easy a one as ever metaphysician or naturalist had to solve.
+      For it is no longer&mdash;Why did a powerful and benevolent Being create a
+      world in which there is evil&mdash;but only&mdash;The world being given,
+      how far are its different arrangements consistent with one another?
+      According to this, the earthquake at Lisbon, Voltaire&rsquo;s favorite instance,
+      destroyed thousands of persons, because it is in the nature of things that
+      subterraneous vapors should explode, and that when houses fall on human
+      beings they should be killed. Then if Dr. Balguy goes to his other
+      argument, on which he often dwells, that if this nature were altered, we
+      cannot possibly tell whether worse might not ensue; this, too, is assuming
+      a limited power in the Deity, contrary to the hypothesis. It may most
+      justly be said, that if there be any one supposition necessarily excluded
+      from the whole argument, it is the fundamental supposition of the
+      &ldquo;previous remark,&rdquo; namely, &ldquo;all other things continuing the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But see how this assumption pervades and paralyzes the whole argument,
+      rendering it utterly inconclusive. The author is to answer an objection
+      derived from the constitution of our appetites for food, and his reply is,
+      that &ldquo;we cannot tell how far it was <i>possible</i> for the stomachs and
+      palates of animals to be differently formed, unless by some remedy worse
+      than the disease.&rdquo; Again, upon the question of pain: &ldquo;How do we know that
+      it was <i>possible</i> for the uneasy sensation to be confined to
+      particular cases?&rdquo; So we meet the same fallacy under another form, as evil
+      being the result of &ldquo;general principles.&rdquo; But no one has ever pushed this
+      so far as Dr. Balguy, for he says, &ldquo;that in a government so conducted,
+      many events are likely to happen contrary to the intention of its author.&rdquo;
+       He now calls in the aid of chance, or accident.&mdash;&ldquo;It is probable,&rdquo; he
+      says, &ldquo;that God should be good, for evil is more likely to be <i>accidental</i>
+      than appears from experience in the conduct of men.&rdquo; Indeed, his
+      fundamental position of the Deity&rsquo;s benevolence is rested upon this
+      foundation, that &ldquo;pleasures only were intended, and that the pains are
+      accidental consequences, although the means of producing pleasures.&rdquo; The
+      same recourse to accident is repeatedly had. Thus, &ldquo;the events to which we
+      are exposed in this imperfect state appear to be the <i>accidental</i>,
+      not natural, effects of our frame and condition.&rdquo; Now can any one thing be
+      more manifest than that the very first notion of a wise and powerful Being
+      excludes all such assumptions as things happening contrary to His
+      intention; and that when we use the word chance or accident, which only
+      means our human ignorance of causes, we at once give up the whole
+      question, as if we said, &ldquo;It is a subject about which we know nothing.&rdquo; So
+      again as to power. &ldquo;A good design is more <i>difficult</i> to be executed,
+      and therefore more likely to be executed <i>imperfectly</i>, than an evil
+      one, that is, with a mixture of effects foreign to the design and opposite
+      to it.&rdquo; This at once assumes the Deity to be powerless. But a general
+      statement is afterwards made more distinctly to the same effect. &ldquo;Most
+      sure it is that he can do all things possible. But are we in any degree
+      competent judges of the bounds of possibility?&rdquo; So again under another
+      form nature is introduced as something different from its author, and
+      offering limits to his power. &ldquo;It is plainly not the method of nature to
+      obtain her ends instantaneously.&rdquo; Passing over such propositions as that &ldquo;<i>useless</i>
+      evil is a thing never seen,&rdquo; (when the whole question is why the same ends
+      were not attained without evil), and a variety of other subordinate
+      assumptions contrary to the hypothesis, we may rest with this general
+      statement, which almost every page of Dr. Balguy&rsquo;s book bears out, that
+      the question which he has set himself to solve is anything rather than the
+      real one touching the Origin of Evil; and that this attempt at a solution
+      is as ineffectual as any of those which we have been considering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is, then, the question wholly incapable of solution, which all these
+      learned and ingenious men have so entirely failed in solving? Must the
+      difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and only be approached to discover
+      that it is insuperable? <i>Must the subject, of all others the most
+      interesting for us to know well, be to us always as a sealed book, of
+      which we can never know anything?</i> From the nature of the thing&mdash;from
+      the question relating to the operation of a power which, to our limited
+      faculties, must ever be incomprehensible&mdash;there seems too much reason
+      for believing that nothing precise or satisfactory ever will be attained
+      by human reason regarding this great argument; and that the bounds which
+      limit our views will only be passed when we have quitted the encumbrances
+      of our mortal state, and are permitted to survey those regions beyond the
+      sphere of our present circumscribed existence. The other branch of Natural
+      Theology, that which investigates the evidences of Intelligence and
+      Design, and leads us to a clear apprehension of the Deity&rsquo;s power and
+      wisdom, is as satisfactorily cultivated as any other department of
+      science, rests upon the same species of proof, and affords results as
+      precise as they are sublime. This branch will never be distinctly known,
+      and will always so disappoint the inquirer as to render the lights of
+      Revelation peculiarly acceptable, although even those lights leave much of
+      it still involved in darkness&mdash;still mysterious and obscure.<a
+      href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet let us endeavor to suggest some possible explication, while we admit
+      that nothing certain, nothing entirely satisfactory can be reached. The
+      failure of the great writers whose works we have been contemplating may
+      well teach us humility, make us distrust ourselves, and moderate within us
+      any sanguine hopes of success. But they should not make us wholly despair
+      of at least showing in what direction the solution of the difficulty is to
+      be sought, and whereabouts it will probably be found situated, when our
+      feeble reason shall be strengthened and expanded. For one cause of their
+      discomfiture certainly has been their aiming too high, attempting a
+      complete solution of a problem which only admitted of approximation, and
+      discussion of limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is admitted on all hands that the demonstration is complete which shows
+      the existence of intelligence and design in the universe. The structure of
+      the eye and ear in exact confirmity to the laws of optics and acoustics,
+      shows as clearly as any experiment can show anything, that the source,
+      cause or origin is common both to the properties of light and the
+      formation of the lenses and retina in the eye&mdash;both to the properties
+      of sound and the tympanum, malleus, incus and stapes of the ear. No doubt
+      whatever can exist upon the subject, any more than, if we saw a particular
+      order issued to a body of men to perform certain uncommon evolutions, and
+      afterwards saw the same body performing those same evolutions, we could
+      doubt their having received the order. A designing and intelligent and
+      skillful author of these admirably adapted works is equally a clear
+      inference from the same facts. We can no more doubt it than we can
+      question, when we see a mill grinding corn into flour, that the machinery
+      was made by some one who designed by means of it to prepare the materials
+      of bread. The same conclusions are drawn in a vast variety of other
+      instances, both with respect to the parts of human and other bodies, and
+      with respect to most of the other arrangements of nature. Similar
+      conclusions are also drawn from our consciousness, and the knowledge which
+      it gives us of the structure of the mind.<a href="#linknote-3"
+       name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> Thus we find
+      that attention quickens memory and enables us to recollect; and that habit
+      renders all exertions and all acquisitions easy, beside having the effect
+      of alleviating pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when we carry our survey into other parts, whether of the natural or
+      moral system, we cannot discover any design at all. We frequently perceive
+      structures the use of which we know nothing about; parts of the animal
+      frame that apparently have no functions to perform&mdash;nay, that are the
+      source of pain without yielding any perceptible advantage; arrangements
+      and movements of bodies which are of one particular kind, and yet we are
+      quite at a loss to discern any reason why they might not have been of many
+      other descriptions; operations of nature that seem to serve no purpose
+      whatever; and other operations and other arrangements, chosen equally
+      without any beneficial view, and yet which often give rise to much
+      apparent confusion and mischief. Now, the question is, <i>first</i>,
+      whether in any one of these cases of arrangement and structures with no
+      visible object at all, we can for a moment suppose that there really is no
+      object answered, or only conceive that we have been unable to discover it?
+      <i>Secondly</i>, whether in the cases where mischief sometimes is
+      perceived, and no other purpose appears to be effected, we do not almost
+      as uniformly lay the blame on our own ignorance, and conclude, not that
+      the arrangement was made without any design, and that mischief arises
+      without any contriver, but that if we knew the whole case we should find a
+      design and contrivance, and also that the apparent mischief would sink
+      into the general good? It is not necessary to admit, for our present
+      purpose, this latter proposition, though it brings us closer to the matter
+      in hand; it is sufficient for the present to admit, what no one doubts,
+      that when a part of the body, for instance, is discovered, to which, like
+      the spleen, we cannot assign any function in the animal system, we never
+      think of concluding that it is made for no use, but only that we have as
+      yet not been able to discover its use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, let us ask, why do we, without any hesitation whatever, or any
+      exception whatever, always and immediately arrive at this conclusion
+      respecting intelligence and design? Nothing could be more unphilosophical,
+      nay, more groundless, than such a process of reasoning, if we had only
+      been able to trace design in one or two instances; for instance, if we
+      found only the eye to show proofs of contrivance, it would be wholly
+      gratuitous, when we saw the ear, to assume that it was adapted to the
+      nature of sound, and still more so, if, on examination, we perceived it
+      bore no perceptible relation to the laws of acoustics. The proof of
+      contrivance in one particular is nothing like a proof, nay, does not even
+      furnish the least presumption of contrivance in other particulars;
+      because, <i>a priori</i>, it is just as easy to suppose one part of nature
+      to be designed for a purpose, and another part, nay, all other parts, to
+      be formed at random and without any contrivance, as to suppose that the
+      formation of the whole is governed by design. Why, then, do we, invariably
+      and undoubtedly, adopt the course of reasoning which has been mentioned,
+      and never for a moment suspect anything to be formed without some reason&mdash;some
+      rational purpose? The only ground of this belief is, that we have been
+      able distinctly to trace design in so vast a majority of cases as leaves
+      us no power of doubting that, if our faculties had been sufficiently
+      powerful, or our investigation sufficiently diligent, we should also have
+      been able to trace it in those comparatively few instances respecting
+      which we still are in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be worth while to give a few instances of the ignorance in which we
+      once were of design in some important arrangements of nature, and of the
+      knowledge which we now possess to show the purpose of their formation.
+      Before Sir Isaac Newton&rsquo;s optical discoveries, we could not tell why the
+      structure of the eye was so complex, and why several lenses and humors
+      were required to form a picture of objects upon the retina. Indeed, until
+      Dolland&rsquo;s subsequent discovery of the achromatic effect of combining
+      various glasses, and Mr. Blair&rsquo;s still more recent experiments on the
+      powers of different refracting media, we were not able distinctly to
+      perceive the operation and use of the complicacy in the structure of the
+      eye. We now well understand its nature, and are able to comprehend how
+      that which had at one time, nay, for ages, seemed to be an unnecessary
+      complexity; forms the most perfect of all optical instruments, and
+      according to the most certain laws of refraction and of dispersion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, too, we had observed for some centuries the forms of the orbits in
+      which the heavenly bodies move, and we had found these to be ellipses with
+      a very small eccentricity. But why this was the form of those orbits no
+      one could even conjecture. If any person, the most deeply skilled in
+      mathematical science, and the most internally convinced of the universal
+      prevalence of design and contrivance in the structure of the universe, had
+      been asked what reason there was for the planets moving in ellipses so,
+      nearly approaching to circles, he could not have given any good reason, at
+      least beyond a guess. The force of gravitation, even admitting that to be,
+      as it were, a condition of the creation of matter, would have made those
+      bodies revolve in ellipses of any degree of eccentricity just as well,
+      provided the angle and the force of projection had been varied. Then, why
+      was this form rather, than any other chosen? No one knew; yet no one
+      doubted that there was ample reason for it. Accordingly the sublime
+      discoveries of Lagrange and La Place have shown us that this small
+      eccentricity is one material element in the formula by which it is shown
+      that all the irregularities of the system are periodical, and that the
+      deviation never can exceed a certain amount on either hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, again, while we are ignorant of this, perhaps the most sublime truth
+      in all science, we were always arguing as if the system had an
+      imperfection, as if the disturbing forces of the different planets and the
+      sun, acting on one another, constantly changed the orbits of each planet,
+      and must, in a course of ages, work the destruction of the whole planetary
+      arrangement which we had contemplated with so great admiration and with
+      awe. It was deemed enough if we could show that this derangement must be
+      extremely slow, and that, therefore, the system might last for many more
+      ages without requiring any interposition of omnipotent skill to preserve
+      it by rectifying its motions. Thus one of the most celebrated writers
+      above cited argues that, &ldquo;from the nature of gravitation and the
+      concentricity of the orbits, the irregularities produced are so slowly
+      operated in contracting, dilating and inclining those orbits, that the
+      system may go on for many thousand years before any extraordinary
+      interference becomes necessary in order to correct it.&rdquo; And Dr. Burnett
+      adds, that &ldquo;those small irregularities cast no discredit on the good
+      contrivance of the whole.&rdquo; Nothing, however, could cast greater discredit
+      if it were as he supposed, and as all men previous to the late discoveries
+      supposed; it was only, they rather think, a &ldquo;small irregularity,&rdquo; which
+      was every hour tending to the destruction of the whole system, and which
+      must have deranged or confounded its whole structure long before it
+      destroyed it. Yet now we see that the wisdom, to which a thousand years
+      are as one day, not satisfied with constructing a fabric which might last
+      for &ldquo;many thousand years without His interference,&rdquo; has so formed it that
+      it may thus endure forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now if such be the grounds of our belief in the universal prevalence of
+      Design, and such the different lights which at different periods of our
+      progress in science we possess upon this branch of the divine government;
+      if we undoubtingly believe that contrivance is universal only because we
+      can trace and comprehend it in a great majority of instances, and if the
+      number of exceptions to the rule is occasionally diminished as our
+      knowledge of the particulars is from time to time extended&mdash;may we
+      not apply the same principle to the apprehension of Benevolent purpose,
+      and infer from the number of instances in which we plainly perceive a good
+      intention, that if we were better acquainted with those cases in which a
+      contrary intention is now apparent, we should there, too, find the
+      generally pervading character of Benevolence to prevail? Not only is this
+      the manner in which we reason respecting the Design of the Creator from
+      examining his works; it is the manner in which we treat the conduct of our
+      fellow-creatures. A man of the most extensive benevolence and strictest
+      integrity in his general deportment has done something equivocal; nay,
+      something apparently harsh and cruel; we are slow to condemn him; we give
+      him credit for acting with a good motive and for a righteous purpose; we
+      rest satisfied that &ldquo;if we only knew everything he would come out
+      blameless.&rdquo; This arises from a just and a sound view of human character,
+      and its general consistency with itself. The same reasoning may surely be
+      applied with all humility and reverence, to the works and the intentions
+      of the great Being who has implanted in our minds the principles which
+      lead to that just and sound view of the deeds and motives of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But let the argument be rested upon our course of reasoning respecting
+      divine contrivance. The existence of Evil is in no case more apparent than
+      the existence of Disorder seems to be in many things. To go no further
+      than the last example which has been given&mdash;the mathematician could
+      perceive the derangement in the planetary orbits, could demonstrate that
+      it must ensue from the mutual action of the heavenly bodies on each other,
+      could calculate its progress with the utmost exactness, could tell with
+      all nicety how much it would alter the forms of the orbits in a given
+      time, could foresee the time when the whole system must be irretrievably
+      destroyed by its operation as a mathematical certainty. Nothing, that we
+      call evil can be much more certainly perceived than this derangement, of
+      itself an evil, certainly a great imperfection, if the system was observed
+      by the mind of man as we regard human works. Yet we now find, from well
+      considering some things which had escaped attention, that the system is
+      absolutely free from derangement; that all the disturbances counterbalance
+      each other; and that the orbits never can either be flattened or bulged
+      out beyond a definite or very inconsiderable quantity. Can any one doubt
+      that there is also a reason for even the small and limited, this regular
+      and temporary derangement? Why it exists at all, or in any the least
+      degree, we as yet know not. But who will presume to doubt that it has a
+      reason which would at once satisfy our minds were it known to us? Nay, who
+      will affirm that the discovery of it may not yet be in reserve for some
+      later and happier age? Then are we not entitled to apply the same
+      reasoning to what at present appears Evil in a system of which, after all
+      we know of it, so much still remains concealed from our view?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mere act of creation in a Being of wisdom so admirable and power so
+      vast, seems to make it extremely probable that perfect goodness
+      accompanies the exertion of his perfect skill. There is something so
+      repugnant to all our feelings, but also to all the conceptions of our
+      reason, in the supposition of such a Being desiring the misery, for its
+      own sake, of the Beings whom he voluntarily called into existence and
+      endowed with a sentient nature, that the mind naturally and irresistibly
+      recoils from such a thought. But this is not all. If the nature of that
+      great Being were evil, his power being unbounded, there would be some
+      proportion between the amounts of ills and the monuments of that power.
+      Yet we are struck dumb with the immensity of His works to which no
+      imperfection can be ascribed, and in which no evil can be traced, while
+      the amount of mischief that we see might sink into a most insignificant
+      space; and is such as a being of inconsiderable power and very limited
+      skill could easily have accomplished. This is not the same consideration
+      with the balance of good against evil; and inquirers do not seem to have
+      sufficiently attended to it. The argument, however, deserves much
+      attention, for it is purely and strictly inductive. The divine nature is
+      shown to be clothed with prodigious power and incomparable wisdom and
+      skill,&mdash;power and skill so vast and so exceeding our comprehension
+      that we ordinarily term them infinite, and are only inclined to conceive
+      the possibility of limiting, by the course of the argument upon evil, one
+      alternative of which is assumed to raise an exception. But admitting on
+      account of the question under discussion, that we have only a right to say
+      that power and skill are prodigiously great, though possibly not
+      boundless, they are plainly shown in the phenomena of the universe to be
+      the attributes of a Being, who, if evil-disposed, could have made the
+      monuments of Ill upon a scale resembling those of Power and Skill; so that
+      if those things which seem to us evil be really the result of a
+      mischievous design in such a Being, we cannot comprehend why they are upon
+      so entirely different a scale. This is a strong presumption from the facts
+      that we are wrong in imputing those appearances to such a disposition. If
+      so, what seems evil must needs be capable of some other explanation
+      consistent with divine goodness&mdash;that is to say, would not prove to
+      be evil at all if we knew the whole of those facts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is necessary to proceed a step further, especially with a view to
+      the fundamental position now contended for, the extending to the question
+      of Benevolence the same principles which we apply to that of Intelligence.
+      The evil which exists, or that which we suppose to be evil, not only is of
+      a kind and a magnitude requiring inconceivably less power and less skill
+      than the admitted good of the creation&mdash;it also bears a very small
+      proportion in amount; quite as small a proportion as the cases of unknown
+      or undiscoverable design bear to those of acknowledged and proved
+      contrivance. Generally speaking, the preservation and the happiness of
+      sensitive creatures appears to be the great object of creative exertion
+      and conservative providence. The expanding of our faculties, both bodily
+      and mentally, is accompanied with pleasure; the exercise of those powers
+      is almost always attended with gratification; all labor so acts as to make
+      rest peculiarly delicious; much of labor is enjoyment; the gratification
+      of those appetites by which both the individual is preserved and the race
+      is continued, is highly pleasurable to all animals; and it must be
+      observed that instead of being attracted by grateful sensations to do
+      anything requisite for our good or even our existence, we might have been
+      just as certainly urged by the feeling of pain, or the dread of it, which
+      is a kind of suffering in itself. Nature, then, resembles the law-giver
+      who, to make his subjects obey, should prefer holding out rewards for
+      compliance with his commands rather than denounce punishments for
+      disobedience. But nature is yet more kind; she is gratuitously kind; she
+      not only prefers inducement to threat or compulsion, but she adds more
+      gratification than was necessary to make us obey her calls. How well might
+      all creation have existed and been continued, though the air had not been
+      balmy in spring, or the shade and the spring refreshing in summer; had the
+      earth not been enamelled with flowers; and the air scented with perfumes!
+      How needless for the propagation of plants was it that the seed should be
+      enveloped in fruits the most savory to our palate, and if those fruits
+      serve some other purpose, how foreign to that purpose was the formation of
+      our nerves so framed as to be soothed or excited by their flavor! We here
+      perceive design, because we trace adaptation. But we at the same time
+      perceive benevolent design, because we perceive gratuitous and
+      supererogatory enjoyment bestowed. Thus, too, see the care with which
+      animals of all kinds are tended from their birth. The mother&rsquo;s instinct is
+      not more certainly the means of securing and providing for her young, than
+      her gratification in the act of maternal care is great and is also
+      needless for making her perform that duty. The grove is not made vocal
+      during pairing and incubation, in order to secure the laying or the
+      hatching of eggs; for if it were as still as the grave, or were filled
+      with the most discordant croaking, the process would be as well performed.
+      So, too, mark the care with which injuries are remedied by what has been
+      correctly called the <i>vis medicatrix</i>. Is a muscle injured?&mdash;Suppuration
+      takes place, the process of granulation succeeds, and new flesh is formed
+      to supply the gap, or if that is less wide, a more simple healing process
+      knits together the severed parts. Is a bone injured?&mdash;A process
+      commences by which an extraordinary secretion of bony matter takes place,
+      and the void is supplied. Nay, the irreparable injury of a joint gives
+      rise to the formation of a new hinge, by which the same functions may be
+      not inconveniently, though less perfectly, performed. Thus, too, recovery
+      of vigor after sickness is provided for by increased appetite; but there
+      is here superadded, generally, a feeling of comfort and lightness, an
+      enjoyment of existence so delightful, that it is a common remark how
+      nearly this compensates the sufferings of the illness. In the economy of
+      the mind it is the same thing. All our exertions are stimulated by
+      curiosity, and the gratification is extreme of satisfying it. But it might
+      have been otherwise ordered, and some painful feeling might have been made
+      the only stimulant to the acquisition of knowledge. So, the charm of
+      novelty is proverbial; but it might have been the unceasing cause of the
+      most painful alarms. Habit renders every thing easy; but the repetition
+      might have only increased the annoyance. The loss of one organ makes the
+      others more acute. But the partial injury might have caused, as it were, a
+      general paralysis. &lsquo;Tis thus that Paley is well justified in exclaiming,
+      &ldquo;It is a happy world after all!&rdquo; The pains and the sufferings, bodily and
+      mental, to which we are exposed, if they do not sink into nothing, at
+      least retreat within comparatively narrow bounds; the ills are hardly seen
+      when we survey the great and splendid picture of worldly enjoyment or
+      ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the existence of considerable misery is undeniable: and the question
+      is, of course, confined to that. Its exaggeration, in the ordinary
+      estimate both of the vulgar and of skeptical reasoners, is equally
+      certain. Paley, Bishop Sumner, as well as Derham, King, Ray and others of
+      the older writers, have made many judicious and generally correct
+      observations upon its amount, and they, as well as some of the able and
+      learned authors of the <i>Bridgwater Treatises</i>, have done much in
+      establishing deductions necessary to be made, in order that we may arrive
+      at the true amount. That many things, apparently unmixed evils, when
+      examined more narrowly, prove to be partially beneficial, is the fair
+      result of their well-meant labors; and this, although anything rather than
+      a proof that there is no evil at all, yet is valuable as still further
+      proving the analogy between this branch of the argument and that upon
+      design; and in giving hopes that all may possibly be found hereafter to be
+      good, as everything will assuredly be found to be contrived with an
+      intelligent and useful purpose. It may be right to add a remark or two
+      upon some evils, and those of the greatest magnitude in the common
+      estimate of human happiness, with a view of further illustrating this part
+      of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mere imperfection must altogether be deducted from the account. It never
+      can be contended that any evil nature can be ascribed to the first cause,
+      merely for not having endowed sentient creatures with greater power or
+      wisdom, for not having increased and multiplied the sources of enjoyment,
+      or for not having made those pleasures which we have more exquisitely
+      grateful. No one can be so foolish as to argue that the Deity is either
+      limited in power, or deficient in goodness, because he has chosen to
+      create some beings of a less perfect order than others. The mere negation
+      in the creating of some, indeed of many, nay, of any conceivable number of
+      desirable attributes, is therefore no proper evidence of evil design or of
+      limited power in the Creator&mdash;it is no proof of the existence of evil
+      properly so called. But does not this also erase death from the catalogue
+      of ills? It might well please the Deity to create a mortal being which,
+      consisting of soul and body, was only to live upon this earth for a
+      limited number of years. If, when that time has expired, this being is
+      removed to another and a superior state of existence, no evil whatever
+      accrues to it from the change; and all views of the government of this
+      world lead to the important and consolitary conclusion, that such is the
+      design of the Creator; that he cannot have bestowed on us minds capable of
+      such expansion and culture only to be extinguished when they have reached
+      their highest pitch of improvement; or if this be considered as begging
+      the question by assuming benevolent design, we cannot easily conceive that
+      while the mind&rsquo;s force is so little affected by the body&rsquo;s decay, the
+      destruction or dissolution of the latter should be the extinction of the
+      former. But that death operates as an evil of the very highest kind in two
+      ways is obvious; the dread of it often embitters life, and the death of
+      friends brings to the mind by far its most painful infliction; certainly
+      the greatest suffering it can undergo without any criminal consciousness
+      of its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this evil, then&mdash;this grievous and admitted evil&mdash;how shall
+      we account? But first let us consider whether it be not unavoidable; not
+      merely under the present dispensation, and in the existing state of
+      things; for that is wholly irrelevant to the question which is raised upon
+      the fitness of this very state of things; but whether it be not a
+      necessary evil. That man might have been created immortal is not denied;
+      but if it were the will of the Deity to form a limited being and to place
+      him upon the earth for only a certain period of time, his death was the
+      necessary consequence of this determination. Then as to the pain which one
+      person&rsquo;s removal inflicts upon surviving parties, this seems the equally
+      necessary consequence of their having affections. For if any being feels
+      love towards another, this implies his desire that the intercourse with
+      that other should continue; or what is the same thing, the repugnance and
+      aversion to its ceasing; that is, he must suffer affliction for that
+      removal of the beloved object. To create sentient beings devoid of all
+      feelings of affection was no doubt possible to Omnipotence; but to endow
+      those beings with such feelings as would give the constant gratification
+      derived from the benevolent affections, and yet to make them wholly
+      indifferent to the loss of the objects of those affections, was not
+      possible even for Omnipotence; because it was a contradiction in terms,
+      equivalent to making a thing both exist and not exist at one and the same
+      time. Would there have been any considerable happiness in a life stripped
+      of these kindly affections? We cannot affirm that there would not, because
+      we are ignorant what other enjoyments might have been substituted for the
+      indulgence of them. But neither can we affirm that any such substitution
+      could have been found; and it lies upon those who deny the necessary
+      connection between the human mind, or any sentient being&rsquo;s mind, and grief
+      for the loss of friends, to show that there are other enjoyments which
+      could furnish an equivalent to the gratification derived from the
+      benevolent feelings. The question then reduces itself to this: Wherefore
+      did a being, who could have made sentient beings immortal, choose to make
+      them mortal? or, Wherefore has he placed man upon the earth for a time
+      only? or, Wherefore has he set bounds to the powers and capacities which
+      he has been pleased to bestow upon his creatures? And this is a question
+      which we certainly never shall be able to solve; but a question extremely
+      different from the one more usually put&mdash;How happens it that a good
+      being has made a world full of misery and death?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the necessary ignorance wherein we are of the whole designs of the
+      Deity, we cannot wonder if some things, nay, if many things, are to our
+      faculties inscrutable. But we assuredly have no right to say that those
+      difficulties which try and vex us are incapable of a solution, any more
+      than we have to say, that those cases in which as yet we can see no trace
+      of design, are not equally the result of intelligence, and equally
+      conducive to a fixed and useful purpose with those in which we have been
+      able to perceive the whole, or nearly the whole scheme. Great as have been
+      our achievements in physical astronomy, we are as yet wholly unable to
+      understand why a power pervades the system acting inversely as the squares
+      of the distance from the point to which it attracts, rather than a power
+      acting according to any other law; and why it has been the pleasure of the
+      almighty Architect of that universe, that the orbits of the planets should
+      be nearly circular instead of approaching to, or being exactly the same
+      with many other trajectories of a nearly similar form, though of other
+      properties; nay, instead of being curves of a wholly different class and
+      shape. Yet we never doubt that there was a reason for this choice; nay, we
+      fancy it possible that even on earth we may hereafter understand it more
+      clearly than we now do: and never question that in another state of being
+      we may be permitted to enjoy the contemplation of it. Why should we doubt
+      that, at least in that higher state, we may also be enabled to perceive
+      such an arrangement as shall make evil wholly disappear from our present
+      system, by showing that it was necessary and inevitable, even in the works
+      of the Deity; or, which is the same thing, that its existence conduces to
+      such a degree of perfection and happiness upon, the whole, as could not,
+      even by Omnipotence, be attained without it; or, which is the same thing,
+      that the whole creation as it exists, taking both worlds together, is
+      perfect, and incapable of being in any particular changed without being
+      made worse and less perfect? Taking both worlds together&mdash;For
+      certainly were our views limited to the present sublunary state, we may
+      well affirm that no solution whatever could even be imagined of the
+      difficulty&mdash;if we are never again to live; if those we here loved are
+      forever lost to us; if our faculties can receive no further expansion; if
+      our mental powers are only trained and improved to be extinguished at
+      their acme&mdash;then indeed are we reduced to the melancholy and gloomy
+      dilemma of the Epicureans; and evil is confessed to checker, nay, almost
+      to cloud over our whole lot, without the possibility of comprehending why,
+      or of reconciling its existence with the supposition of a providence at
+      once powerful and good. But this inference is also an additional argument
+      for a future state, when we couple it with these other conclusions
+      respecting the economy of the world to which we are led by wholly
+      different routes, when we investigate the phenomena around us and within
+      us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suppose, for example, it should be found that there are certain purposes
+      which can in no way whatever&mdash;no conceivable way&mdash;be answered
+      except by placing man in a state of trial or probation; suppose the
+      essential nature of mind shall be found to be such that it could not in
+      any way whatever exist so as to be capable of the greatest purity and
+      improvement&mdash;in other words, the highest perfection&mdash;without
+      having undergone a probation; or suppose it should be found impossible to
+      communicate certain enjoyments to rational and sentient beings without
+      having previously subjected them to certain trials and certain sufferings&mdash;as,
+      for instance, the pleasures derived from a consciousness of perfect
+      security, the certainty that we can suffer and perish no more&mdash;this
+      surely is a possible supposition. Now, to continue the last example&mdash;Whatever
+      pleasure there is in the contrast between ease and previous vexation or
+      pain, whatever enjoyment we derive from the feeling of absolute security
+      after the vexation and uncertainty of a precarious state, implies a
+      previous suffering&mdash;a previous state of precarious enjoyment; and not
+      only implies it but necessarily implies it, so that the power of
+      Omnipotence itself could not convey to us the enjoyment without having
+      given us the previous suffering. Then is it not possible that the object
+      of an all powerful and perfectly benevolent being should be to create like
+      beings, to whom as entire happiness, as complete and perfect enjoyment,
+      should be given as any created beings&mdash;that is, any being, except the
+      Creator himself&mdash;can by possibility enjoy? This is certainly not only
+      a very possible supposition, but it appears to be quite consistent with,
+      if it be not a necessary consequence of, his being perfectly good as well
+      as powerful and wise. Now we have shown, therefore, that such being
+      supposed the design of Providence, even Omnipotence itself could not
+      accomplish this design, as far as one great and important class of
+      enjoyments is concerned, without the previous existence of some pain, some
+      misery. Whatever gratification arises from relief&mdash;from contrast&mdash;from
+      security succeeding anxiety&mdash;from restoration of lost affections&mdash;from
+      renewing severed connections&mdash;and many others of a like kind, could
+      not by any possibility be enjoyed unless the correlative suffering had
+      first been undergone. Nor will the argument be at all impeached by
+      observing, that one Being may be made to feel the pleasure of ease and
+      security by seeing others subjected to suffering and distress; for that
+      assumes the infliction of misery on those others; it is &ldquo;<i>alterius</i>
+      spectare laborem&rdquo; that we are supposing to be sweet; and this is still
+      partial evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the whole argument respecting evil must, from the nature of the
+      question, resolve itself into either a proof of some absolute or
+      mathematical necessity not to be removed by infinite power, or the showing
+      that some such proof may be possible although we have not yet discovered
+      it, an illustration may naturally be expected to be attainable from
+      mathematical considerations. Thus, we have already adverted to the law of
+      periodical irregularities in the solar system. Any one before it was
+      discovered seemed entitled to expatiate upon the operation of the
+      disturbing forces arising from mutual attraction, and to charge the system
+      arranged upon the principle of universal gravitation with want of skill,
+      nay, with leading to inevitable mischief&mdash;mischief or evil of so
+      prodigious an extent as to exceed incalculably all the instances of evil
+      and of suffering which we see around us in this single planet.
+      Nevertheless, what then appeared so clearly to be a defect and an evil, is
+      now well known to be the very absolute perfection of the whole heavenly
+      architecture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, we may derive a similar illustration from a much more limited
+      instance, but one immediately connected with strict mathematical
+      reasoning, and founded altogether in the nature of necessary truth. The
+      problem has been solved by mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton having first
+      investigated it, of finding the form of a symmetrical solid, or solid of
+      revolution, which in moving through a fluid shall experience the least
+      possible resistance. The figure bears a striking resemblance to that of a
+      fish. Now suppose a fish were formed exactly in this shape, and that some
+      animal endowed with reason were placed upon a portion of its surface, and
+      able to trace its form for only a limited extent, say at the narrow part,
+      where the broad portion or end of the moving body were opposed, or seemed
+      as if it were opposed, to the surrounding fluid when the fish moved&mdash;the
+      reasoner would at once conclude that the contrivance of the fish&rsquo;s form
+      was very inconvenient, and that nothing could be much worse adapted for
+      expeditious or easy movement through the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet it is certain that upon being afterwards permitted to view THE WHOLE
+      body of the fish, what had seemed a defect and an evil, not only would
+      appear plainly to be none at all, but it would appear manifest that this
+      seeming evil or defect was a part of the most perfect and excellent
+      structure which it was possible even for Omnipotence and Omniscience to
+      have adopted, and that no other conceivable arrangement could by
+      possibility have produced so much advantage, or tended so much to fulfill
+      the design in view. Previous to being enlightened by such an enlarged view
+      of the whole facts, it would thus be a rash and unphilosophical thing in
+      the reasoner whose existence we are supposing to pronounce an unfavorable
+      opinion. Still more unwise would it be if numerous other observations had
+      evinced traces of skill and goodness in the fish&rsquo;s structure. The true and
+      the safe conclusion would be to suspend an opinion which could only be
+      unsatisfactorily formed upon imperfect data; and to rest in the humble
+      hope and belief that one day all would appear for the best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END. <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      FOOTNOTES:
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ The &ldquo;light of revelation,&rdquo;
+       as well as the &ldquo;light of the Christian religion,&rdquo; has not dispelled the
+      darkness of ignorance. The torch of reason is a surer guide.&mdash;<i>Pub.</i>]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ The human race has from
+      time immemorial been afflicted with so-called revelations, all claiming
+      inspiration, all conflicting, and all being equally &ldquo;mysterious and
+      obscure.&rdquo; The wars arising among these sectarians have retarded
+      civilization, and deluged the earth in blood. The revelations of science,
+      founded upon reason and demonstration, have proved the only safe and
+      beneficent guide.&mdash;<i>Pub.</i>]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3">
+      <!-- Note --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ While it is true that the
+      argument of Design, here given, places the subject one step in advance, it
+      is still unsatisfactory, because it fails to explain to us who designed
+      the designer, and the mystery of creation still remains unsolved.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      &ldquo;What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?&rdquo; is the pertinent
+      question which Bishop Watson, in his <i>Apology for the Bible</i>, asked,
+      and vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas Paine.&mdash;<i>Pub.</i>]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation
+on the Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
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+
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+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+</pre>
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+</html>
diff --git a/8654.txt b/8654.txt
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/8654.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3553 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the
+Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
+
+Author: E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
+
+Release Date: August, 2005  [EBook #8654]
+Posting Date: July 28, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALLEN STAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Deley
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+
+and,
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+by Lord Brougham
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
+
+RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his _American Dictionary of the English
+Language_, is derived from "Religo, to bind anew;" and, in this _History
+of a False Religion_, our author has shown how easily its votaries were
+insnared, deceived, and mentally bound in a labyrinth of falsehood and
+error, by a designing knave, who established a new religion and a new
+order of priesthood by imposing on their ignorance and credulity.
+
+The history of the origin of one supernatural religion will, with slight
+alterations, serve to describe them all. Their claim to credence rests
+on the exhibition of so-called miracles--that is, on a violation of
+the laws of nature,--for, if religions were founded on the demonstrated
+truths of science, there would be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no
+miracles, no skepticism, no false religion. We would have only verified
+truths and demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief. But this
+simple foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude. They
+demand signs, portents, mysteries, wonders and miracles for their faith
+and the supply of prophets, knaves and impostors has always been found
+ample to satisfy this abnormal demand of credulity.
+
+Designing men, even at the present day, find little difficulty in
+establishing new systems of faith and belief. Joseph Smith, who invented
+the Mormon religion, had more followers and influence in this country
+at his death, than the Carpenter's Son obtained centuries ago from the
+unlettered inhabitants of Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success
+among educated people in this so-called enlightened age, while Jesus
+taught in an age of semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
+asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles and even fishes
+understood human language, were often gifted with human speech, and
+sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary human intelligence.
+
+They taught that the serpent, using the language of sophistry, beguiled
+Eve in Eden, who in turn corrupted Adam, her first and only husband. At
+the baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan, the voice of a dove
+resounded in the heavens, saying, quite audibly and distinctly, "Thou
+art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Balaam disputed with
+his patient beast of burden, on their celebrated journey in the land
+of Moab, and the ass proved wiser in the argument that ensued than the
+inspired prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes left his
+native element and taught philosophy to the Chaldeans on dry land.
+One reputable woman, of Jewish lineage,--the mother of an interesting
+family--was changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom while another female of
+great notoriety known to fame as the celebrated "Witch of Endor," raised
+Samuel from his grave in Ramah. Saint Peter found a shilling in the
+mouth of a fish which he caught in the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky
+incident enabled the impecunious apostle to pay the "tribute money" in
+Capernaum. Another famous Israelite,--so it is said,--broke the record
+of balloon ascensions in Judea, and ascended into heaven in a chariot of
+fire.
+
+In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies occur, and miracles
+become common, The untaught masses are easily deceived, and their
+unreasoning credulity enables them to proudly boast of their
+unquestioning faith. When their feelings are excited and their passions
+aroused by professional evangelists, they even profess to believe that
+which they cannot comprehend; and, in the satirical language of Bulwer,
+they endeavor to "_assist their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+superstition_."
+
+Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing religions which afflict
+mankind, it is self-evident that but one religion may justly claim the
+inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident to all reasoning minds
+that that religion is the religion of kindness and humanity,--the
+religion of noble thoughts and generous deeds,--which removes the
+enmities of race and creed, and "makes the whole world kin!" And which,
+in its observance is blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and
+love.
+
+This religion needs no creed, no profession of faith, no incense, no
+prayer, no penance, no sacrifice. Its whole duty consists in comforting
+the afflicted, assisting the unfortunate, protecting the helpless, and
+in honestly fulfilling our duties to our fellow mortals. In the language
+of Confucius, the ancient Chinese Sage, it is simply "to behave to
+others as I would require others to behave to me."
+
+"Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," says Jesus; and
+in the Epistle of James, we are told that "Pure Religion and undefiled
+before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in
+their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
+
+The same benign and generous conduct is commended in even grander and
+nobler language in the lectures to the French Masonic Lodges: "Love one
+another, teach one another, help one another. That is all our doctrine,
+all our science, all our law."
+
+It is believed that the learned dissertation of Lord Brougham on
+the _Origin of Evil_, which is annexed to this work, will need no
+commendation to ensure its careful perusal.
+
+                         PETER ECKLER.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+
+
+
+AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.
+
+And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night
+on which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+universal galaxy, its peculiar charge.
+
+The destinies of men and empires are then portioned forth for the coming
+year, and, unconsciously to ourselves, our fates become minioned to the
+stars.
+
+A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark gates of time
+open to receive the ghost of the dead year, and the young and radiant
+stranger rushes forth from the clouded chasms of eternity. On that
+night, it is said that there are given to the spirits that we see not, a
+privilege and a power; the dead are troubled in their forgotten graves,
+and men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are contending for their
+doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of the
+spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars;
+and they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten,
+each resembling each.
+
+Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty, and on
+their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful stillness which
+feels not, sympathizes not with the dooms over which it broods.
+
+War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall, they
+ordain, they, compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The fell and
+thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps--the parricide
+with his stealthy step, and horrent brow, and lifted knife; the unwifed
+mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders, and
+casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not--the
+splash, and does not tremble!
+
+These the starred kings behold--to these they lead the unconscious step;
+but the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither
+their unwrinkled youth.
+
+Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven
+belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a
+burning ball, and the right arm dropped over the knee as they bent down
+from their thrones; they moved not a limb or feature, save the finger
+of the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly, pointing, and
+regulated the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks the career of
+time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+crowned brethren; a star, smaller than the rest, and less luminous. The
+countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+the others; but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty
+brow.
+
+And this star said to himself--"Behold, I am created less glorious
+than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish
+are the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead
+through a dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore?--Is it mine own
+fault, or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams
+less glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
+bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral
+Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory, _I_ because of
+my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride, and _I_ from its
+discontent."
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars; his vast
+limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume
+the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled
+his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in
+the serenity of his splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth:
+
+"He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet."
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and
+the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused
+the course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then
+forth in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice:
+and, fulfilling the heraldry of god, to each star he appointed the duty
+and the charge, and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the majesty of the
+word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in succession,
+received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth,
+the purple and diadems of kings--the archangel addressed the lesser star
+as he sat apart from his fellows.
+
+"Behold," said the archangel, "the rude tribes of the north, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the
+forests, that darken the mountain-tops with verdure! these be thy
+charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O star of the
+sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy
+brethren; for the peasant is not less to thy master and mine than the
+monarch; nor doth the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than
+on the herd. The passions and the heart are the dominion of the stars--a
+mighty realm; nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd,
+than the jewelled robes of eastern kings."
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+archangel:
+
+"Lo!" he said, "ages have past, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe
+into him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its
+steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one
+whom I may lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold,
+O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my
+solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath
+gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the
+tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are swayed, and tracked
+the steps that lead weakness into power; and fain would I be the ruler
+of one who, if abased, shall aspire to rule."
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of
+the archangel.
+
+"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would war with
+the courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far above, sways
+and harmonizes all; the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+answered:
+
+"Yea!--grant me but one trial!"
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the heaven was
+rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with
+his hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with the consciousness of
+unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star:
+
+"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon
+yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
+thy influence, may be moulded to thy will."
+
+The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+far-distant worlds.
+
+But the soul of the discontented star exulted within itself; and it
+said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the herdsmen, that
+shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render the charge
+of the contemned star more glorious than the minions of its favored
+brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect--thus shall I prove my claim
+hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!"
+
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
+pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence, which
+our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of
+our race in the northern hemisphere was then what _we_, in our imperfect
+lore, have conceived to be among the earliest.
+
+
+
+
+FORMING A NEW RELIGION.
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a
+lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just
+passed from the earth--the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars
+looked down upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the
+roar of the waves and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile: the white sheep lay scattered on the
+plain, and slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the
+foes of a neighboring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed
+with himself:
+
+"The king sits upon his throne, and is honored by a warrior race, and
+the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman
+is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is sung at night round the
+pine-fires, by the lips of the bard; and the bard himself hath honor in
+the hail. But I, who belong not to the race of kings, and whose limbs
+can bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle
+and the haunts of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and
+whose voice is harsh in the song; _I_ have neither honor nor command,
+and men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the
+consciousness of a great power that should rule my species--not obey.
+My eye pierces the secret hearts of men--I see their thoughts ere their
+lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the vices
+which I never shared. I laugh at the madness of the warrior--I mock
+within my soul at the tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in
+man's nature more fitted to command--more worthy of renoun, than the
+sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+birth!"
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking
+at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from
+its place, and speeding through the silent air, till it as suddenly
+paused right over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile
+of stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect, the spirit of a great design.
+A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth, snatched the star from his
+sight; but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme
+that had come to him as he gazed.
+
+When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+the herd, and he went away, but not to his father's home. Musingly he
+plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline
+of his daring hope.
+
+While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and, fearful
+lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that way, he ascended
+one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure the winter
+had not denied the shelter he sought, and, concealed by its branches, he
+looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
+
+And IT came--it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing tread upon
+the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed the soil--it came--it
+came, the monster that the world now holds no more--the mighty mammoth
+of the North!
+
+Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes
+glittered through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart, showed the
+grinders with which it snapped asunder the young oaks of the forest;
+and the vast tusks, which, curved downward to the midst of its massive
+limbs, glistened white and ghastly, curdling the blood of one destined
+hereafter to be the dreaded ruler of the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman,
+even amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused--it glared upon
+him--its jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder,
+seemed to the son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after
+glaring on him for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its
+terrible way, crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last
+sound of its heavy tread died away upon his ear.
+
+Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned the courage to descend the
+tree, he saw the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood,
+and presently a small hand of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was
+perfectly hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+one say to another:
+
+"The night covers all things; why attack them by day?"
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered "Right. To-night, when
+they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo! they will be drenched
+in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands."
+
+"But where, O chief," said a third of the band, "shall our men hide
+during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the
+Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm
+their race against our coming."
+
+"I have prepared for that," answered the chief. "Is not the dark
+cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the
+victims?"
+
+Then the men laughed, and shouting, they went their way adown the
+forest.
+
+When they were gone Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt.
+
+As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the
+streets (if streets they might be called), their half garments parting
+from their huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spears
+in their hands, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him,
+cried:
+
+"Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple! what dost thou among men?"
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly.
+
+At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail pile, in which some old
+men dwelt by themselves, and counseled the king when times of danger,
+or when the failure of the season, the famine, or the drought, perplexed
+the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering
+birds. Filled (by the voices of the elements, and the variety of
+mysteries which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal
+reasoning of all experience, which assigns causes to effects) with
+the notion of superior powers, _they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition_. But as yet they knew no craft
+and practiced no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the
+mysteries, which had created their faith, to seek to belie them. They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream had never dared to cross
+men thus worn and grey with age, of governing their warriors and their
+kings by the wisdom of deceit.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+approached the place at the upper end of the hall, where the old men sat
+in conclave.
+
+"How, base-torn and craven limbed!" cried the eldest, who had been
+a noted warrior in his day; "darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the
+secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the
+penalty is death?"
+
+"Slay me, if thou wilt," answered Morven "but hear!
+
+"As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending,
+as my father bade me, the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce
+tribe of Alrich should descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd,
+a storm came darkly on; and when the storm, had ceased and I looked
+above on the sky, I saw a star descend from its height towards me, and
+a voice from the star said, 'Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the
+council of the wise men, and say unto them, that they take thee as one
+of their number, or that sudden will be the destruction of them, and
+theirs.'
+
+"But I had courage to answer the voice, and I said, 'Mock not the poor
+son of the herdsman. Behold they will kill me if I utter so rash a word,
+for I am poor and valueless in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and
+the great in deeds and the grey of hair alone sit in the council of the
+wise men.'
+
+"Then the voice said, 'Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+thou comest from the powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men that this very night if they
+refuse to receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.'
+
+"Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over the star; and I communed
+with myself, and came, O dread fathers, mournfully unto you. For I
+feared that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye
+would, sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be
+given even to the sons of kings."
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other and marvelled much, nor
+knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman's son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, "Surely there must be truth in the
+son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of
+heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we
+might doubt the truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of
+night?"
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and
+said:
+
+"Shall we take the herdsman's son as our equal? No!"
+
+The name of the man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were
+pleasing to the elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out:
+
+"Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not to be an equal with
+yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace, and serve you as
+the son of Osslah may serve;" and he bowed his head humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others,
+"But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless
+the star hath informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we
+take thee into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we
+refuse."
+
+Morven answered meekly: "Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only
+what he has uttered."
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves and
+they differed much; but though fierce men and bold at the war cry of a
+human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved
+to take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and towed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stats of the twilight
+began to glimmer, when Morven started front his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has
+pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the
+stony earth.
+
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+"Heard ye not the voice of the star?" he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, "Nay, we heard no sound."
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+"To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councilors of the
+king! summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant. For lo! the star
+hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beast of the forests."
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+amazed.
+
+"Why, pause ye?" he cried. "Do the gods of the night lie? On my head
+rest the peril if I deceive ye."
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first,
+still looking up at the star; and he motioned them to be silent, and
+move with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the cave of Oderlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men
+on either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the hushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a
+noise in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man;
+and the spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of
+the cave. Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was
+heard the warcry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow
+bed, the river of armed men.
+
+And the Sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe were sorely
+perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and the darkness
+of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain,
+and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them, and great was the joy thereof.
+
+So they went back in triumph to the city, and they carded the brave son
+of Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted forth, "Glory to the servant
+of the star."
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he
+loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honored them not, for he had
+blinded the wisest of their elders.
+
+He shunned their feasts and merriment and lived apart and solitary.
+
+The austerity of his life increased the mysterious homage which his
+commune with the stars had won him, and the boldest of the warriors
+bowed his head to the favorite of the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large
+bird of prey rise from the earth, and give chase to a hawk that had not
+yet gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary
+Morven had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the
+mighty stream, the habits of the things which nature had submitted to
+man; and looking now on the birds, he said to himself, "Thus is it ever;
+by cunning or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind."
+
+While thus, moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and
+it fell terrified and panting at his feet.
+
+Morven took the hawk in his hands, and the vulture shrieked above him,
+wheeling nearer and nearer to its protected prey; but Morven scared away
+the vulture, and placing the hawk in his bosom, he carried it home, and
+tended it carefully, and fed it from his hand until it had regained its
+strength; and the hawk knew him, and followed him as a dog.
+
+And Morven said, smiling to himself, "Behold, _the credulous fools
+around me put faith in the flight and motions of birds_. I will teach
+this poor hawk to minister to my ends."
+
+So he tamed the bird, and tutored it according to its nature; but he
+concealed it carefully from others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+The king of the country was old and like to die, and the eyes of the
+tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier
+to reign.
+
+And Morven passing through the forest one evening, saw the younger of
+the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and
+looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+"Wherefore musest thou, O swift footed Siror?" said the son of Osslah;
+"and wherefore art thou sad?"
+
+"Thou canst not assist me," answered the prince, sternly; "take thy
+way."
+
+"Nay," answered Morven, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+favorite of the stars?"
+
+"Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk
+not to inc of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in."
+
+"Hush," said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; "hush! lest the
+heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me
+to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts
+of thine."
+
+"Speak out, base-born!"
+
+"Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+name of thy brother; yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head,
+and to sit at the high seat of thy father?"
+
+The young man turned pale.
+
+"Thou hast truth in thy lips," said he, with a faltering voice.
+
+"Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth."
+
+"Can the stars grant my wish?"
+
+"They can; let us meet to-morrow." Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+"I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power
+that I prayed for, but on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars thou must build up a
+heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the
+pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt then reign."
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at
+the pale front of Morven.
+
+"Tremble," said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. "Hark to the gods,
+who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+against their servant!"
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+the early summer was about to break.
+
+The spear dropped from the prince's hand; he sat down and cast his eyes
+on the ground.
+
+"Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?" said Morven.
+
+"I will!" cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+"This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither,
+alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones."
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock
+that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their
+way.
+
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sum when the last song of the
+birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day.
+
+
+"Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?" said Gina; "and why doth
+thy lip quiver? and why dost thou tarn away thy face?"
+
+"Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt us forth, my sister?"
+
+"And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?"
+
+"Let others answer; _I_ piled them not."
+
+"Thou tremblest brother: we will return."
+
+"Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft pierced to-day; a bird
+of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee."
+
+"We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?"
+
+"Here!" cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the
+heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages;
+and from the oak, or from the heavens; broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice:
+
+"Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou
+shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou
+shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite of the stars. Arise, and go
+thy way!"
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+
+"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts
+of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy fatter's
+plumed crown, I yield me to their will."
+
+"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my sister
+in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust,
+if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+Osslah."
+
+"Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not: but, when thou
+art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can
+I dare to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the
+night!--Who shall gainsay their word?"
+
+"The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine," answered the prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself,
+"the king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!" and he
+began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time.
+
+Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly, that night advanced, and
+he had lost his path among the thick woods, and knew not how to regain
+his home; so he lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day
+dawned.
+
+Then hunger came upon him and he searched among the bushes for such
+simple roots as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he
+was used to appease the cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of
+a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his
+eyes swim, and a deadly sickness come over him. For several hours he lay
+convulsed on the ground expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+recovered slowly, and after great anguish: but he went with feeble steps
+back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father's herds, and seizing a lamb,
+forced some of the berries into its stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+secret to one of his father's servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence alone, he said
+unto him, "How fares my lord?"
+
+The king sat on a couch, made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs and huge was his stature,
+and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none
+living could bend the bow he had bent in youth. Grey, gaunt and worn, as
+some mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth--a
+relic of the strength of old.
+
+And the king said, faintly, and with a ghastly laugh:
+
+"The men of my years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I
+been born a cripple like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in
+growing old."
+
+The red flash passed over Morven's brow; but he bent humbly--
+
+"O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could
+restore to thee the vigor which distinguished thee above the sons of
+men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?"
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said:
+
+"What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great
+wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the old young?"
+
+"Tempt them not by doubt," said Morven, reverently. "All things are
+possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves
+thy servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, 'Arise, and go
+unto the king; and tell him that the stars honor the tribe of Oestrich,
+and remember how the king bent his bow against the Sons of Alrich;
+wherefore, look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy
+dwelling--even beside the pine-tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of
+clay, and in the vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make
+the king thy master forget his age forever.'
+
+"Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went forth, and looked
+under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I have brought it
+hither to my lord, the king."
+
+"Quick--slave--quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!"
+
+"Nay, listen, O king! farther said the star to me:
+
+"'It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+will avail; wherefore, the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+
+"'And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the
+hand of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and
+when men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+reveals their benefits shall surely die.'"
+
+"Fear not," said the king, grasping the vessel; "none shall know: and,
+behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons--wrangling for my
+crown--verily, I shall be younger than they!"
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+stars, neither did he promise him reward: for the kings in those days
+had little thought--save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, "Shall I not attend my lord? for without me,
+perchance, the drug might fail of its effect."
+
+"Aye," said the king, "rest here."
+
+"Nay," replied Morven; "thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door
+of the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is
+midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the
+liquid with thy wine."
+
+"So be it," said the king. "Thou art wise though thy limbs are crooked
+and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man."
+
+Then the king laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was
+danger in the mirth of the son of Osslah.
+
+
+The night had began to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, "Woe, woe! Awake ye sons of Oestrich--woe!"
+
+Then forth, wild--haggard--alarmed--spear in hand, rushed the giant sons
+of the rugged tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the
+city, shrieking, "Woe!" and it was Morven, the son of Osslah!
+
+And he said unto them, as they gathered round him, "Men and warriors,
+tremble as ye hear.
+
+"The star of the west hath spoken to me and thus saith the star:
+
+"'Evil shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich--yea, ere the
+morning dawns; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake
+the inhabitants to woe!'
+
+"So I rose and did the bidding of the star."
+
+And while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king's house ran up
+to the crowd, crying loudly:
+
+"The king is dead!"
+
+So they went into the palace and found the king stark upon his couch,
+and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by the pangs of death,
+and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe--the foe of all living
+flesh!
+
+Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on Morven with a deeper
+awe than the boldest warrior would have called forth: and they bore him
+back to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing and clashing their
+arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon:
+
+"_Honor to Morven, the prophet!_"
+
+And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in those
+countries.
+
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king's death, Siror sought Morven,
+and he said:
+
+"Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at sunset
+to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will surely
+choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not, therefore."
+
+"Peace, boy!" said Morven, sternly; "nor dare to question the truth of
+the gods of night."
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings.
+
+And the voice silenced the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+"Behold," said Morven, taking up a chaplet of colored plumes, "wear
+this on thy head, and put on a brave face--for the people like a hopeful
+spirit--and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is
+to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars.
+
+"But, above all things, forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by
+the gods of night."
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled
+in the place where the new king was to be elected.
+
+And the voices of the many favored Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror,
+for he had slain twelve foeman with his spear; and verily, in those
+days, that was a great virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out:
+
+"Way for Morven, the prophet, the prophet!"
+
+For the people held the son of Osslah in even greater respect than did
+the chiefs.
+
+Now, since he had become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air
+which the son of the herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit
+his stature was short, and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was
+grave and high.
+
+He only of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head
+was bare, and his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely
+was change or human passion seen in his calm aspect.
+
+He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor was his presence frequent in the
+streets.
+
+He laughed not, neither did he smile, save when alone in the forest--and
+then he laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor
+to the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a
+staff of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+silence.
+
+Then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:
+
+"Princes, wantons and bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+hunters of the forests, and snarers of the fishes of the streams! harken
+to Morven, the son of Osslah.
+
+"Ye know that I am lowly of race, and weak of limb; but did I not give
+into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye not slay them in the
+dead of night with a great slaughter?
+
+"Surely, ye must know that this of himself did not the herdsman's son;
+surely he was but the agent of the bright gods that love the children of
+Oestrich.
+
+"Three nights since, when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice
+heard in the streets?
+
+"Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and verily the
+dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no more.
+
+"Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as the
+voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+
+"Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars?
+
+"Behold, last night, I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were
+hushed around, and not a breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that
+counsels the son of Osslah; and I said:
+
+"'Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy beauty in the
+streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence; behold thy
+servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and many foes
+surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they should have
+a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the stars.
+
+"'Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors
+of Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe,
+wherefore, I pray thee, give unto the people a token that they may
+choose that king whom the gods of the night prefer!'
+
+"Then a low voice sweeter than the music of the bard, stole along the
+silence.
+
+"'Thy love for thy race is grateful to the stars of night: go then, son
+of Osslah, and seek the meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a
+king, and tell them not to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase
+and little known in war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense
+for all.
+
+"'Say unto the people that as the wise men of the council shape their
+lessons by the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds stall a token
+be given unto them, and they shall choose their kings.
+
+"'For,' said, the star of right, 'the birds are children of the winds,
+they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds
+that are the warships of the gods.
+
+"'And their music is but broken melodies which they gleam from the harps
+above.
+
+"'Are they not the messengers of the storm?
+
+"'Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye
+not, by the wail of birds and their low circles over the earth, that the
+tempest is at hand?
+
+"'Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air are the fit
+interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the world above.
+
+"'Say then to the people and the chiefs, that they shall take, from
+among the doves that nest in the roof of the palace, a white dove, and
+they shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods of the night
+shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and they shall
+send a messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich
+a king worthy of themselves.'
+
+"With that the star spoke no more."
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+"Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?"
+
+But the people and the warriors shouted:
+
+"Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle according as the
+bird flies--shall we not by the same token choose him by whom the battle
+should be led?"
+
+And the thing seemed natural to them, for it was after the custom of the
+tribe.
+
+Then they took one of the doves that built in the roof of the palace,
+and they bought it to the spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to
+the stars and muttering to himself, released the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees a little distance from the spot, and as the
+dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd,
+when, lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with
+a sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+Siror.
+
+"Behold," cried Morven in a loud voice, "behold your king!"
+
+"Hail, all hail the king!" shouted the people. "All hail the chosen of
+the stars!"
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand, and the hawk left the prince, and
+alighted on Morven's shoulder.
+
+"Bird of the gods!" said he, reverently, "hast thou not a secret message
+for my ear?" Then the hawk put its beak to Morven's ear, and Morven
+bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested with Morven from that
+moment and would not be scared away.
+
+And Morven said:
+
+"The stars have sent me this bird, that, in the day-time, when I see
+them not, we may never be without a counsellor in distress."
+
+So Siror was made king, and Maven the son of Osslah was constrained by
+the king's will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honored Morven, the prophet, above all the elders of the tribe.
+
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, "Am I not already equal with
+the king? nay, is not the king my servant? did I not place him over the
+heads of his brothers? am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he
+is? shall I not push him from his seat?
+
+"It is a troublesome and stormy office to reign over the wild men of
+Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hail, and to lead die warriors to the
+fray.
+
+"Surely, if I feasted not, neither went out to war, they might say,
+'This is no king, but the cripple Morven;' and some of the race of Siror
+might slay me secretly.
+
+"But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+govern them, living as now at mine own ease?
+
+"_Verily, the stars shall give me a new palace, and many subjects_."
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said "It were better to TRUST this man than to BLIND, for
+surely I want a helpmate and a friend."
+
+So he said to the wise man as he sat alone watching the setting sun:
+
+"It seemeth to me, O Darvan! I that we ought to build a great pile in
+honor of the stars and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+palaces of the chiefs and the palaces of the king; for are not the stars
+our masters?
+
+"And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace, and we
+would serve the gods of night, and fatten their altars with the choicest
+of the herd, and the freshest of the fruits of the earth."
+
+And Darvan said:
+
+"Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But will the people
+help to build the pile, for they are a war-like race and they love not
+toil?"
+
+And Morven answered:
+
+"_Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done. Fear not_."
+
+"In truth thou art a wondrous man, thy words ever come to pass," answered
+Darvan; "and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+stars."
+
+"Assuredly if thou servest me thou shalt know," answered the proud
+Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman
+should command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much.
+
+Now she loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not
+savage and fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his
+fame among the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and
+asked her why she wept.
+
+Then she told him that her brother, the king, had visited her and had
+spoken bitter words of Morven.
+
+"He taketh from me the affection of my people," said Siror, "and
+blindeth them with lies. And since he hath made me king, what if he take
+my kingdom from me? Verily, a new tale of the stars might undo the old."
+
+And the king had ordered her to keep watch on Morven's secrecy, and to
+see whether truth was in him when he boasted of his commune with the
+Powers of Night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+all.
+
+And Morven resented the king's ingratitude, and was troubled much, for
+a king is a powerful foe; but tie comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven's house in which he kept the sacred hawk,
+and wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future
+need, and the door of the cave was always barred.
+
+And one day he was thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall, that
+he had never noted before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he
+looked he perceived the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a
+human face peering in through the chink.
+
+And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+
+
+Morven ran hastily from the cave, but the spy had disappeared among the
+trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down.
+
+Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned pale
+when he saw Morven.
+
+But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a feast, which, for
+the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the moon, in honor of
+the stars.
+
+And going out of Darvan's chamber, he returned to his wife, and bade her
+hair, and go at the dawn of day to the king, her brother, and complain
+bitterly of Morven's treatment, and pluck the black schemes from the
+breast of the king. "For surely," said he, "Darvan hath lied to thy
+brother, and some evil awaits me that I would fain know."
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said:
+
+"The herdsman's son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; stall
+I not be avenged?"
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword.
+
+"Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have learned from one of the elders
+that which convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the
+base-born shall surely die.
+
+"Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest my brother and
+I will fall upon him and smite him to the death."
+
+And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.
+
+"Fly now, O my beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my brethren, or
+surely the sword of Siror will end thy days."
+
+Then the son of Osslab folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she
+had implored him to fly.
+
+"Fly!" he said at length. "Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven, the prophet,
+conquers by arms mightier than the sword."
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+himself from the vengeance of the king.
+
+
+Now, while Morven was musing hopelessly, he heard a roar of waters;
+and behold the river, for it was now the end of autumn, had burst its
+bounds, and was rushing along the valley to the houses of the city.
+
+And now the men of the tribe, and the women, and the children, came
+running, and with shrieks to Morven's house, crying:
+
+"Behold the river has burst upon us!--Save us, O ruler of the stars!"
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven and he resolved to risk his
+fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said:
+
+"Ye know not what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have
+brought it on yourselves."
+
+And they cried: "How? O son of Osslah--we are ignorant of our crime."
+
+And he answered:
+
+"Go down to the king's palace and wait before it, and surely I will
+follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred this punishment
+from the gods."
+
+Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a receding sea; and when it was
+gone from the place, Morven went alone to the house of Darvan, which was
+next his own: and Darvan was greatly terrified, for he was of a great
+age, and had no children, neither friends, and he feared that he could
+not of himself escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him, soothingly:
+
+"Lo, the people love me, and I will see that thou art saved for verily
+thou hast been friendly to me, and done me much service with the king."
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+forth, and saw that they were quite alone; then he seized the old man by
+the throat, and ceased not his grip till he was quite dead.
+
+And leaving the body of the elder on the floor, Morven, stole from the
+house and shut the gate.
+
+And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when, hearing
+the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and afar off the shrieks of
+women, he lifted up his head, and said proudly:
+
+"No! in this hour terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save
+the power of my soul."
+
+So, leaning on his pine staff, he strode down to the palace.
+
+And it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they
+might see each other's faces in the universal fear.
+
+Red flashed the quivering flames on the dark robes and pale front of
+Morven; and he seemed mightier than the rest, because his face alone was
+calm amidst the tumult.
+
+And louder and hoarser came the roar of the waters; and swift rusted the
+shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice:
+
+"Where is the king; and wherefore is he absent from his people in the
+hour of dread?"
+
+Then the gate of the palace opened; and, behold Siror was sitting in the
+hall by the vast pine-fire and his brother by his side, and his chiefs
+around him: for they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the
+bidding of the herdsman's son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the
+same rack whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:
+
+"Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you.
+
+"Learn then, that the stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an
+insult to their servants and delegates below.
+
+"Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye have surnamed
+the Prophet!
+
+"He harms not man or beast; he lives alone; and, far from the wild joys
+of the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and fear the Powers of Night!
+
+"So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger--so is he able to save
+ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your warriors bold;
+and thus do your cattle bring forth their young, and the earth its
+fruits.
+
+"What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear?
+
+"Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my life; and there
+are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against the bosom that
+is only filled with love for you.
+
+"Therefore have the stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the
+river--therefore doth this evil menace ye.
+
+"Neither will it pass away until they who dig the pit for the servant of
+the stars are buried in the same."
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth:
+
+"Name them who conspired against thy life, O holy prophet! and surely
+they shall be torn limb from limb."
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he
+said:
+
+"Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe
+the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves
+I swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down
+upon yourselves, and your children's children, the anger of the throned
+stars, gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes," he cried,
+lifting up his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall
+where the king sat by the pine-fire--"yes, thou whom by my voice the
+stars chose above thy brother--yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy
+sword, and come hither--strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the
+Prophet of the Gods!"
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+silence.
+
+Morven resumed:
+
+"Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch, his brother, and
+Darvan, the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to
+devise new benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!"
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+spear quivered in his hand.
+
+"Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father's herdsman! and for
+thy sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy
+power with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear
+thee: wherefore put him to death."
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed:
+
+"Hear him, O dread ones of the night--hark how he blasphemeth."
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried:
+
+"He blasphemeth--he blasphemeth against the prophet!"
+
+But the king and the chiefs who hated Morven, because of his power with
+the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their
+chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+
+And Siror cried:
+
+"Summon Darvan to us, for he bath watched the steps of Morven, and he
+shall lift the veil from my people's eyes."
+
+Then three of the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice:
+
+"Hark! thus saith the star who, now riding through yonder cloud breaks
+forth upon my eyes--'For the lie that the elder hath uttered against my
+servant, the curse of the stars shall fall upon him.' Seek, and as ye
+find him, so may ye find ever the foes of Morven and the gods."
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms.
+
+And hark--far and fast came on the war-steeds of the wave--the people
+heard them marching to the land, and tossing their white manes in the
+roaring wind.
+
+"Lo, as ye listen," said Morven, calmly, "the river sweeps on. Haste,
+for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king."
+
+"Slave!" shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind.
+
+Then the people, wroth at the danger of their beloved seer, uttered a
+wild yell, and gathered round him with brandished swords, facing their
+chieftains and their king.
+
+But at that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the
+three warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and
+laid him at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly:
+
+"Thus found we the elder in the centre of his own hall."
+
+And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the prediction of
+Morven was thus verified.
+
+"So perish the enemies of Morven and the Stars!" cried the son of
+Osslah. And the people echoed the cry.
+
+Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword above his
+head, he plunged into the crowd:
+
+"Thy blood, base-born, or mine."
+
+"So be it!" answered Morven, quailing not. "People, smite the
+blasphemer. Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths. On, on, or ye perish!"
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+"Smite! smite!" cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+round the king.
+
+And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the cries of the
+dying, and the yell of the trampling people, mingled with the roar of
+the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of
+their own tribe. And the last cry of the victors was, "_Morven the
+prophet_--MORVEN THE KING!"
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley,
+led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women and their
+children, to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun.
+
+But Orna sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and
+her race had perished from the earth.
+
+And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the
+greater part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of
+the vale.
+
+Then Morven said to the people: "The star kings are avenged, and their
+wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the water have melted into the
+crevices of the soil."
+
+And on the fourth day they returned to the city, and no man dared to
+name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling
+the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty
+temple in honor of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the
+tribe held most precious.
+
+And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of the tribe;
+and he took also ten from among the men who had served him best, and
+he ordained that they should serve the stars in the great temple: and
+Morven was their chief.
+
+And he put away the crown they pressed upon him, and he chose from among
+the elders a new king.
+
+And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the
+great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council,
+and proclaim war: but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to
+make merry in the banquet halls.
+
+And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first who, in the
+North, _sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards human flesh_,
+upon the altars.
+
+And he drew auguries from the entrails of the victim, and made schools
+for the science of the prophet; and Morven's piety was the wonder of the
+tribe, in that he refused to be a king.
+
+And Morven, the high-priest, was _ten thousand times mightier than the
+king_.
+
+He taught the people to till the ground, and to sow the herb; and by
+his wisdom, and the valor that his prophecies instilled into men, he
+conquered all the neighboring tribes.
+
+And the sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire, and
+with them spread the name and the laws of Morven.
+
+And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them to build a
+temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the years of Morven.
+
+The sister of Siror bowed down her head and survived not long the
+slaughter of her race.
+
+And she left Morven childless.
+
+And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught, for her only in the world
+had his heart the power to love.
+
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:
+
+"Lo: I have conquered and travailed; and never before in the world did
+man conquer what I have conquered.
+
+"Verily, the empire of the iron thews and the giant limbs is no more;
+I have found a new power, that henceforth shall sway the lands;--_the
+empire of plotting brain and a commanding mind_.
+
+"But, behold, my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will grow
+neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age.
+
+"Desolate and lonely shall I pass away unto my grave.
+
+"O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like unto thee, and to thy
+love do I owe my glory and my life.
+
+"Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+heart--would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine.
+
+"Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that thy love was dearer to me
+than the fear of others."
+
+And Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely to the cares of his
+calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was left
+soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love, _and
+he forbade love and marriage to the priest_.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose OTHER prophets; for the world had
+grown wiser even by Morven's wisdom, and some did say unto themselves:
+
+"Behold Morven, the herdsman's son, is a king of kings: this did the
+stars for their servant; shall we not, therefore, be also servants to
+the star?"
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+what the stars foretold them.
+
+And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more than other men, knew
+that the prophets lied; wherefore he went forth against them with the
+ministers of the temple, and he took them and burned them by a slow
+fire: for thus said Morven to the people:
+
+"_A true prophet hath honor, but I only am a true prophet!_"
+
+"To all false prophets there shall be surely death."
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honor; and they carved his effigy on a
+mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made _Religion the
+stepping stone to Power_.
+
+Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The
+night was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and
+frequent hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.
+But ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and
+were again swallowed up in the graves of darkness.
+
+And far below his brethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat
+the discontented star that had watched over the hunters of the North.
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,
+voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming
+from the abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne
+of the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled
+on his throne when the form stood before him face to face. And the shape
+said: "Hail, brother!--all hail!"
+
+"I know thee not," answered the star: "thou art not the archangel that
+visitests the kings of night."
+
+And the shape laughed loud. "I am the fallen star of the morning.--I am
+Lucifer, thy brother. Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine?
+and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above
+and given it to me by _darkening the souls of men with the religion
+of fear?_ Wherefore come, brother, come;--thou hast a throne prepared
+beside my own in the fiery gloom. Come.--The heavens are no more for
+thee." Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of
+Lucifer. For ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the
+soul of pride.
+
+And slowly they sank down to the gulf of gloom. It was the first night
+of the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby throne, and watched
+with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow dimmed the bright faces
+of the kings of night, for they mourned in silence and in fear for a
+fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound,
+and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel
+gave to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord; and to
+each star was his appointed charge.
+
+And when the heraldry seemed done, there came a laugh from the abyss of
+gloom, and half way from the gulf rose the lurid shape of Lucifer, the
+fiend.
+
+"Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd. Behold! one star is
+missing from the three thousand and ten."
+
+"Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath been
+filled."
+
+And lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all
+lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was so
+soft to look upon, that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon
+its splendor unabashed; but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its
+lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe,
+he plunged backwards into the gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God:
+
+"Behold! _on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of hope;
+and he that breathed into mankind the Religion of Fear hath a successor
+in him who shall teach earth the Religion of Love._"
+
+And evermore the Star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the Star of Love
+keeps vigil in heaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+By Lord Brougham
+
+
+
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
+
+The question which has more than, any other harassed metaphysical
+reasoners, but especially theologians, and upon which it is probable
+that no very satisfactory conclusion will ever be reached by the human
+faculties, is the Origin and Sufferance of Evil.
+
+Its existence being always assumed, philosophers have formed various
+theories for explaining it, but they have always drawn very different
+inferences from it.
+
+The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence of the Deity,
+because they held that the existence of Evil either proved him to be
+limited in power or of a malignant nature; either of which imperfections
+is inconsistent with the first notions of a divine being.
+
+In this kind of reasoning they have been followed both by the atheists
+and sceptics of later times.
+
+Bayle regarded the subject of evil as one of the great arsenals from
+whence his weapons were to be chiefly drawn. None of the articles in his
+famous Dictionary are more labored than those in which he treats of
+this subject. _Monichian_, and still more _Paulician_, almost assume the
+appearance of formal treatises upon the question; and both _Marchionite_
+and _Zoroaster_ treat of the same subject. All these articles are of
+considerable value; they contain the greater part of the learning upon
+the question; and they are distinguished by the acuteness of reasoning
+which was the other characteristic of their celebrated author.
+
+Those ancient philosophers who did not agree with Epicurus in arguing
+from the existence of evil against the existence of a providence that
+superintended and influenced the destinies of the world, were put to no
+little difficulty in accounting for the fact which they did not deny,
+and yet maintaining the power of a divine ruler. The doctrine of a
+double principle, or of two divine beings of opposite natures, one
+beneficent, the other mischievous, was the solution which one class of
+reasoners deemed satisfactory, and to which they held themselves driven
+by the phenomena of the universe.
+
+Others unable to deny, the existence of things which men denominate
+evil, both physical and moral, explain them in a different way. They
+maintained that physical evil only obtains the name from our imperfect
+and vicious or feeble dispositions; that to a wise man there is no such
+thing; that we may rise superior to all such groveling notions as make
+us dread or repine at any events which can befall the body; that pain,
+sickness, loss of fortune or of reputation, exile, death itself, are
+only accounted ills by a weak and pampered mind; that if we find the
+world tiresome, or woeful, or displeasing, we may at any moment quit
+it; and that therefore we have no right whatever to call any suffering
+connected with existence on earth an evil, because almost all sufferings
+can be borne by a patient and firm mind; since if the situation we are
+placed in becomes either intolerable, or upon the whole more painful
+than agreeable, it is our own fault that we remain in it.
+
+But these philosophers took a further view of the question which
+especially applied to moral evil. They considered that nothing could be
+more groundless than to suppose that if there were no evil there could
+be any good in the world; and they illustrated this position by asking
+how we could know anything of temperance, fortitude or justice, unless
+there were such things as excess, cowardice and injustice.
+
+These were the doctrines of the Stoics, from whose sublime and
+impracticable philosophy they seemed naturally enough to flow. Aulus
+Gellius relates that the last-mentioned argument was expounded by
+Chrysippus, in his work upon providence. The answer given by Plutarch
+seems quite sufficient: "As well might you say that Achilles could not
+have a fine head of hair unless Thersites had been bald; or that one
+man's limbs could not be all sound if another had not the gout."
+
+In truth, the Stoical doctrine proceeds upon the assumption that all
+virtue is only the negative of vice; and is as absurd, if indeed it
+be not the very same absurdity, as the doctrine which should deny the
+existence of affirmative or positive truths, resolving them all into the
+opposite of negative propositions. Indeed, if we even were to admit this
+as an abstract position, the actual existence of evil would still be
+unnecessary to the idea, and still more to the existence, of good. For
+the conception of evil, the bare idea of its possibility, would be quite
+sufficient, and there would be no occasion for a single example of it.
+
+The other doctrine, that of two opposite principles, was embraced by
+most of the other sects, as it should seem, at some period or other
+of their inquiries. Plato himself, in his later works, was clearly
+a supporter of the system; for he held that there were at least two
+principles, a good and an evil; to which he added a third, the moderator
+or mediator between them.
+
+Whether this doctrine was, like many others, imported into Greece from
+the East, or was the natural growth of the schools, we cannot ascertain.
+Certain it is that the Greeks themselves believed it to have been taught
+by Zoroaster in Asia, at least five centuries before the Trojan war; so
+that it had an existence there long before the name of philosophy was
+known in the western world.
+
+Zoroaster's doctrine agreed in every respect with Plato's; for besides
+Oomazes, the good, and Arimanius, the evil principle, he taught that
+there was a third, or mediatory one, called Mithras. That it never
+became any part of the popular belief in Greece or Italy is quite clear.
+All the polytheism of those countries recognized each of the gods
+as authors alike of good and evil. Nor did even the chief of the
+divinities, under whose power the rest were placed, offer any exception
+to the general rule; for Jupiter not only gave good from one urn and ill
+from another, but he was also, according to the barbarous mythology of
+classical antiquity, himself a model at once of human perfections and of
+human vices.
+
+After the light of the Christian religion had made some way toward
+supplanting the ancient polytheism, the doctrine of two principles was
+broached; first by Marcion, who lived in the time of Adrian and Antonius
+Pius, early in the second century; and next by Manes, a hundred years
+later. He was a Persian slave, who was brought into Greece, where he
+taught this doctrine, since known by his name, having learned it, as is
+said, from Scythianus, an Arabian. The Manichean doctrines, afterwards
+called also Paulician, from a great teacher of them in the seventh
+century, were like almost all the heresies in the primitive church, soon
+mixed up with gross impurities of sacred rites as well as extravagant
+absurdities of creed.
+
+The Manicheans were, probably as much on this account as from the spirit
+of religious intolerance, early the objects of severe persecution; and
+the Code of Justinian itself denounces capital punishment against any of
+the sect, if found within the Roman dominions.
+
+It must be confessed that the theory of two principles, when kept free
+from the absurdities and impurities which were introduced into the
+Manichean doctrine, is not unnaturally adopted by men who have no
+aid from the light of revelation,[1] and who are confounded by the
+appearance of a world where evil and good are mixed together, or seem to
+struggle with one another, sometimes the one prevailing, and sometimes
+the other; and accordingly, in all countries, in the most barbarous
+nations, as well as among the most refined, we find plain traces of
+reflecting men having been driven to this solution of the difficulty.
+
+It seems upon a superficial view to be very easily deducible from
+the phenomena; and as the idea of infinite power, with which it is
+manifestly inconsistent, does by no means so naturally present itself to
+the mind, as long as only a very great degree of power, a power which in
+comparison of all human force may be termed infinite, is the attribute
+with which the Deity is believed to be endued. Manichean hypothesis is
+by no means so easily refuted. That the power of the Deity was supposed
+to have limits even in the systems of the most enlightened heathens is
+unquestionable. They, generally speaking, believed in the eternity
+of matter, and conceived some of its qualities to be so essentially
+necessary to its existence that no divine agency could alter them.
+They ascribed to the Deity a plastic power, a power not of creating or
+annihilating, but only of moulding, disposing and moving matter. So over
+mind they generally give him the like power, considering it as a kind
+of emanation from his own greater mind or essence, and destined to be
+re-united with him hereafter. Nay, over all the gods, and of superior
+potency to any, they conceived fate to preside; an overruling and
+paramount necessity, of which they formed some dark conceptions, and to
+which the chief of all the gods was supposed to submit. It is, indeed,
+extremely difficult to state precisely what the philosophic theory of
+theology was in Greece and Rome, because the wide difference between the
+esoteric and exoteric doctrines, between the belief of the learned
+few and the popular superstition, makes it very difficult to avoid
+confounding the two, and lending to the former some of the grosser
+errors with which the latter abounded. Nevertheless, we may rely upon
+what has been just stated, as conveying, generally speaking, the opinion
+of philosophers, although some sects certainly had a still more scanty
+measure of belief.
+
+But we shall presently find that in the speculation of the much more
+enlightened moderns, Christians of course, errors of a like kind are
+to be traced. They constantly argue the great question of evil upon a
+latent assumption, that the power of the Deity is restricted by some
+powers or qualities inherent in matter; notions analogous to that of
+faith are occasionally perceptible; not stated or expanded indeed into
+propositions, but influencing the course of the reasoning; while the
+belief of infinite attributes is never kept steadily in view, except
+when it is called in as requisite to refute the Manichean doctrines.
+Some observers of the controversy have indeed not scrupled to affirm
+that those of whom we speak are really Manicheans without knowing it;
+and build their systems upon assumptions secretly borrowed from the
+disciples of Zoroaster, without ever stating those assumptions openly in
+the form of postulates or definition.
+
+The refutation of the Manichean hypothesis is extremely easy if we
+be permitted to assume that both the principles which it supposes are
+either of infinite power or of equal power. If they are of infinite
+power, the supposition of their co-existence involves a contradiction in
+terms; for the one being in opposition to the other, the power of each
+must be something taken from that of the other; consequently neither
+can be of infinite power. If, again, we only suppose both to be of equal
+power, and always acting against each other, there could be nothing
+whatever done, neither good or evil; the universe would be at a
+standstill; or rather no act of creation could ever have been performed,
+and no existence could be conceived beyond that of the two antagonistic
+principles.
+
+Archbishop Tillotson's argument, properly speaking, amounts to this
+last proposition, and is applicable to equal and opposite principles,
+although he applies it to two beings, both infinitely powerful and
+counteracting one another. When he says they would tie up each other's
+bands, he might apply this argument to such antagonistic principles if
+only equal, although not infinitely powerful. The hypothesis of their
+being both infinitely powerful needs no such refutation; it is a
+contradiction in terms. But it must be recollected that the advocates of
+the Manichean doctrine endeavor to guard themselves against the attack
+by contending, that the conflict between the two principles ends in a
+kind of compromise, so that neither has it all his own way; there is a
+mixture of evil admitted by the good principle, because else the whole
+would beat a standstill; while there is much good admitted by the evil
+principle, else nothing, either good or evil, would be done. Another
+answer is therefore required to this theory than what Tillotson and his
+followers have given.
+
+_First_, we must observe that this reasoning of the Manicheans proceeds
+upon the analogy of what we see in mortal contentions; where neither
+party having the power to defeat the other, each is content to yield
+a little to his adversary, and so, by mutual concession, both are
+successful to some extent, and both to some extent disappointed. But in
+a speculation concerning the nature of the Deity, there seems no place
+for such notions.
+
+_Secondly_, the equality of power is not an arbitrary assumption; it
+seems to follow from the existence of the two opposing principles. For
+if they are independent of one another as to existence, which they must
+needs be, else one would immediately destroy the other, so must they
+also, in each particular instance, be independent of each other, and
+also equal each to the other, else one would have the mastery, and
+the influence of the other could not be perceived. To say that in some
+things the good principle prevails and in others the evil, is really
+saying nothing more than that good exists here and evil there. It
+does not further the argument one step, nor give anything like an
+explanation. For it must always be borne in mind that the whole question
+respecting the Origin of Evil proceeds upon the assumption of a wise,
+benevolent and powerful Being having created the world. The difficulty,
+and the only difficulty, is, how to reconcile existing evil with such
+a Being's attributes; and if the Manichean only explains this by saying
+the good Being did what is good, and another and evil Being did what is
+bad in the universe, he really tells us nothing more than the fact; he
+does not apply his explanation to the difficulty; and he supposes the
+existence of a second Deity gratuitously and to no kind of purpose.
+
+But, _thirdly_, in whatever light we view the hypothesis, it seems
+exposed to a similar objection, namely, of explaining nothing in its
+application, while it is wholly gratuitous in itself. It assumes, of
+course, that creation was the act of the good Being; and it also assumes
+that Being's goodness to have been perfect, though his power is limited.
+Then as he must have known the existence of the evil principle and
+foreseen the certainty of misery being occasioned by his existence, why
+did he voluntarily create sentient beings, to put them, in some respects
+at least, under the evil one's power, and thus be exposed to suffering?
+The good Being, according to this theory, is the remote cause of the
+evil which is endured, because but for his act of creation the evil
+Being could have had, no subjects whereon to work mischief; so that
+the hypothesis wholly fails in removing, by more than one step, the
+difficulty which it was invented to solve.
+
+_Fourthly_, there is no advantage gained to the argument by supposing
+two Beings, rather than one Being of a mixed nature. The facts lead
+to this supposition just as naturally as to the hypothesis of two
+principles. The existence of the evil Being is as much a detraction from
+the power of the good one, as if we only at once suppose the latter to
+be of limited power, and that he prefers making and supporting creatures
+who suffer much less than they enjoy, to making no creatures at all. The
+supposition that he made them as happy as he could, and that not being
+able to make them less miserable, he yet perceived that upon the whole
+their existence would occasion more happiness than if they never had
+any being at all, will just account for the phenomena as well as
+the Manichean theory, and will as little as that theory assume any
+malevolence in the power which created and preserved the universe. If,
+however, it be objected that this hypothesis leaves unexplained the
+fetters upon the good Being's power, the answer is obvious; it leaves
+those fetters not at all less explained than the Manichean theory does;
+for that theory gives no explanation of the existence of a counteracting
+principle, and it assumes both an antagonistic power, to limit the
+Deity's power, and a malevolent principle to set the antagonistic power
+in motion; whereas our supposition assumes no malevolence at all, but
+only a restraint upon the divine power.
+
+_Fifthly_, this leads us to another and most formidable objection.
+To conceive the eternal existence of one Being infinite in power,
+"self-created and creating all others," is by no means impossible.
+Indeed, as everything must have had a cause, nothing we see being
+by possibility self-created, we naturally mount from particulars to
+generals, until finally we rise to the idea of a first cause, uncreated,
+and self-existing, and eternal. If the phenomena compels us to affix
+limits to his goodness, we find it impossible to conceive limits to
+the power of a creative, eternal, self-existing principle. But even
+supposing we could form the conception of such a Being having his power
+limited as well as his goodness, still we can conceive no second Being
+independent of him. This would necessarily lead to the supposition
+of some third Being, above and antecedent to both, and the creator of
+both--the real first cause--and then the whole question would be to
+solve over again,--Why these two antagonistic Beings were suffered to
+exist by the great Being of all?
+
+The Manichean doctrine, then, is exposed to every objection to which
+a theory can be obnoxious. It is gratuitous; it is inapplicable to the
+facts; it supposes more causes than are necessary; it fails to explain
+the phenomena, leaving the difficulties exactly where it found them.
+Nevertheless, such is the theory, how easily soever refuted when openly
+avowed and explicitly stated, which in various disguises appears to
+pervade the explanations, given of the facts by most of the other
+systems; nay, to form, secretly and unacknowledged, their principal
+ground-work. For it really makes very little difference in the matter
+whether we are to account for evil by holding that the Deity has created
+as much happiness as was consistent with "the nature of things," and
+has taken every means of avoiding all evil except "where it necessarily
+existed" or at once give those limiting influences a separate and
+independent existence, and call them by a name of their own, which is
+the Manichean hypothesis.
+
+The most remarkable argument on this subject, and the most distinguished
+both for its clear and well ordered statement, and for the systematic
+shape which it assumes, is that of Archbishop King. It is the great
+text-book of those who study this subject; and like the famous legal
+work of Littleton, it has found an expounder yet abler and more learned
+than the author himself. Bishop Law's commentary is full of information,
+of reasoning and of explication; nor can we easily find anything
+valuable upon the subject which is not contained in the volumes of
+that work. It will, however, only require a slight examination of the
+doctrines maintained by these learned and pious men, to satisfy us that
+they all along either assume the thing to be proved, or proceed
+upon suppositions quite inconsistent with the infinite power of the
+Deity--the only position which raises a question, and which makes the
+difficulty that requires to be solved.
+
+According to all the systems as well as this one, evil is of two
+kinds--physical and moral. To the former class belong all the sufferings
+to which sentient beings are exposed from the qualities and affections
+of matter independent of their own acts; the latter class consists of
+the sufferings of whatever kind which arise from their own conduct. This
+division of the subject, however, is liable to one serious objection;
+it comprehends under the second head a class of evils which ought more
+properly to be ranged under the first. Nor is this a mere question of
+classification: it affects the whole scope of the argument. The second
+of the above-mentioned classes comprehends both the physical evils which
+human agency causes, but which it would have no power to cause unless
+the qualities of matter were such as to produce pain, privation and
+death; and also the moral evil of guilt which may possibly exist
+independent of material agency, but which, whether independent or not
+upon that physical action, is quite separable from it, residing wholly
+in the mind. Thus a person who destroys the life of another produces
+physical evil by means of the constitution of matter, and moral evil
+is the source of his wicked action. The true arrangement then is this:
+Physical evil is that which depends on the constitution of matter,
+or only is so far connected with the constitution of mind as that the
+nature and existence of a sentient being must be assumed in order to its
+mischief being felt. And this physical evil is of two kinds; that which
+originates in human action, and that which is independent of human
+action, befalling us from the unalterable course of nature. Of the
+former class are the pains, privations and destruction inflicted by men
+one upon another; of the latter class are diseases, old age and death.
+Moral evil consists in the crimes, whether of commission or omission,
+which men are guilty of--including under the latter head those
+sufferings which we endure from ill-regulated minds through want of
+fortitude or self-control. It is clear that as far as the question
+of the origin of evil is concerned, the first of these two classes,
+physical evil, depends upon the properties of matter, and the last
+upon those of mind. The second as well as the first subdivision of the
+physical class depends upon matter; because, however ill-disposed the
+agent's mind may be, he could inflict the mischief only in consequence
+of the constitution of matter. Therefore, the Being, who created matter
+enabled him to perpetrate the evil, even admitting that this Being did
+not, by creating the mind also give rise to the evil disposition; and
+admitting that, as far as regards this disposition it has the same
+origin with the evil of the second class, or moral evil, the acts of a
+rational agent.
+
+It is quite true that many reasoners refuse to allow any distinction
+between the evil produced by natural causes and the evils caused by
+rational agents, whether as regards their own guilt, or the mischief it
+caused to others. Those reasoners deny that the creation of man's will
+and the endowing it with liberty explains anything; they hold that the
+creation of a mind whose will is to do evil, amounts to the same thing,
+and belongs to the same class, with the creation of matter whose nature
+is to give pain and misery. But this position, which involves
+the doctrine of necessity, must, at the very least, admit of one
+modification. Where no human agency whatever is interposed, and the
+calamity comes without any one being to blame for it, the mischief seems
+a step, and a large step, nearer the creative or the superintending
+cause, because it is, as far as men go, altogether inevitable. The main
+tendency of the argument, therefore, is confined to physical evil; and
+this has always been found the most difficult to account for, that is to
+reconcile with the government of a perfectly good and powerful Being.
+It would indeed be very easily explained, and the reconcilement would be
+readily made, if we were at liberty to suppose matter independent in
+its existence, and in certain qualities, of the divine control; but this
+would be to suppose the Deity's power limited and imperfect, which is
+just one horn of the Epicurean dilemma, _"Aut vult et non potest;"_ and
+in assuming this, we do not so much beg the question as wholly give it
+up and admit we cannot solve the difficulty. Yet obvious as this is, we
+shall presently see that the reasoners who have undertaken the solution,
+and especially King and Law, under such phrases as "the nature of
+things," and "the laws of the material universe," have been constantly,
+through the whole argument, guilty of this _petitio principii_ (begging
+the question), or rather this abandonment of the whole question, and
+never more so than at the very moment when they complacently plumed
+themselves upon having overcome the difficulty.
+
+Having premised these observations for the purpose of clearing the
+ground and avoiding confusion in the argument, we may now consider that
+Archbishop King's theory is in both its parts; for there are in truth
+two distinct explanations, the one resembling an argument _a priori_,
+the other an argument _a posteriori_. It is, however, not a little
+remarkable that Bishop Law, in the admirable abstract or analysis which
+he gives of the Archbishop's treatise at the end of his preface, begins
+with the second branch, omitting all mention of the first, as if he
+considered it to be merely introductory matter; and yet his fourteenth
+note (t. cap. I s. 3.) shows that he was aware of its being an argument
+wholly independent of the rest of the reasonings; for he there says
+that the author had given one demonstration _a priori_, and that no
+difficulties raised by an examination of the phenomena, no objection _a
+posteriori_, ought to overrule it, unless these difficulties are equally
+certain and clear with the demonstration, and admit of no solution
+consistent with that demonstration.
+
+The necessity of a first cause being shown, and it being evident that
+therefore this cause is uncreated and self-existent, and independent of
+any other, the conclusion is next drawn that its power must be infinite.
+This is shown by the consideration that there is no other antecedent
+cause, and no other principle which was not created by the first cause,
+and consequently which was not of inferior power; therefore, there is
+nothing which can limit the power of the first cause; and there being no
+limiter or restrainer, there can be no limitation or restriction.
+
+Again, the infinity of the Deity's power is attempted to be proved in
+another way.
+
+The number of possible things is infinite; but every possibility implies
+a power to do the possible thing; and as one possible thing implies
+a power to do it, an infinite number of possible things implies an
+infinite power. Or as Descartes and his followers put it, we can have no
+idea of anything that has not either an actual or a possible existence;
+but we have an idea of a Being of infinite perfection; therefore,
+he must actually exist; for otherwise there would be one perfection
+wanting, and so he would not be infinite, which he either is actually
+or possibly. It is needless to remark that this whole argument, whatever
+may be said of the former one, is a pure fallacy, and a _petitio
+principii_ throughout. The Cartesian form of it is the most glaringly
+fallacious, and indeed exposes itself; for by that reasoning we might
+prove the existence of a fiery dragon or any other phantom of the brain.
+But even King's more concealed sophism is equally absurd. What ground
+is there for saying that the number of possible things is infinite? He
+adds, "at least in power," which means either nothing or only that we
+have the power of conceiving an infinite number of possibilities. But
+because we can conceive or fancy an infinity of possibilities, does it
+follow that there actually exists this infinity? The whole argument is
+unworthy of a moment's consideration. The other is more plausible,
+that restriction implies a restraining power. But even this is not
+satisfactory when closely examined. For although the first cause must
+be self-existent and of eternal duration, we only are driven by the
+necessity of supposing a cause whereon all the argument rests, to
+suppose one capable of causing all that actually exists; and, therefore,
+to extend this inference and suppose that the cause is of infinite power
+seems gratuitous. Nor is it necessary to suppose another power limiting
+its efficacy, if we do not find it necessary to suppose its own
+constitution and essence such as we term infinitely powerful. However,
+after noticing this manifest defect in the fundamental part of the
+argument, that which infers infinite power, let us for the present
+assume the position to be proved either by these or by any other
+reasons, and see if the structure raised upon it is such as can stand
+the test of examination.
+
+Thus, then, an infinitely powerful Being exists, and he was the creator
+of the universe; but to incline him towards the creation there could be
+no possible motive of happiness to himself, and he must, says King, have
+either sought his own happiness or that of the universe which he made.
+Therefore his own ideas must have been the communication of happiness to
+the creature. He could only desire to exercise his attributes without,
+or eternally to himself, which before creating other beings he could not
+do. But this could only gratify his nature, which wants nothing, being
+perfect in itself, by communicating his goodness and providing for the
+happiness of other sentient beings created by him for this purpose.
+Therefore, says King, "it manifestly follows that the world is as
+well as it could be made by infinite power and goodness; for since the
+exercise of the divine power and the communication of his goodness are
+the ends, for which the world is formed, there is no doubt but God
+has attained these ends." And again, "If then anything inconvenient or
+incommodious be now, or was from the beginning in it, that certainly
+could not be hindered or removed even by infinite power, wisdom and
+goodness."
+
+Now certainly no one can deny, that if God be infinitely powerful and
+also infinitely good, it must follow that whatever looks like evil,
+either is not really evil, or that it is such as infinite power could
+not avoid. This is implied in the very terms of the hypothesis. It may
+also be admitted that if the Deity's only object in his dispensation be
+the happiness of his creatures, the same conclusion follows even without
+assuming his nature to be infinitely good; for we admit what, for the
+purpose of the argument, is the same thing, namely, that there entered
+no evil into his design in creating or maintaining the universe. But
+all this really assumes the very thing to be proved. King gets over the
+difficulty and reaches his conclusion by saying, "The Deity could
+have only one of two objects--his own happiness or that of his
+creatures."--The skeptic makes answer, "He might have another object,
+namely, the misery of his creatures;" and then the whole question is,
+whether or not he had this other object; or, which is the same thing,
+whether or not his nature is perfectly good. It must never be forgotten
+that unless evil exists there is nothing to dispute about--the question
+falls. The whole difficulty arises from the admission that evil exists,
+or what we call evil, exists. From this we inquire whether or not the
+author of it can be perfectly benevolent? or if he be, with what view he
+has created it? This assumes him to be infinitely powerful, or at
+least powerful enough to have prevented the evil; but indeed we are now
+arguing with the Archbishop on the supposition that he has proved the
+Deity to be of infinite power. The skeptic rests upon his dilemma, and
+either alternative, limited power or limited goodness, satisfies him.
+
+It is quite plain, therefore, that King has assumed the thing to be
+proved in his first argument, or argument _a priori_. For he proceeds
+upon the postulates that the Deity is infinitely good, and that he only
+had human happiness in view when he made the world. Either supposition
+would have served his purpose; and making either would have been taking
+for granted the whole matter in dispute. But he has assumed both; and
+it must be added, he has made his assumption of both as if he was only
+laying down a single position. This part of the work is certainly more
+slovenly than the rest. It is the third section of the first chapter.
+
+It is certainly not from any reluctance to admit the existence of evil
+that the learned author and his able commentator have been led into this
+inconclusive course of reasoning. We shall nowhere find more striking
+expositions of the state of things in this respect, nor more gloomy
+descriptions of our condition, than in their celebrated work. "Whence
+so many, inaccuracies," says the Archbishop, "in the work of a most good
+and powerful God? Whence that perpetual war between the very elements,
+between animals, between men? Whence errors, miseries and vices, the
+constant companions of human life from its infancy? Whence good to evil
+men, evil to the good? If we behold anything irregular in the work
+of men, if any machine serves not the end it was made for, if we find
+something in it repugnant to itself or others, we attribute that to
+the ignorance, impatience or malice of the workman. But since these
+qualities have no place in God, how come they to have place in anything?
+Or why does God suffer his works to be deformed by them?"--Chap. ii. s.
+3. Bishop Law, in his admirable preface, still more cogently puts the
+case: "When I inquire how I got into the world, and came to be what
+I am, I am told that an absolutely perfect being produced me out of
+nothing, and placed me here on purpose to communicate some part of his
+happiness to me, and to make me in some manner like himself. This end is
+not obtained--the direct contrary appears--I find myself surrounded with
+nothing but perplexity, want and misery--by whose fault I know not--how
+to better myself I cannot tell. What notions of good and goodness can
+this afford me? What ideas of religion? What hopes of a future state?
+For if God's aim in producing me be entirely unknown, if it be either
+his glory (as some will have it), which my present state is far from
+advancing, nor mine own good, which the same is equally inconsistent
+with, how know I what I have to do here, or indeed in what manner I must
+endeavor to please him? Or why should I endeavor it at all? For if I
+must be miserable in this world, what security have I that I shall not
+be so in another too (if there be one), since if it were the will of
+my Almighty Creator, I might (for aught I see) have been happy in
+both."--Pref. viii. The question thus is stated. The difficulty is
+raised in its full and formidable magnitude by both these learned and
+able men; that they have signally failed to lay it by the argument _a
+priori_ is plain. Indeed, it seems wholly impossible ever to answer by
+an argument _a priori_ any objection whatever which arises altogether
+out of the facts made known to us by experience alone, and which are
+therefore in the nature of contingent truths, resting upon contingent
+evidence, while all demonstrations _a priori_ must necessarily proceed
+upon mathematical truths. Let us now see if their labors have been more
+successful in applying to the solution of the difficulty the reasoning
+_a posteriori._
+
+Archbishop King divides evil into three kinds--imperfection, natural
+evil and moral evil--including under the last head all the physical
+evils that arise from human actions, as well as the evils which consists
+in the guilt of those actions.
+
+The existence of imperfection is stated to be necessary, because
+everything which is created and not self-existent must be imperfect;
+consequently every work of the Deity, in other words, everything but
+the Deity himself, must have imperfection in its nature. Nor is the
+existence of some beings which are imperfect any interference with
+the attributes of others. Nor the existence of beings with many
+imperfections any interference with others having pre-eminence. The
+goodness of the Deity therefore is not impugned by the existence of
+various orders of created beings more or less approaching to perfection.
+His creating none at all would have left the universe less admirable and
+containing less happiness than it now does. Therefore, the act of mere
+benevolence which called those various orders into existence is not
+impeached in respect of goodness any more than of power by the variety
+of the attributes possessed by the different beings created.
+
+He now proceeds to grapple with the real difficulty of the question. And
+it is truly astonishing to find this acute metaphysician begin with an
+assumption which entirely begs that question. As imperfection, says he,
+arises from created beings having been made out of nothing, so natural
+evils arise "from all natural things having a relation to matter, and
+on this account being necessarily subject to natural evil." As long as
+matter is subject to motion, it must be the subject of generation and
+corruption. "These and all other natural evils," says the author, "are
+so necessarily connected with the material origin of things that they
+cannot be separated from it, and thus the structure of the world either
+ought not to have been formed at all, or these evils must have been
+tolerated without any imputation on the divine power and goodness."
+Again, he says, "corruption could not be avoided without violence done
+to the laws of motion and the nature of matter." Again, "All manner
+of inconveniences could not be avoided because of the imperfection of
+matter and the nature of motion. That state of things were therefore
+preferable which was attained with the fewest and the least
+inconveniences." Then follows a kind of menace, "And who but a very
+rash, indiscreet person will affirm that God has not made choice of
+this?"--when every one must perceive that the bare propounding of the
+question concerning evil calls upon us to exercise this temerity and
+commit this indiscretion.--Chap. iv. s. I, div. 7. He then goes into
+more detail as to particular cases of natural evil; but all are handled
+in the same way. Thus death is explained by saying that the bodies of
+animals are a kind of vessels which contain fluids in motion, and being
+broken, the fluids are spilt and the motions cease; "because by the
+native imperfection of matter it is capable of dissolution, and the
+spilling and stagnation must necessarily follow, and with it animal life
+must cease."--Chap. iv. s. 3. Disease is dealt with in like manner. "It
+could not be avoided unless animals had been made of a quite different
+frame and constitution."--Chap. iv. s. 7. The whole reasoning is summed
+up in the concluding section of this part, where the author somewhat
+triumphantly says, "The difficult question then, whence comes evil? is
+not unanswerable. For it arises from the very nature and
+constitution of created beings, and could not be avoided without a
+contradiction."--Chap. iv. s. 9. To this the commentary of Bishop Law
+adds (Note 4i), "that natural evil has been shown to be, in every case,
+unavoidable, without introducing into the system a greater evil."
+
+It is certain that many persons, led away by the authority of a great
+name, have been accustomed to regard this work as a text-book, and have
+appealed to Archbishop King and his learned commentator as having solved
+the question. So many men have referred to the _Principia_ as showing
+the motions of the heavenly bodies, who never read, or indeed could
+read, a page of that immortal work. But no man ever did open it who
+could read it and find himself disappointed in any one particular;
+the whole demonstration is perfect; not a link is wanting; nothing is
+assumed. How different the case here! We open the work of the prelate
+and find it from the first to last a chain of gratuitous assumptions,
+and, of the main point, nothing whatever is either proved or explained.
+Evil arises, he says, from the nature of matter. Who doubts it? But is
+not the whole question why matter was created with such properties as
+of necessity to produce evil? It was impossible, says he, to avoid it
+consistently with the laws of motion and matter. Unquestionably; but
+the whole dispute is upon those laws. If indeed the laws of nature, the
+existing constitution of the material world, were assumed as necessary,
+and as binding upon the Deity, how is it possible that any question ever
+could have been raised? The Deity having the power to make those laws,
+to endow matter with that constitution, and having also the power to
+make different laws and to give matter another constitution, the whole
+question is, how his choosing to create the present existing order of
+things--the laws and the constitution which we find to prevail--can be
+reconciled with perfect goodness. The whole argument of the Archbishop
+assumes that matter and its laws are independent of the Deity; and the
+only conclusion to which the inquiry leads us is that the Creator has
+made a world with as little of evil in it as the nature of things,--that
+is, as the laws of nature and matter--allowed him; which is nonsense,
+if those laws were made by him, and leaves the question where it was, or
+rather solves it by giving up the omnipotence of the Creator, if these
+laws were binding upon him.
+
+It must be added, however, that Dr. King and Dr. Law are not singular in
+pursuing this most inconclusive course of reasoning.
+
+Thus Dr. J. Clarke, in his treatise on natural evil, quoted by Bishop
+Law (Note 32), shows how mischiefs arise from the laws of matter; and
+says this could not be avoided "without altering those primary laws,
+i. e., making it something else than what it is, or changing it into
+another form; the result of which would only be to render it liable to
+evils of another kind against which the same objections would equally
+lie." So Dr. J. Burnett, in his discourses on evil, at the Boyle Lecture
+(vol. ii. P. 201), conceives that he explains death by saying that the
+materials of which the body is composed "cannot last beyond seventy
+years, or thereabouts, and it was originally intended that we should die
+at that age." Pain, too, he imagines is accounted for by observing that
+we are endowed with feelings, and that if we could not feel pain,
+so neither could we pleasure (p. 202). Again, he says that there are
+certain qualities which "in the nature of things matter is incapable of"
+(p. 207). And as if he really felt the pressure of this difficulty, he
+at length comes to this conclusion, that life is a free gift, which we
+had no right to exact, and which the Deity lay under no necessity to
+grant, and therefore we must take it with the conditions annexed (p.
+210); which is undeniably true, but is excluding the discussion and
+not answering the question proposed. Nor must it be forgotten that
+some reasoners deal strangely with the facts. Thus Derham, in his
+_Physico-Theology_, explaining the use of poison in snakes, first
+desires us to bear in mind that many venomous ones are of use
+medicinally in stubborn diseases, which is not true, and if it were,
+would prove nothing, unless the venom, not the flesh, were proved to be
+medicinal; and then says, they are "scourges upon ungrateful and sinful
+men;" adding the truly astounding absurdity, "that the nations which
+know not God are the most annoyed with noxious reptiles and other
+pernicious creatures." (Book ix. c. I); which if it were true would
+raise a double difficulty, by showing that one people was scourged
+because another had neglected to preach the gospel among them. Dr. J.
+Burnett, too, accounts for animals being suffered to be killed as food
+for man, by affirming that they thereby gain all the care which man is
+thus led to bestow upon them, and so are, on the whole, the better for
+being eaten. (Boyle Lecture, II. 207). But the most singular error has
+perhaps been fallen into by Dr. Sherlock, and the most, unhappy--which
+yet Bishop Law has cited as a sufficient answer to the objection
+respecting death: "It is a great instrument of government, and makes men
+afraid of committing such villanies as the laws of their country have
+made capital." (Note 34). So that the greatest error in the criminal
+legislation of all countries forms part of the divine providence, and
+man has at length discovered, by the light of reason, the folly and
+the wickedness of using an instrument expressly created by divine
+Omniscience to be abused!
+
+The remaining portion of King's work, filling the second volume of
+Bishop Law's edition, is devoted to the explanation of Moral Evil; and
+here the gratuitous assumption of the "nature of things," and the "laws
+of nature," more or less pervade the whole as in the former parts of the
+Inquiry.
+
+The fundamental position of the whole is, that man having been endowed
+with free will, his happiness consists in making due elections, or in
+the right exercise of that free will. Five causes are then given of
+undue elections, in which of course his misery consists as far as that
+depends on himself; these causes are error, negligence, over-indulgence
+of free choice, obstinacy or bad habit, and the importunity of natural
+appetites; which last, it must in passing be remarked, belongs to the
+head of physical evil, and cannot be assumed in this discussion without
+begging the question. The great difficulty is then stated and grappled
+with, namely, how to reconcile these undue elections with divine
+goodness. The objector states that free will might exist without the
+power of making undue elections, he being suffered to range, as it were,
+only among lawful objects of choice. But the answer to this seems sound,
+that such a will would only be free in name; it would be free to choose
+among certain things, but would not be free-will. The objector again
+urges, that either the choice is free and may fall upon evil objects,
+against the goodness of God, or it is so restrained as only to fall on
+good objects. Against freedom of the will King's solution is, that
+more evil would result from preventing these undue elections than from
+suffering them, and so the Deity has only done the best he could in the
+circumstances; a solution obviously liable to the same objection as that
+respecting Natural Evil. There are three ways, says the Archbishop, in
+which undue elections might have been prevented; not creating a free
+agent--constant interference with his free-will--removing him to another
+state where he would not be tempted to go astray in his choice. A fourth
+mode may, however, be suggested--creating a free-agent without any
+inclination to evil, or any temptation from external objects. When
+our author disposes of the second method, by stating that it assumes a
+constant miracle, as great in the moral as altering the course of the
+planets hourly would be in the material universe, nothing can be more
+sound or more satisfactory. But when he argues that our whole happiness
+consists in a consciousness of freedom of election, and that we should
+never know happiness were we restrained in any particular, it seems
+wholly inconceivable how he should have omitted to consider the
+prodigious comfort of a state in which we should be guaranteed against
+any error or impropriety of choice; a state in which we should both
+be unable to go astray and always feel conscious of that security. He,
+however, begs the question most manifestly in dealing with the two other
+methods stated, by which undue elections might have been precluded. "You
+would have freedom," says he, "without any inclination to sin; but
+it may justly be doubted if this is possible _in the present state of
+things_," (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 2); and again, in answering the question
+why God did not remove us into another state where no temptation could
+seduce us, he says: "It is plain that _in the present state of things_
+it is impossible for men to live without natural evils or the danger of
+sinning." (_Ib_.) Now the whole question arises upon the constitution of
+the present state of things. If that is allowed to be inevitable, or is
+taken as a datum in the discussion, there ceases to be any question at
+all.
+
+The doctrine of a chain of being is enlarged upon, and with much
+felicity of illustration. But it only wraps up the difficulty in other
+words, without solving it. For then the question becomes this--Why did
+the Deity create such a chain as could not be filled up without misery?
+It is, indeed, merely restating the fact of evil existing; for whether
+we say there is suffering among sentient beings--or the universe
+consists of beings more or less happy, more or less miserable--or there
+exists a chain of beings varying in perfection and in felicity--it is
+manifestly all one proposition. The remark of Bayle upon this view of
+the subject is really not at all unsound, and is eminently ingenious:
+"Would you defend a king who should confine all his subjects of a
+certain age in dungeons, upon the ground that if he did not, many of the
+cells he had built must remain empty?" The answer of Bishop Law to this
+remark is by no means satisfactory. He says it assumes that more misery
+than happiness exists. Now, in this view of the question, the balance is
+quite immaterial. The existence of any evil at all raises the question
+as much as the preponderance of evil over good, because the question
+conceives a perfectly good Being, and asks how such a Being can have
+permitted any evil at all. Upon this part of the subject both King
+and Law have fallen into an error which recent discoveries place in a
+singularly clear light. They say that the argument they are dealing with
+would lead to leaving the earth to the brutes without human inhabitants.
+But the recent discoveries in Fossil Osteology have proved that the
+earth, for ages before the last 5,000 or 6,000 years, was left to the
+lower animals; nay, that in a still earlier period of its existence no
+animal life at all was maintained upon its surface. So that, in fact,
+the foundation is removed of the _reductio ad absurdum_ attempted by the
+learned prelates.
+
+A singular argument is used towards the latter end of the inquiry.
+When the Deity, it is said, resolved to create other beings, He must of
+necessity tolerate imperfect natures in his handiwork, just as he must
+the equality of a circle's radii when he drew a circle. Who does not
+perceive the difference? The meaning of the word circle is that the
+radii are all equal; this equality is a necessary truth. But it is not
+shown that men could not exist without the imperfections they labor
+under. Yet this is the argument suggested by these authors while
+complaining (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 7, div. 7), that Lactantius had not
+sufficiently answered the Epicurean dilemma; it is the substitute
+propounded to supply that father's deficiency.--"When, therefore," says
+the Archbishop, "matter, motion and free-will are constituted, the Deity
+must necessarily permit corruption of things and the abuse of
+liberty, or something worse, for these cannot be separated without a
+contradiction, and God is no more important, because he cannot separate
+equality of radii from a circle."--Chap. v. s. 5, subs. 7. If he could
+not have created evil, he would not have been omnipotent; if he would
+not, he must let his power lie idle; and rejecting evil have
+rejected all the good. "Thus," exclaims the author with triumph and
+self-complacency, "then vanishes this Herculean argument which induced
+the Epicureans to discard the good Deity, and the Manicheans to
+substitute an evil one." (_Ib._ subs. 7, _sub. fine._) Nor is the
+explanation rendered more satisfactory, or indeed more intelligible,
+by the concluding passage of all, in which we are told that "from a
+conflict of two properties, namely, omnipotence and goodness, evils
+necessarily arise. These attributes amicably conspire together, and yet
+restrain and limit each other." It might have been expected from hence
+that no evil at all should be found to exist. "There is a kind of
+struggle and opposition between them, whereof the evils in nature bear
+the shadow and resemblance. Here, then, and no where else, mar we find
+the primary and most certain rise and origin of evils."
+
+Such is this celebrated work; and it may safely be affirmed that a more
+complete failure to overcome a great and admitted difficulty--a more
+unsatisfactory solution of an important question--is not to be found in
+the whole history of metaphysical science.
+
+Among the authors who have treated of this subject, a high place is
+justly given to Archdeacon Bulguy, whose work on _Divine Benevolence_ is
+always referred to by Dr. Paley with great commendation. But certain it
+is that this learned and pious writer either had never formed to himself
+a very precise notion of the real question under discussion, namely, the
+compatibility of the appearances which we see and which we consider as
+evil, with a Being infinitely powerful as well as good; or he had in his
+mind some opinions respecting the divine nature, opinions of a limitary
+kind, which he does not state distinctly, although he constantly suffers
+them to influence his seasonings. Hence, whenever he comes close to the
+real difficulty he appears to beg the question. A very few instances
+of what really pervades the whole work will suffice to show how
+unsatisfactory its general scope is, although it contains, like
+the treatise of Dr. King and Dr. Law's Commentary, many valuable
+observations on the details of the subject.
+
+And first we may perceive that what he terms a _"previous remark,"_ and
+desires the reader "to carry along through the whole proof of divine
+benevolence," really contains a statement that _the difficulty is to be
+evaded and not met._ "An intention of producing good," says he, "will be
+sufficiently apparent in any particular instance if the thing considered
+can neither be changed nor taken away without loss or harm, _all other
+things continuing the same._ Should you suppose _various_ things in the
+system changed _at once_, you can neither judge of the possibility
+nor the consequences of the changes, having no degree of experience to
+direct you." Now assuredly this postulate makes the whole question as
+easy a one as ever metaphysician or naturalist had to solve. For it is
+no longer--Why did a powerful and benevolent Being create a world in
+which there is evil--but only--The world being given, how far are its
+different arrangements consistent with one another? According to this,
+the earthquake at Lisbon, Voltaire's favorite instance, destroyed
+thousands of persons, because it is in the nature of things that
+subterraneous vapors should explode, and that when houses fall on human
+beings they should be killed. Then if Dr. Balguy goes to his other
+argument, on which he often dwells, that if this nature were altered,
+we cannot possibly tell whether worse might not ensue; this, too, is
+assuming a limited power in the Deity, contrary to the hypothesis.
+It may most justly be said, that if there be any one supposition
+necessarily excluded from the whole argument, it is the fundamental
+supposition of the "previous remark," namely, "all other things
+continuing the same."
+
+But see how this assumption pervades and paralyzes the whole argument,
+rendering it utterly inconclusive. The author is to answer an objection
+derived from the constitution of our appetites for food, and his reply
+is, that "we cannot tell how far it was _possible_ for the stomachs and
+palates of animals to be differently formed, unless by some remedy worse
+than the disease." Again, upon the question of pain: "How do we know
+that it was _possible_ for the uneasy sensation to be confined to
+particular cases?" So we meet the same fallacy under another form,
+as evil being the result of "general principles." But no one has ever
+pushed this so far as Dr. Balguy, for he says, "that in a government so
+conducted, many events are likely to happen contrary to the intention
+of its author." He now calls in the aid of chance, or accident.--"It is
+probable," he says, "that God should be good, for evil is more likely
+to be _accidental_ than appears from experience in the conduct of men."
+Indeed, his fundamental position of the Deity's benevolence is rested
+upon this foundation, that "pleasures only were intended, and that
+the pains are accidental consequences, although the means of producing
+pleasures." The same recourse to accident is repeatedly had. Thus, "the
+events to which we are exposed in this imperfect state appear to be the
+_accidental_, not natural, effects of our frame and condition." Now can
+any one thing be more manifest than that the very first notion of a wise
+and powerful Being excludes all such assumptions as things happening
+contrary to His intention; and that when we use the word chance or
+accident, which only means our human ignorance of causes, we at once
+give up the whole question, as if we said, "It is a subject about
+which we know nothing." So again as to power. "A good design is more
+_difficult_ to be executed, and therefore more likely to be executed
+_imperfectly_, than an evil one, that is, with a mixture of effects
+foreign to the design and opposite to it." This at once assumes the
+Deity to be powerless. But a general statement is afterwards made more
+distinctly to the same effect. "Most sure it is that he can do all
+things possible. But are we in any degree competent judges of the bounds
+of possibility?" So again under another form nature is introduced as
+something different from its author, and offering limits to his
+power. "It is plainly not the method of nature to obtain her ends
+instantaneously." Passing over such propositions as that "_useless_ evil
+is a thing never seen," (when the whole question is why the same ends
+were not attained without evil), and a variety of other subordinate
+assumptions contrary to the hypothesis, we may rest with this general
+statement, which almost every page of Dr. Balguy's book bears out, that
+the question which he has set himself to solve is anything rather than
+the real one touching the Origin of Evil; and that this attempt at
+a solution is as ineffectual as any of those which we have been
+considering.
+
+Is, then, the question wholly incapable of solution, which all these
+learned and ingenious men have so entirely failed in solving? Must
+the difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and only be approached to
+discover that it is insuperable? _Must the subject, of all others the
+most interesting for us to know well, be to us always as a sealed book,
+of which we can never know anything?_ From the nature of the thing--from
+the question relating to the operation of a power which, to our limited
+faculties, must ever be incomprehensible--there seems too much reason
+for believing that nothing precise or satisfactory ever will be attained
+by human reason regarding this great argument; and that the bounds
+which limit our views will only be passed when we have quitted the
+encumbrances of our mortal state, and are permitted to survey those
+regions beyond the sphere of our present circumscribed existence. The
+other branch of Natural Theology, that which investigates the evidences
+of Intelligence and Design, and leads us to a clear apprehension of the
+Deity's power and wisdom, is as satisfactorily cultivated as any other
+department of science, rests upon the same species of proof, and affords
+results as precise as they are sublime. This branch will never be
+distinctly known, and will always so disappoint the inquirer as to
+render the lights of Revelation peculiarly acceptable, although
+even those lights leave much of it still involved in darkness--still
+mysterious and obscure.[2]
+
+Yet let us endeavor to suggest some possible explication, while we admit
+that nothing certain, nothing entirely satisfactory can be reached. The
+failure of the great writers whose works we have been contemplating may
+well teach us humility, make us distrust ourselves, and moderate within
+us any sanguine hopes of success. But they should not make us wholly
+despair of at least showing in what direction the solution of the
+difficulty is to be sought, and whereabouts it will probably be found
+situated, when our feeble reason shall be strengthened and expanded.
+For one cause of their discomfiture certainly has been their aiming too
+high, attempting a complete solution of a problem which only admitted of
+approximation, and discussion of limits.
+
+It is admitted on all hands that the demonstration is complete which
+shows the existence of intelligence and design in the universe. The
+structure of the eye and ear in exact confirmity to the laws of optics
+and acoustics, shows as clearly as any experiment can show anything,
+that the source, cause or origin is common both to the properties of
+light and the formation of the lenses and retina in the eye--both to the
+properties of sound and the tympanum, malleus, incus and stapes of the
+ear. No doubt whatever can exist upon the subject, any more than, if
+we saw a particular order issued to a body of men to perform certain
+uncommon evolutions, and afterwards saw the same body performing those
+same evolutions, we could doubt their having received the order. A
+designing and intelligent and skillful author of these admirably adapted
+works is equally a clear inference from the same facts. We can no more
+doubt it than we can question, when we see a mill grinding corn into
+flour, that the machinery was made by some one who designed by means of
+it to prepare the materials of bread. The same conclusions are drawn
+in a vast variety of other instances, both with respect to the parts
+of human and other bodies, and with respect to most of the other
+arrangements of nature. Similar conclusions are also drawn from our
+consciousness, and the knowledge which it gives us of the structure of
+the mind.[3] Thus we find that attention quickens memory and enables us
+to recollect; and that habit renders all exertions and all acquisitions
+easy, beside having the effect of alleviating pain.
+
+But when we carry our survey into other parts, whether of the natural
+or moral system, we cannot discover any design at all. We frequently
+perceive structures the use of which we know nothing about; parts of the
+animal frame that apparently have no functions to perform--nay, that
+are the source of pain without yielding any perceptible advantage;
+arrangements and movements of bodies which are of one particular kind,
+and yet we are quite at a loss to discern any reason why they might not
+have been of many other descriptions; operations of nature that seem to
+serve no purpose whatever; and other operations and other arrangements,
+chosen equally without any beneficial view, and yet which often give
+rise to much apparent confusion and mischief. Now, the question is,
+_first_, whether in any one of these cases of arrangement and structures
+with no visible object at all, we can for a moment suppose that there
+really is no object answered, or only conceive that we have been
+unable to discover it? _Secondly_, whether in the cases where mischief
+sometimes is perceived, and no other purpose appears to be effected,
+we do not almost as uniformly lay the blame on our own ignorance, and
+conclude, not that the arrangement was made without any design, and that
+mischief arises without any contriver, but that if we knew the whole
+case we should find a design and contrivance, and also that the apparent
+mischief would sink into the general good? It is not necessary to admit,
+for our present purpose, this latter proposition, though it brings us
+closer to the matter in hand; it is sufficient for the present to admit,
+what no one doubts, that when a part of the body, for instance, is
+discovered, to which, like the spleen, we cannot assign any function in
+the animal system, we never think of concluding that it is made for no
+use, but only that we have as yet not been able to discover its use.
+
+Now, let us ask, why do we, without any hesitation whatever, or any
+exception whatever, always and immediately arrive at this
+conclusion respecting intelligence and design? Nothing could be more
+unphilosophical, nay, more groundless, than such a process of reasoning,
+if we had only been able to trace design in one or two instances; for
+instance, if we found only the eye to show proofs of contrivance, it
+would be wholly gratuitous, when we saw the ear, to assume that it was
+adapted to the nature of sound, and still more so, if, on examination,
+we perceived it bore no perceptible relation to the laws of acoustics.
+The proof of contrivance in one particular is nothing like a proof,
+nay, does not even furnish the least presumption of contrivance in other
+particulars; because, _a priori_, it is just as easy to suppose one part
+of nature to be designed for a purpose, and another part, nay, all other
+parts, to be formed at random and without any contrivance, as to suppose
+that the formation of the whole is governed by design. Why, then, do we,
+invariably and undoubtedly, adopt the course of reasoning which has been
+mentioned, and never for a moment suspect anything to be formed without
+some reason--some rational purpose? The only ground of this belief is,
+that we have been able distinctly to trace design in so vast a majority
+of cases as leaves us no power of doubting that, if our faculties had
+been sufficiently powerful, or our investigation sufficiently diligent,
+we should also have been able to trace it in those comparatively few
+instances respecting which we still are in the dark.
+
+It may be worth while to give a few instances of the ignorance in which
+we once were of design in some important arrangements of nature, and
+of the knowledge which we now possess to show the purpose of their
+formation. Before Sir Isaac Newton's optical discoveries, we could not
+tell why the structure of the eye was so complex, and why several lenses
+and humors were required to form a picture of objects upon the retina.
+Indeed, until Dolland's subsequent discovery of the achromatic effect of
+combining various glasses, and Mr. Blair's still more recent experiments
+on the powers of different refracting media, we were not able distinctly
+to perceive the operation and use of the complicacy in the structure of
+the eye. We now well understand its nature, and are able to comprehend
+how that which had at one time, nay, for ages, seemed to be an
+unnecessary complexity; forms the most perfect of all optical
+instruments, and according to the most certain laws of refraction and of
+dispersion.
+
+So, too, we had observed for some centuries the forms of the orbits in
+which the heavenly bodies move, and we had found these to be ellipses
+with a very small eccentricity. But why this was the form of those
+orbits no one could even conjecture. If any person, the most deeply
+skilled in mathematical science, and the most internally convinced of
+the universal prevalence of design and contrivance in the structure
+of the universe, had been asked what reason there was for the planets
+moving in ellipses so, nearly approaching to circles, he could not
+have given any good reason, at least beyond a guess. The force of
+gravitation, even admitting that to be, as it were, a condition of the
+creation of matter, would have made those bodies revolve in ellipses
+of any degree of eccentricity just as well, provided the angle and the
+force of projection had been varied. Then, why was this form rather,
+than any other chosen? No one knew; yet no one doubted that there was
+ample reason for it. Accordingly the sublime discoveries of Lagrange
+and La Place have shown us that this small eccentricity is one material
+element in the formula by which it is shown that all the irregularities
+of the system are periodical, and that the deviation never can exceed a
+certain amount on either hand.
+
+But, again, while we are ignorant of this, perhaps the most sublime
+truth in all science, we were always arguing as if the system had an
+imperfection, as if the disturbing forces of the different planets and
+the sun, acting on one another, constantly changed the orbits of each
+planet, and must, in a course of ages, work the destruction of the whole
+planetary arrangement which we had contemplated with so great
+admiration and with awe. It was deemed enough if we could show that
+this derangement must be extremely slow, and that, therefore, the system
+might last for many more ages without requiring any interposition of
+omnipotent skill to preserve it by rectifying its motions. Thus one of
+the most celebrated writers above cited argues that, "from the nature
+of gravitation and the concentricity of the orbits, the irregularities
+produced are so slowly operated in contracting, dilating and inclining
+those orbits, that the system may go on for many thousand years before
+any extraordinary interference becomes necessary in order to correct
+it." And Dr. Burnett adds, that "those small irregularities cast no
+discredit on the good contrivance of the whole." Nothing, however,
+could cast greater discredit if it were as he supposed, and as all men
+previous to the late discoveries supposed; it was only, they rather
+think, a "small irregularity," which was every hour tending to the
+destruction of the whole system, and which must have deranged or
+confounded its whole structure long before it destroyed it. Yet now
+we see that the wisdom, to which a thousand years are as one day, not
+satisfied with constructing a fabric which might last for "many thousand
+years without His interference," has so formed it that it may thus
+endure forever.
+
+Now if such be the grounds of our belief in the universal prevalence of
+Design, and such the different lights which at different periods of
+our progress in science we possess upon this branch of the divine
+government; if we undoubtingly believe that contrivance is universal
+only because we can trace and comprehend it in a great majority of
+instances, and if the number of exceptions to the rule is occasionally
+diminished as our knowledge of the particulars is from time to time
+extended--may we not apply the same principle to the apprehension of
+Benevolent purpose, and infer from the number of instances in which we
+plainly perceive a good intention, that if we were better acquainted
+with those cases in which a contrary intention is now apparent, we
+should there, too, find the generally pervading character of Benevolence
+to prevail? Not only is this the manner in which we reason respecting
+the Design of the Creator from examining his works; it is the manner in
+which we treat the conduct of our fellow-creatures. A man of the most
+extensive benevolence and strictest integrity in his general deportment
+has done something equivocal; nay, something apparently harsh and cruel;
+we are slow to condemn him; we give him credit for acting with a good
+motive and for a righteous purpose; we rest satisfied that "if we only
+knew everything he would come out blameless." This arises from a just
+and a sound view of human character, and its general consistency with
+itself. The same reasoning may surely be applied with all humility and
+reverence, to the works and the intentions of the great Being who has
+implanted in our minds the principles which lead to that just and sound
+view of the deeds and motives of men.
+
+But let the argument be rested upon our course of reasoning respecting
+divine contrivance. The existence of Evil is in no case more apparent
+than the existence of Disorder seems to be in many things. To go no
+further than the last example which has been given--the mathematician
+could perceive the derangement in the planetary orbits, could
+demonstrate that it must ensue from the mutual action of the heavenly
+bodies on each other, could calculate its progress with the utmost
+exactness, could tell with all nicety how much it would alter the forms
+of the orbits in a given time, could foresee the time when the
+whole system must be irretrievably destroyed by its operation as a
+mathematical certainty. Nothing, that we call evil can be much more
+certainly perceived than this derangement, of itself an evil, certainly
+a great imperfection, if the system was observed by the mind of man
+as we regard human works. Yet we now find, from well considering some
+things which had escaped attention, that the system is absolutely free
+from derangement; that all the disturbances counterbalance each other;
+and that the orbits never can either be flattened or bulged out beyond
+a definite or very inconsiderable quantity. Can any one doubt that
+there is also a reason for even the small and limited, this regular and
+temporary derangement? Why it exists at all, or in any the least degree,
+we as yet know not. But who will presume to doubt that it has a reason
+which would at once satisfy our minds were it known to us? Nay, who will
+affirm that the discovery of it may not yet be in reserve for some later
+and happier age? Then are we not entitled to apply the same reasoning to
+what at present appears Evil in a system of which, after all we know of
+it, so much still remains concealed from our view?
+
+The mere act of creation in a Being of wisdom so admirable and power
+so vast, seems to make it extremely probable that perfect goodness
+accompanies the exertion of his perfect skill. There is something so
+repugnant to all our feelings, but also to all the conceptions of our
+reason, in the supposition of such a Being desiring the misery, for its
+own sake, of the Beings whom he voluntarily called into existence and
+endowed with a sentient nature, that the mind naturally and irresistibly
+recoils from such a thought. But this is not all. If the nature of that
+great Being were evil, his power being unbounded, there would be some
+proportion between the amounts of ills and the monuments of that power.
+Yet we are struck dumb with the immensity of His works to which no
+imperfection can be ascribed, and in which no evil can be traced, while
+the amount of mischief that we see might sink into a most insignificant
+space; and is such as a being of inconsiderable power and very limited
+skill could easily have accomplished. This is not the same consideration
+with the balance of good against evil; and inquirers do not seem to
+have sufficiently attended to it. The argument, however, deserves much
+attention, for it is purely and strictly inductive. The divine nature
+is shown to be clothed with prodigious power and incomparable wisdom and
+skill,--power and skill so vast and so exceeding our comprehension that
+we ordinarily term them infinite, and are only inclined to conceive the
+possibility of limiting, by the course of the argument upon evil, one
+alternative of which is assumed to raise an exception. But admitting on
+account of the question under discussion, that we have only a right to
+say that power and skill are prodigiously great, though possibly not
+boundless, they are plainly shown in the phenomena of the universe to
+be the attributes of a Being, who, if evil-disposed, could have made the
+monuments of Ill upon a scale resembling those of Power and Skill; so
+that if those things which seem to us evil be really the result of a
+mischievous design in such a Being, we cannot comprehend why they are
+upon so entirely different a scale. This is a strong presumption from
+the facts that we are wrong in imputing those appearances to such a
+disposition. If so, what seems evil must needs be capable of some other
+explanation consistent with divine goodness--that is to say, would not
+prove to be evil at all if we knew the whole of those facts.
+
+But it is necessary to proceed a step further, especially with a view
+to the fundamental position now contended for, the extending to the
+question of Benevolence the same principles which we apply to that of
+Intelligence. The evil which exists, or that which we suppose to be
+evil, not only is of a kind and a magnitude requiring inconceivably less
+power and less skill than the admitted good of the creation--it also
+bears a very small proportion in amount; quite as small a proportion
+as the cases of unknown or undiscoverable design bear to those
+of acknowledged and proved contrivance. Generally speaking, the
+preservation and the happiness of sensitive creatures appears to be
+the great object of creative exertion and conservative providence. The
+expanding of our faculties, both bodily and mentally, is accompanied
+with pleasure; the exercise of those powers is almost always attended
+with gratification; all labor so acts as to make rest peculiarly
+delicious; much of labor is enjoyment; the gratification of those
+appetites by which both the individual is preserved and the race is
+continued, is highly pleasurable to all animals; and it must be observed
+that instead of being attracted by grateful sensations to do anything
+requisite for our good or even our existence, we might have been just as
+certainly urged by the feeling of pain, or the dread of it, which is a
+kind of suffering in itself. Nature, then, resembles the law-giver
+who, to make his subjects obey, should prefer holding out rewards
+for compliance with his commands rather than denounce punishments for
+disobedience. But nature is yet more kind; she is gratuitously kind; she
+not only prefers inducement to threat or compulsion, but she adds more
+gratification than was necessary to make us obey her calls. How well
+might all creation have existed and been continued, though the air had
+not been balmy in spring, or the shade and the spring refreshing in
+summer; had the earth not been enamelled with flowers; and the air
+scented with perfumes! How needless for the propagation of plants was
+it that the seed should be enveloped in fruits the most savory to our
+palate, and if those fruits serve some other purpose, how foreign to
+that purpose was the formation of our nerves so framed as to be soothed
+or excited by their flavor! We here perceive design, because we trace
+adaptation. But we at the same time perceive benevolent design, because
+we perceive gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment bestowed. Thus,
+too, see the care with which animals of all kinds are tended from their
+birth. The mother's instinct is not more certainly the means of securing
+and providing for her young, than her gratification in the act of
+maternal care is great and is also needless for making her perform that
+duty. The grove is not made vocal during pairing and incubation, in
+order to secure the laying or the hatching of eggs; for if it were as
+still as the grave, or were filled with the most discordant croaking,
+the process would be as well performed. So, too, mark the care with
+which injuries are remedied by what has been correctly called the _vis
+medicatrix_. Is a muscle injured?--Suppuration takes place, the process
+of granulation succeeds, and new flesh is formed to supply the gap, or
+if that is less wide, a more simple healing process knits together
+the severed parts. Is a bone injured?--A process commences by which
+an extraordinary secretion of bony matter takes place, and the void
+is supplied. Nay, the irreparable injury of a joint gives rise to
+the formation of a new hinge, by which the same functions may be not
+inconveniently, though less perfectly, performed. Thus, too, recovery of
+vigor after sickness is provided for by increased appetite; but there
+is here superadded, generally, a feeling of comfort and lightness, an
+enjoyment of existence so delightful, that it is a common remark how
+nearly this compensates the sufferings of the illness. In the economy
+of the mind it is the same thing. All our exertions are stimulated by
+curiosity, and the gratification is extreme of satisfying it. But it
+might have been otherwise ordered, and some painful feeling might have
+been made the only stimulant to the acquisition of knowledge. So, the
+charm of novelty is proverbial; but it might have been the unceasing
+cause of the most painful alarms. Habit renders every thing easy; but
+the repetition might have only increased the annoyance. The loss of one
+organ makes the others more acute. But the partial injury might have
+caused, as it were, a general paralysis. 'Tis thus that Paley is well
+justified in exclaiming, "It is a happy world after all!" The pains and
+the sufferings, bodily and mental, to which we are exposed, if they
+do not sink into nothing, at least retreat within comparatively narrow
+bounds; the ills are hardly seen when we survey the great and splendid
+picture of worldly enjoyment or ease.
+
+But the existence of considerable misery is undeniable: and the question
+is, of course, confined to that. Its exaggeration, in the ordinary
+estimate both of the vulgar and of skeptical reasoners, is equally
+certain. Paley, Bishop Sumner, as well as Derham, King, Ray and others
+of the older writers, have made many judicious and generally correct
+observations upon its amount, and they, as well as some of the able
+and learned authors of the _Bridgwater Treatises_, have done much in
+establishing deductions necessary to be made, in order that we may
+arrive at the true amount. That many things, apparently unmixed evils,
+when examined more narrowly, prove to be partially beneficial, is the
+fair result of their well-meant labors; and this, although anything
+rather than a proof that there is no evil at all, yet is valuable as
+still further proving the analogy between this branch of the argument
+and that upon design; and in giving hopes that all may possibly be
+found hereafter to be good, as everything will assuredly be found to be
+contrived with an intelligent and useful purpose. It may be right to add
+a remark or two upon some evils, and those of the greatest magnitude
+in the common estimate of human happiness, with a view of further
+illustrating this part of the subject.
+
+Mere imperfection must altogether be deducted from the account. It
+never can be contended that any evil nature can be ascribed to the first
+cause, merely for not having endowed sentient creatures with greater
+power or wisdom, for not having increased and multiplied the sources
+of enjoyment, or for not having made those pleasures which we have more
+exquisitely grateful. No one can be so foolish as to argue that the
+Deity is either limited in power, or deficient in goodness, because he
+has chosen to create some beings of a less perfect order than others.
+The mere negation in the creating of some, indeed of many, nay, of
+any conceivable number of desirable attributes, is therefore no proper
+evidence of evil design or of limited power in the Creator--it is no
+proof of the existence of evil properly so called. But does not this
+also erase death from the catalogue of ills? It might well please the
+Deity to create a mortal being which, consisting of soul and body, was
+only to live upon this earth for a limited number of years. If, when
+that time has expired, this being is removed to another and a superior
+state of existence, no evil whatever accrues to it from the change;
+and all views of the government of this world lead to the important and
+consolitary conclusion, that such is the design of the Creator; that he
+cannot have bestowed on us minds capable of such expansion and culture
+only to be extinguished when they have reached their highest pitch
+of improvement; or if this be considered as begging the question by
+assuming benevolent design, we cannot easily conceive that while the
+mind's force is so little affected by the body's decay, the destruction
+or dissolution of the latter should be the extinction of the former. But
+that death operates as an evil of the very highest kind in two ways is
+obvious; the dread of it often embitters life, and the death of friends
+brings to the mind by far its most painful infliction; certainly the
+greatest suffering it can undergo without any criminal consciousness of
+its own.
+
+For this evil, then--this grievous and admitted evil--how shall we
+account? But first let us consider whether it be not unavoidable; not
+merely under the present dispensation, and in the existing state of
+things; for that is wholly irrelevant to the question which is raised
+upon the fitness of this very state of things; but whether it be not a
+necessary evil. That man might have been created immortal is not denied;
+but if it were the will of the Deity to form a limited being and to
+place him upon the earth for only a certain period of time, his death
+was the necessary consequence of this determination. Then as to the pain
+which one person's removal inflicts upon surviving parties, this seems
+the equally necessary consequence of their having affections. For if
+any being feels love towards another, this implies his desire that the
+intercourse with that other should continue; or what is the same thing,
+the repugnance and aversion to its ceasing; that is, he must suffer
+affliction for that removal of the beloved object. To create sentient
+beings devoid of all feelings of affection was no doubt possible to
+Omnipotence; but to endow those beings with such feelings as would give
+the constant gratification derived from the benevolent affections, and
+yet to make them wholly indifferent to the loss of the objects of those
+affections, was not possible even for Omnipotence; because it was a
+contradiction in terms, equivalent to making a thing both exist and not
+exist at one and the same time. Would there have been any considerable
+happiness in a life stripped of these kindly affections? We cannot
+affirm that there would not, because we are ignorant what other
+enjoyments might have been substituted for the indulgence of them. But
+neither can we affirm that any such substitution could have been found;
+and it lies upon those who deny the necessary connection between the
+human mind, or any sentient being's mind, and grief for the loss of
+friends, to show that there are other enjoyments which could furnish an
+equivalent to the gratification derived from the benevolent feelings.
+The question then reduces itself to this: Wherefore did a being, who
+could have made sentient beings immortal, choose to make them mortal?
+or, Wherefore has he placed man upon the earth for a time only? or,
+Wherefore has he set bounds to the powers and capacities which he has
+been pleased to bestow upon his creatures? And this is a question which
+we certainly never shall be able to solve; but a question extremely
+different from the one more usually put--How happens it that a good
+being has made a world full of misery and death?
+
+In the necessary ignorance wherein we are of the whole designs of the
+Deity, we cannot wonder if some things, nay, if many things, are to our
+faculties inscrutable. But we assuredly have no right to say that those
+difficulties which try and vex us are incapable of a solution, any more
+than we have to say, that those cases in which as yet we can see no
+trace of design, are not equally the result of intelligence, and equally
+conducive to a fixed and useful purpose with those in which we have been
+able to perceive the whole, or nearly the whole scheme. Great as have
+been our achievements in physical astronomy, we are as yet wholly unable
+to understand why a power pervades the system acting inversely as the
+squares of the distance from the point to which it attracts, rather
+than a power acting according to any other law; and why it has been the
+pleasure of the almighty Architect of that universe, that the orbits
+of the planets should be nearly circular instead of approaching to, or
+being exactly the same with many other trajectories of a nearly similar
+form, though of other properties; nay, instead of being curves of a
+wholly different class and shape. Yet we never doubt that there was a
+reason for this choice; nay, we fancy it possible that even on earth
+we may hereafter understand it more clearly than we now do: and never
+question that in another state of being we may be permitted to enjoy the
+contemplation of it. Why should we doubt that, at least in that higher
+state, we may also be enabled to perceive such an arrangement as shall
+make evil wholly disappear from our present system, by showing that it
+was necessary and inevitable, even in the works of the Deity; or, which
+is the same thing, that its existence conduces to such a degree
+of perfection and happiness upon, the whole, as could not, even by
+Omnipotence, be attained without it; or, which is the same thing,
+that the whole creation as it exists, taking both worlds together, is
+perfect, and incapable of being in any particular changed without being
+made worse and less perfect? Taking both worlds together--For certainly
+were our views limited to the present sublunary state, we may well
+affirm that no solution whatever could even be imagined of the
+difficulty--if we are never again to live; if those we here loved are
+forever lost to us; if our faculties can receive no further expansion;
+if our mental powers are only trained and improved to be extinguished
+at their acme--then indeed are we reduced to the melancholy and gloomy
+dilemma of the Epicureans; and evil is confessed to checker, nay, almost
+to cloud over our whole lot, without the possibility of comprehending
+why, or of reconciling its existence with the supposition of a
+providence at once powerful and good. But this inference is also an
+additional argument for a future state, when we couple it with these
+other conclusions respecting the economy of the world to which we are
+led by wholly different routes, when we investigate the phenomena around
+us and within us.
+
+Suppose, for example, it should be found that there are certain purposes
+which can in no way whatever--no conceivable way--be answered except
+by placing man in a state of trial or probation; suppose the essential
+nature of mind shall be found to be such that it could not in any
+way whatever exist so as to be capable of the greatest purity and
+improvement--in other words, the highest perfection--without having
+undergone a probation; or suppose it should be found impossible to
+communicate certain enjoyments to rational and sentient beings
+without having previously subjected them to certain trials and certain
+sufferings--as, for instance, the pleasures derived from a consciousness
+of perfect security, the certainty that we can suffer and perish no
+more--this surely is a possible supposition. Now, to continue the last
+example--Whatever pleasure there is in the contrast between ease and
+previous vexation or pain, whatever enjoyment we derive from the feeling
+of absolute security after the vexation and uncertainty of a precarious
+state, implies a previous suffering--a previous state of precarious
+enjoyment; and not only implies it but necessarily implies it, so that
+the power of Omnipotence itself could not convey to us the enjoyment
+without having given us the previous suffering. Then is it not possible
+that the object of an all powerful and perfectly benevolent being should
+be to create like beings, to whom as entire happiness, as complete and
+perfect enjoyment, should be given as any created beings--that is, any
+being, except the Creator himself--can by possibility enjoy? This is
+certainly not only a very possible supposition, but it appears to be
+quite consistent with, if it be not a necessary consequence of, his
+being perfectly good as well as powerful and wise. Now we have shown,
+therefore, that such being supposed the design of Providence, even
+Omnipotence itself could not accomplish this design, as far as one great
+and important class of enjoyments is concerned, without the previous
+existence of some pain, some misery. Whatever gratification arises
+from relief--from contrast--from security succeeding anxiety--from
+restoration of lost affections--from renewing severed connections--and
+many others of a like kind, could not by any possibility be enjoyed
+unless the correlative suffering had first been undergone. Nor will the
+argument be at all impeached by observing, that one Being may be made
+to feel the pleasure of ease and security by seeing others subjected
+to suffering and distress; for that assumes the infliction of misery on
+those others; it is "_alterius_ spectare laborem" that we are supposing
+to be sweet; and this is still partial evil.
+
+As the whole argument respecting evil must, from the nature of the
+question, resolve itself into either a proof of some absolute or
+mathematical necessity not to be removed by infinite power, or the
+showing that some such proof may be possible although we have not
+yet discovered it, an illustration may naturally be expected to be
+attainable from mathematical considerations. Thus, we have already
+adverted to the law of periodical irregularities in the solar system.
+Any one before it was discovered seemed entitled to expatiate upon the
+operation of the disturbing forces arising from mutual attraction,
+and to charge the system arranged upon the principle of universal
+gravitation with want of skill, nay, with leading to inevitable
+mischief--mischief or evil of so prodigious an extent as to exceed
+incalculably all the instances of evil and of suffering which we see
+around us in this single planet. Nevertheless, what then appeared so
+clearly to be a defect and an evil, is now well known to be the very
+absolute perfection of the whole heavenly architecture.
+
+Again, we may derive a similar illustration from a much more limited
+instance, but one immediately connected with strict mathematical
+reasoning, and founded altogether in the nature of necessary truth. The
+problem has been solved by mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton having first
+investigated it, of finding the form of a symmetrical solid, or solid of
+revolution, which in moving through a fluid shall experience the least
+possible resistance. The figure bears a striking resemblance to that of
+a fish. Now suppose a fish were formed exactly in this shape, and
+that some animal endowed with reason were placed upon a portion of its
+surface, and able to trace its form for only a limited extent, say at
+the narrow part, where the broad portion or end of the moving body were
+opposed, or seemed as if it were opposed, to the surrounding fluid when
+the fish moved--the reasoner would at once conclude that the contrivance
+of the fish's form was very inconvenient, and that nothing could be much
+worse adapted for expeditious or easy movement through the waters.
+
+Yet it is certain that upon being afterwards permitted to view THE WHOLE
+body of the fish, what had seemed a defect and an evil, not only would
+appear plainly to be none at all, but it would appear manifest that
+this seeming evil or defect was a part of the most perfect and excellent
+structure which it was possible even for Omnipotence and Omniscience
+to have adopted, and that no other conceivable arrangement could by
+possibility have produced so much advantage, or tended so much to
+fulfill the design in view. Previous to being enlightened by such
+an enlarged view of the whole facts, it would thus be a rash and
+unphilosophical thing in the reasoner whose existence we are supposing
+to pronounce an unfavorable opinion. Still more unwise would it be if
+numerous other observations had evinced traces of skill and goodness
+in the fish's structure. The true and the safe conclusion would be to
+suspend an opinion which could only be unsatisfactorily formed upon
+imperfect data; and to rest in the humble hope and belief that one day
+all would appear for the best.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+
+[Footnote 1: The "light of revelation," as well as the "light of the
+Christian religion," has not dispelled the darkness of ignorance. The
+torch of reason is a surer guide.--_Pub._]
+
+[Footnote 2: The human race has from time immemorial been afflicted with
+so-called revelations, all claiming inspiration, all conflicting, and
+all being equally "mysterious and obscure." The wars arising among these
+sectarians have retarded civilization, and deluged the earth in blood.
+The revelations of science, founded upon reason and demonstration, have
+proved the only safe and beneficent guide.--_Pub._]
+
+[Footnote 3: While it is true that the argument of Design, here given,
+places the subject one step in advance, it is still unsatisfactory,
+because it fails to explain to us who designed the designer, and the
+mystery of creation still remains unsolved.
+
+"What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?" is the pertinent
+question which Bishop Watson, in his _Apology for the Bible_, asked, and
+vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas Paine.--_Pub._]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation
+on the Origin of Evil, by E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fallen Star, by E. L. Bulwer
+
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+
+
+Title: The Fallen Star
+
+Author: E. L. Bulwer
+
+Title: A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
+
+Author: Lord Brougham
+
+Release Date: August, 2005  [EBook #8654]
+[This file was first posted on July 30, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FALLEN STAR ***
+
+
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Deley
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+AND
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+by Lord Brougham
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
+
+RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his _American Dictionary of the
+English Language_, is derived from "Religo, to bind anew;" and,
+in this _History of a False Religion_, our author has shown how
+easily its votaries were insnared, deceived, and mentally bound
+in a labyrinth of falsehood and error, by a designing knave, who
+established a new religion and a new order of priesthood by
+imposing on their ignorance and credulity.
+
+The history of the origin of one supernatural religion will,
+with slight alterations, serve to describe them all. Their claim
+to credence rests on the exhibition of so-called miracles--that
+is, on a violation of the laws of nature,--for, if religions
+were founded on the demonstrated truths of science, there would
+be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no miracles, no skepticism,
+no false religion. We would have only verified truths and
+demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief. But this simple
+foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude. They
+demand signs, portents, mysteries, wonders and miracles for
+their faith and the supply of prophets, knaves and impostors has
+always been found ample to satisfy this abnormal demand of
+credulity.
+
+Designing men, even at the present day, find little difficulty
+in establishing new systems of faith and belief. Joseph Smith,
+who invented the Mormon religion, had more followers and
+influence in this country at his death, than the Carpenter's Son
+obtained centuries ago from the unlettered inhabitants of
+Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success among educated
+people in this so-called enlightened age, while Jesus taught in
+an age of semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
+asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles and even
+fishes understood human language, were often gifted with human
+speech, and sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary
+human intelligence.
+
+They taught that the serpent, using the language of sophistry,
+beguiled Eve in Eden, who in turn corrupted Adam, her first and
+only husband. At the baptism of Jesus by John in the river
+Jordan, the voice of a dove resounded in the heavens, saying,
+quite audibly and distinctly, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee
+I am well pleased." Balaam disputed with his patient beast of
+burden, on their celebrated journey in the land of Moab, and the
+ass proved wiser in the argument that ensued than the inspired
+prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes left his native
+element and taught philosophy to the Chaldeans on dry land.
+One reputable woman, of Jewish lineage,--the mother of an
+interesting family--was changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom
+while another female of great notoriety known to fame as the
+celebrated "Witch of Endor," raised Samuel from his grave in
+Ramah. Saint Peter found a shilling in the mouth of a fish which
+he caught in the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky incident enabled
+the impecunious apostle to pay the "tribute money" in Capernaum.
+Another famous Israelite,--so it is said,--broke the record of
+balloon ascensions in Judea, and ascended into heaven in a
+chariot of fire.
+
+In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies occur, and
+miracles become common, The untaught masses are easily deceived,
+and their unreasoning credulity enables them to proudly boast of
+their unquestioning faith. When their feelings are excited and
+their passions aroused by professional evangelists, they even
+profess to believe that which they cannot comprehend; and, in
+the satirical language of Bulwer, they endeavor to "_assist
+their ignorance by the conjectures of their superstition_."
+
+Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing religions which
+afflict mankind, it is self-evident that but one religion may
+justly claim the inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident
+to all reasoning minds that that religion is the religion of
+kindness and humanity,--the religion of noble thoughts and
+generous deeds,--which removes the enmities of race and creed,
+and "makes the whole world kin!" And which, in its observance is
+blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and love.
+
+This religion needs no creed, no profession of faith, no
+incense, no prayer, no penance, no sacrifice. Its whole duty
+consists in comforting the afflicted, assisting the unfortunate,
+protecting the helpless, and in honestly fulfilling our duties
+to our fellow mortals. In the language of Confucius, the ancient
+Chinese Sage, it is simply "to behave to others as I would
+require others to behave to me."
+
+"Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," says
+Jesus; and in the Epistle of James, we are told that "Pure
+Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To
+visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep
+himself unspotted from the world."
+
+The same benign and generous conduct is commended in even
+grander and nobler language in the lectures to the French
+Masonic Lodges: "Love one another, teach one another, help one
+another. That is all our doctrine, all our science, all our
+law."
+
+It is believed that the learned dissertation of Lord Brougham on
+the _Origin of Evil_, which is annexed to this work, will need
+no commendation to ensure its careful perusal.
+
+                         PETER ECKLER.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+
+by E. L. Bulwer
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.
+
+And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with
+sleepless eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the
+new year, a night on which every star receives from the
+archangel that then visits the universal galaxy, its peculiar
+charge.
+
+The destinies of men and empires are then portioned forth for
+the coming year, and, unconsciously to ourselves, our fates
+become minioned to the stars.
+
+A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark gates of
+time open to receive the ghost of the dead year, and the young
+and radiant stranger rushes forth from the clouded chasms of
+eternity. On that night, it is said that there are given to the
+spirits that we see not, a privilege and a power; the dead are
+troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh,
+while demon and angel are contending for their doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of
+the spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of
+the stars; and they who sat upon those shining thrones were
+three thousand and ten, each resembling each.
+
+Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty,
+and on their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful
+stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the dooms over
+which it broods.
+
+War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall,
+they ordain, they, compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The
+fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world
+sleeps--the parricide with his stealthy step, and horrent brow,
+and lifted knife; the unwifed mother that glides out and looks
+behind, and behind, and shudders, and casts her babe upon the
+river, and hears the wail, and pities not--the splash, and does
+not tremble!
+
+These the starred kings behold--to these they lead the
+unconscious step; but the guilt blanches not their lustre,
+neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth.
+
+Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a
+graven belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of
+each was on a burning ball, and the right arm dropped over the
+knee as they bent down from their thrones; they moved not a limb
+or feature, save the finger of the right hand, which ever and
+anon moved slowly, pointing, and regulated the fates of men as
+the hand of the dial speaks the career of time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect
+as his crowned brethren; a star, smaller than the rest, and less
+luminous. The countenance of this star was not impressed with
+the awful calmness of the others; but there were sullenness and
+discontent upon his mighty brow.
+
+And this star said to himself--"Behold, I am created less
+glorious than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me
+the same lordly destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and
+bards, the rulers of empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and
+harmonists of souls. Sluggish are the spirits and base the lot
+of the men I am ordained to lead through a dull life to a
+fameless grave. And wherefore?--Is it mine own fault, or is it
+the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less
+glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
+bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the
+ancestral Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory,
+_I_ because of my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride,
+and _I_ from its discontent."
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward
+heavens were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that
+stream swiftly, and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of
+the stars; his vast limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his
+outspread wings, each plume the glory of a sun, bore him
+noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his lustre from the
+eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the serenity
+of his splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the children
+of the earth:
+
+"He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his
+feet."
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more
+still, and the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their
+thrones paused the course of the archangel; and his wings
+stretched from east to west, overshadowing with the shadow of
+light the immensity of space. Then forth in the shining
+stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and, fulfilling
+the heraldry of god, to each star he appointed the duty and the
+charge, and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the majesty of the
+word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in
+succession, received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the
+nations of the earth, the purple and diadems of kings--the
+archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart from his
+fellows
+
+"Behold," said the archangel, "the rude tribes of the north, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of
+the forests, that darken the mountain-tops with verdure! these
+be thy charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O
+star of the sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than
+the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant is not less to thy
+master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of empires
+rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and
+the heart are the dominion of the stars--a mighty realm; nor
+less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd, than the
+jewelled robes of eastern kings."
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and
+answered the archangel:
+
+"Lo!" he said, "ages have past, and each year thou hast
+appointed me to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray
+thee, from the duties that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the
+lowlier race of men be my charge, give unto me the charge not of
+many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into him the desire
+that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If the
+humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may
+lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O
+Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
+my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit
+hath gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking
+upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are
+swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power; and
+fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
+rule."
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the
+brow of the archangel.
+
+"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would
+war with the courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far
+above, sways and harmonizes all; the source from which the
+lesser rivers of fate are eternally gushing through the heart of
+the universe of things. Thinkest thou that thy wisdom, of
+itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the
+archangel, and answered:
+
+"Yea!--grant me but one trial!"
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the heaven
+was rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his
+face with his hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with
+the consciousness of unquestionable power, spoke forth to the
+repining star:
+
+"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below
+thee, upon yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself,
+who, born under thy influence, may be moulded to thy will."
+
+The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the
+seas of space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly
+soared away into the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine
+bidding to the stars of far-distant worlds.
+
+But the soul of the discontented star exulted within itself; and
+it said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+herdsmen, that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows,
+and render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than
+the minions of its favored brethren; thus shall I revenge
+neglect--thus shall I prove my claim hereafter to the heritage
+of the great of earth!"
+
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
+pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence,
+which our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the
+condition of our race in the northern hemisphere was then what
+_we_, in our imperfect lore, have conceived to be among the
+earliest.
+
+
+
+
+FORMING A NEW RELIGION.
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts
+forgotten, a lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the
+heavens. A storm had just passed from the earth--the clouds had
+rolled away, and the high stars looked down upon the rapid
+waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the waves and
+the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees, was heard around
+the ruined pile: the white sheep lay scattered on the plain, and
+slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes
+of a neighboring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he
+coummuned with himself:
+
+"The king sits upon his throne, and is honored by a warrior
+race, and the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the
+step of the huntsman is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name
+is sung at night round the pine-fires, by the lips of the bard;
+and the bard himself hath honor in the hail. But I, who belong
+not to the race of kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the
+rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the haunts
+of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and whose
+voice is harsh in the song; _I_ have neither honor nor command,
+and men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within
+me the consciousness of a great power that should rule my
+species--not obey. My eye pierces the secret hearts of men--I
+see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them; and I scorn,
+while I see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared. I
+laugh at the madness of the warrior--I mock within my soul at
+the tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in man's nature
+more fitted to command--more worthy of renoun, than the sinews
+of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+birth!"
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still
+looking at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly
+shooting from its place, and speeding through the silent air,
+till it as suddenly paused right over the midnight river, and
+facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts grew slowly over him.
+He drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect, the spirit of a
+great design. A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth,
+snatched the star from his sight; but left to his awakened mind
+the thoughts and the dim scheme that had come to him as he
+gazed.
+
+When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved him of his
+charge over the herd, and he went away, but not to his father's
+home. Musingly he plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of
+the winter forest; and shaped out of his wild thoughts, more
+palpably and clearly, the outline of his daring hope.
+
+While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and,
+fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that
+way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose
+perpetual verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he
+sought, and, concealed by its branches, he looked anxiously
+forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
+
+And IT came--it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing
+tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
+the soil--it came--it came, the monster that the world now holds
+no more--the mighty mammoth of the North!
+
+Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes
+glittered through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart,
+showed the grinders with which it snapped asunder the young oaks
+of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved downward to the
+midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
+curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreaded
+ruler of the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the
+herdsman, even amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It
+paused--it glared upon him--its jaws opened, and a low deep
+sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the son of Osslah as
+the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him for some
+moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way,
+crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of
+its heavy tread died away upon his ear.
+
+Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned the courage to
+descend the tree, he saw the shining of arms through the bare
+branches of the wood, and presently a small hand of the hostile
+Alrich came into sight. He was perfectly hidden from them; and,
+listening as they passed him, he heard one say to another:
+
+"The night covers all things; why attack them by day?"
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered "Right.
+To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
+they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our
+hands."
+
+"But where, O chief," said a third of the band, shall our men
+hide during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth
+of the Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest
+unawares, and arm their race against our coming."
+
+"I have prepared for that," answered the chief. "Is not the dark
+cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes
+of the victims?"
+
+Then the men laughed, and shouting, they went their way adown
+the forest.
+
+
+When they were gone Morven cautiously descended, and, striking
+into a broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the
+forest and the river in which was the city where the chief of
+his country dwelt.
+
+As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that day, who
+thronged the streets (if streets they might be called), their
+half garments parting from their huge limbs, the quiver at their
+backs, and the hunting spears in their hands, they laughed and
+shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried:
+
+"Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple! what dost thou among
+men?"
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender
+strength, and his step had halted from his birth; but he passed
+through the warriors unheedingly.
+
+At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail pile, in which
+some old men dwelt by themselves, and counseled the king when
+times of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine,
+or the drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage
+fronts of his warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience
+failed, they drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and
+omens from the winds of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the
+flights of the wandering birds. Filled (by the voices of the
+elements, and the variety of mysteries which ever shift along
+the face of things, unsolved by the wonder which pauses not, the
+fear which believes, and that eternal reasoning of all experience,
+which assigns causes to effects) with the notion of superior
+powers, _they assisted their ignorance by the conjectures of
+their superstition_. But as yet they knew no craft and practiced
+no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries,
+which had created their faith, to seek to belie them. They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream had never dared
+to cross men thus worn and grey with age, of governing their
+warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step,
+and approached the place at the upper end of the hall, where the
+old men sat in conclave.
+
+"How, base-torn and craven limbed!" cried the eldest, who had
+been a noted warrior in his day; "darest thou enter unsummoned
+amidst the secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not,
+scatterling! that the penalty is death?"
+
+"Slay me, if thou wilt," answered Morven "but hear!
+
+"As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our ancient kings,
+tending, as my father bade me, the sheep that grazed around,
+lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should descend unseen from the
+mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on; and when the
+storm, had ceased and I looked above on the sky, I saw a star
+descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star
+said, 'Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the
+wise men, and say unto them, that they take thee as one of their
+number, or that sudden will be the destruction of them, and
+theirs.'
+
+"But I had courage to answer the voice, and I said, 'Mock not
+the poor son of the herdsman. Behold they will kill me if I
+utter so rash a word, for I am poor and valueless in the eyes of
+the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the grey of
+hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.'
+
+"Then the voice said, 'Do my bidding, and I will give thee a
+token that thou comest from the powers that sway the seasons and
+sail upon the eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men that
+this very night if they refuse to receive thee of their band,
+evil shall fall upon them, and the morrow shall dawn in blood.'
+
+"Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over the star; and I
+communed with myself, and came, O dread fathers, mournfully unto
+you. For I feared that ye would smite me because of my bold
+tongue, and that ye would, sentence me to the death, in that I
+asked what may scarce be given even to the sons of kings."
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other and marvelled much,
+nor knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman's
+son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, "Surely there must be truth
+in the son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great
+lights of heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the
+star, verily we might doubt the truth. But who would brave the
+vengeance of the gods of night?"
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered
+and said:
+
+"Shall we take the herdsman's son as our equal? No!"
+
+The name of the man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words
+were pleasing to the elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out:
+
+"Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not to be an equal
+with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace, and
+serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;" and he bowed his head
+humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the
+others, "But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to
+come? Doubtless the star hath informed thee of the service thou
+canst render to us if we take thee into our palace, as well as
+the ill that will fall on us if we refuse."
+
+Morven answered meekly: "Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant,
+the star will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet
+he knows only what he has uttered."
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with
+themselves and they differed much; but though fierce men and
+bold at the war cry of a human foe, they shuddered at the
+prophecy of a star. So they resolved to take the son of Osslah,
+and suffer him to keep the gate of the council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and towed his head, and went to the gate,
+and sat down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stats of the
+twilight began to glimmer, when Morven started front his seat,
+and a trembling appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an
+agony and a fear possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the
+spear of a foeman has pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly
+fell upon his face on the stony earth.
+
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He
+slowly recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+"Heard ye not the voice of the star?" he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, "Nay, we heard no sound."
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+"To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councilors
+of the king! summon the armed men, and all the youth of the
+tribe, and let them take the sword and the spear, and follow thy
+servant. For lo! the star hath announced to him that the foe
+shall fall into our hands as the wild beast of the forests."
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the
+elders were amazed.
+
+"Why, pause ye?" he cried. "Do the gods of the night lie? On my
+head rest the peril if I deceive ye."
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and
+summoned the men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and
+each man took the sword and the spear, and Morven also. And the
+son of Osslah walked first, still looking up at the star; and he
+motioned them to be silent, and move with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came
+to the mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted
+trees, and it was called the cave of Oderlin; and he bade the
+leaders place the armed men on either side the cave, to the
+right and to the left, among the hushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they
+heard a noise in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came
+an armed man; and the spear of Morven pierced him, and be fell
+dead at the month of the cave. Another and another, and both
+fell! Then loud and long was heard the warcry of Alrich, and
+forth poured, as a stream over a narrow bed, the river of armed
+men.
+
+And the Sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe were sorely
+perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and the
+darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the
+slain, and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the
+tribe amongst them, and great was the joy thereof.
+
+So they went back in triumph to the city, and they carded the
+brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted forth,
+"Glory to the servant of the star."
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately
+amongst the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And
+Morven gazed upon her with the eyes of love, but he did not dare
+to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of
+men; he loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honored them
+not, for he had blinded the wisest of their elders.
+
+He shunned their feasts and merriment and lived apart and
+solitary.
+
+The austerity of his life increased the mysterious homage which
+his commune with the stars had won him, and the boldest of the
+warriors bowed his head to the favorite of the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a
+large bird of prey rise from the earth, and give chase to a hawk
+that had not yet gained the full strength of its wings. From his
+youth the solitary Morven had loved to watch, in the great
+forests and by the banks of the mighty stream, the habits of the
+things which nature had submitted to man; and looking now on the
+birds, he said to himself, "Thus is it ever; by cunning or by
+strength each thing wishes to master its kind."
+
+While thus, moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the
+hawk, and it fell terrified and panting at his feet.
+
+Morven took the hawk in his hands, and the vulture shrieked
+above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its protected prey; but
+Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk in his
+bosom, he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it
+from his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk
+knew him, and followed him as a dog.
+
+And Morven said, smiling to himself, "Behold, _the credulous
+fools around me put faith in the flight and motions of birds_. I
+will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends."
+
+So he tamed the bird, and tutored it according to its nature;
+but he concealed it carefully from others, and cherished it in
+secret.
+
+The king of the country was old and like to die, and the eyes of
+the tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was
+the worthier to reign.
+
+And Morven passing through the forest one evening, saw the
+younger of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully
+under an oak, and looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+"Wherefore musest thou, O swift footed Siror?" said the son of
+Osslah; "and wherefore art thou sad?"
+
+"Thou canst not assist me," answered the prince, sternly; "take
+thy way."
+
+"Nay," answered Morven, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I
+not the favorite of the stars?"
+
+"Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes
+doting: talk not to inc of the stars; I know only the things
+that my eye sees and my ear drinks in."
+
+"Hush," said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; "hush!
+lest the heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars
+have given unto me to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I
+can tell thee the thoughts of thine."
+
+"Speak out, base-born!"
+
+"Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war
+than the name of thy brother; yet wouldst thou desire to be set
+over his head, and to sit at the high seat of thy father?"
+
+The young man turned pale.
+
+"Thou hast truth in thy lips," said he, with a faltering voice.
+
+"Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth."
+
+"Can the stars grant my wish?"
+
+"They can; let us meet to-morrow." Thus saying, Morven passed
+into the forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+"I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the
+power that I prayed for, but on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars thou must build
+up a heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay
+her on the pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only
+shalt then reign."
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his
+spear at the pale front of Morven.
+
+"Tremble," said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. "Hark to
+the gods, who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to
+lift thine arm against their servant!"
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent
+storms of the early summer was about to break.
+
+The spear dropped from the prince's hand; he sat down and cast
+his eyes on the ground.
+
+"Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?" said Morven.
+
+"I will!" cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+"This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her
+hither, alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the
+stones."
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of
+rock that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and
+went their way.
+
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sum when the last song
+of the birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of
+the cloud are bathed in light, and the first star springs up
+over the grave of day.
+
+
+"Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?" said Gina; "and why
+doth thy lip quiver? and why dost thou tarn away thy face?"
+
+"Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt us forth, my
+sister?"
+
+"And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?"
+
+"Let others answer; _I_ piled them not."
+
+"Thou tremblest brother: we will return."
+
+"Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft pierced to-day;
+a bird of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee."
+
+"We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?"
+
+"Here!" cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and,
+casting her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite
+her to the heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial
+ages; and from the oak, or from the heavens; broke forth a loud
+and solemn voice:
+
+"Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the
+maiden thou shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race
+of Oestrich; and thou shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite
+of the stars. Arise, and go thy way!"
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time
+the springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in
+his strong arms.
+
+
+"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the
+aspiring prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which
+my heart desires not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of
+shape, am insensible to the fires of love; and ever, as thou and
+thy tribe know, I have shunned the eyes of women, for the
+maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen features; and
+so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of love.
+But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy
+fatter's plumed crown, I yield me to their will."
+
+"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my
+sister in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me
+to the dust, if I asked him to give the flower of our race to
+the son of the herdsman Osslah."
+
+"Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not: but,
+when thou art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine.
+Alas! how can I dare to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the
+dread kings of the night!--Who shall gainsay their word?"
+
+"The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine," answered the
+prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to
+himself, "the king is old, yet may he live long between me and
+mine hope!" and he began to cast in his mind how he might
+shorten the time.
+
+Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly, that night
+advanced, and he had lost his path among the thick woods, and
+knew not how to regain his home; so he lay down quietly beneath
+a tree, and rested till day dawned.
+
+Then hunger came upon him and he searched among the bushes for
+such simple roots as those with which, for he was ever careless
+of food, he was used to appease the cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry
+of a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate
+of it sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he
+found his eyes swim, and a deadly sickness come over him. For
+several hours he lay convulsed on the ground expecting death;
+but the gaunt spareness of his frame, and his unvarying
+abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he recovered slowly,
+and after great anguish: but he went with feeble steps back to
+the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father's herds, and seizing
+a lamb, forced some of the berries into its stomach, and the
+lamb, escaping, ran away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took
+some more of the berries and boiled them down, and mixed the
+juice with wine, and he gave the wine in secret to one of his
+father's servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence alone,
+he said unto him, "How fares my lord?"
+
+The king sat on a couch, made of the skins of wolves, and his
+eye was glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs and huge
+was his stature, and he had been taller by a head than the
+children of men, and none living could bend the bow he had bent
+in youth. Grey, gaunt and worn, as some mighty bones that are
+dug at times from the bosom of the earth--a relic of the
+strength of old.
+
+And the king said, faintly, and with a ghastly laugh:
+
+"The men of my years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better
+had I been born a cripple like thee, so should I have had
+nothing to lament in growing old."
+
+The red flash passed over Morven's brow; but he bent humbly--
+
+"O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I
+could restore to thee the vigor which distinguished thee above
+the sons of men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass
+before thy sword?"
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said:
+
+"What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy
+great wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can
+the gods of the night give unto thee the secret to make the old
+young?"
+
+"Tempt them not by doubt," said Morven, reverently. "All things
+are possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star
+that loves thy servant spake to him at the dead of night, and
+said, 'Arise, and go unto the king; and tell him that the stars
+honor the tribe of Oestrich, and remember how the king bent his
+bow against the Sons of Alrich; wherefore, look thou under the
+stone that lies to the right of thy dwelling--even beside the
+pine-tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and in the
+vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make the king
+thy master forget his age forever.'
+
+"Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went forth, and
+looked under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I
+have brought it hither to my lord, the king."
+
+"Quick--slave--quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!"
+
+"Nay, listen, O king! farther said the star to me:
+
+"'It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this
+their gift will avail; wherefore, the king must wait till the
+hush of the midnight, when the moon is high, and then may he
+mingle the liquid with his wine.
+
+"'And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from
+the hand of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in
+secret, and when men sleep; therefore they love not the babble
+of mouths, and he who reveals their benefits shall surely die.'"
+
+"Fear not," said the king, grasping the vessel; "none shall
+know: and, behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two
+sons--wrangling for my crown--verily, I shall be younger than
+they!"
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant
+of the stars, neither did he promise him reward: for the kings
+in those days had little thought--save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, "Shall I not attend my lord? for without
+me, perchance, the drug might fail of its effect."
+
+"Aye," said the king, "rest here."
+
+"Nay," replied Morven; "thy servants will marvel and talk much,
+if they see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would
+the displeasure of the gods of night perchance be incurred.
+Suffer that the lesser door of the palace be unbarred, so that
+at the night hour, when the moon is midway in the heavens, I may
+steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the liquid with thy
+wine."
+
+"So be it," said the king. "Thou art wise though thy limbs are
+crooked and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man."
+
+Then the king laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there
+was danger in the mirth of the son of Osslah.
+
+
+The night had began to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were
+buried in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying
+out in the streets, "Woe, woe! Awake ye sons of Oestrich--woe!"
+
+Then forth, wild--haggard--alarmed--spear in hand, rushed the
+giant sons of the rugged tribe, and they saw a man on a height
+in the middle of the city, shrieking, "Woe!" and it was Morven,
+the son of Osslah!
+
+And he said unto them, as they gathered round him, "Men and
+warriors, tremble as ye hear.
+
+"The star of the west hath spoken to me and thus saith the star:
+
+"'Evil shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich--yea, ere
+the morning dawns; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets,
+and wake the inhabitants to woe!'
+
+"So I rose and did the bidding of the star."
+
+And while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king's house
+ran up to the crowd, crying loudly:
+
+"The king is dead!"
+
+So they went into the palace and found the king stark upon his
+couch, and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by the pangs
+of death, and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe--the
+foe of all living flesh!
+
+Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on Morven with a
+deeper awe than the boldest warrior would have called forth: and
+they bore him back to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing
+and clashing their arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon:
+
+"_Honor to Morven, the prophet!_"
+
+And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in
+those countries.
+
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king's death, Siror sought
+Morven, and he said:
+
+"Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at
+sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young
+men will surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war.
+Fail me not, therefore."
+
+"Peace, boy!" said Morven, sternly; "nor dare to question the
+truth of the gods of night."
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people,
+and to speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings.
+
+And the voice silenced the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+"Behold," said Morven, taking up a chaplet of colored plumes,
+"wear this on thy head, and put on a brave face--for the people
+like a hopeful spirit--and go down with thy brother to the place
+where the new king is to be chosen, and leave the rest to the
+stars.
+
+"But, above all things, forget not that chaplet; it has been
+blessed by the gods of night."
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were
+assembled in the place where the new king was to be elected.
+
+And the voices of the many favored Prince Voltoch, the brother
+of Siror, for he had slain twelve foeman with his spear; and
+verily, in those days, that was a great virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried
+out:
+
+"Way for Morven, the prophet, the prophet!"
+
+For the people held the son of Osslah in even greater respect
+than did the chiefs.
+
+Now, since he had become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty
+of air which the son of the herdsman knew not in his earlier
+days; and albeit his stature was short, and his limbs halted,
+yet his countenance was grave and high.
+
+He only of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and
+his head was bare, and his long black hair descended to his
+girdle, and rarely was change or human passion seen in his calm
+aspect.
+
+He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor was his presence frequent in
+the streets.
+
+He laughed not, neither did he smile, save when alone in the
+forest--and then he laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the
+left nor to the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported
+his steps with a staff of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the
+two princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him
+proclaim silence.
+
+Then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:
+
+"Princes, wantors and bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and
+ye, O hunters of the forests, and snarers of the fishes of the
+streams! harken to Morven, the son of Osslah.
+
+"Ye know that I am lowly of race, and weak of limb; but did I
+not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye not
+slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter?
+
+"Surely, ye must know that this of himself did not the
+herdsman's son; surely he was but the agent of the bright gods
+that love the children of Oestrich.
+
+"Three nights since, when slumber was on the earth, was not my
+voice heard in the streets?
+
+"Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that
+is no more.
+
+"Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not
+as the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of
+Oestrich?
+
+"Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but
+listen to his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars?
+
+"Behold, last night, I sat alone in the valley, and the trees
+were hushed around, and not a breath stirred; and I looked upon
+the star that councels the son of Osslah; and I said:
+
+"'Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy beauty in
+the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed
+away, and many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it
+is well that they should have a king valiant and prosperous in
+war, the cherished of the stars.
+
+"'Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors
+of Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our
+tribe, wherefore, I pray thee, give unto the people a token that
+they may choose that king whom the gods of the night prefer!'
+
+"Then a low voice sweeter than the music of the bard, stole
+along the silence.
+
+"'Thy love for thy race is grateful to the stars of night: go
+then, son of Osslah, and seek the meeting of the chiefs and the
+people to choose a king, and tell them not to scorn thee because
+thou art slow to the chase and little known in war; for the
+stars give thee wisdom as a recompense for all.
+
+"'Say unto the people that as the wise men of the council shape
+their lessons by the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds
+stall a token be given unto them, and they shall choose their
+kings.
+
+"'For,' said, the star of right, 'the birds are children of the
+winds, they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air, and
+visit the clouds that are the warships of the gods.
+
+"'And their music is but broken melodies which they gleam from
+the harps above.
+
+"'Are they not the messengers of the storm?
+
+"'Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends,
+know ye not, by the wail of birds and their low circles over the
+earth, that the tempest is at hand?
+
+"'Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air are
+the fit interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of
+the world above.
+
+"'Say then to the people and the chiefs, that they shall take,
+from among the doves that nest in the roof of the palace, a
+white dove, and they shall let it loose in the air, and verily
+the gods of the night shall deem the dove as a prayer coming
+from the people, and they shall send a messenger to grant the
+prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich a king worthy of
+themselves.'
+
+"With that the star spoke no more."
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they
+said, "Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?"
+
+But the people and the warriors shouted:
+
+"Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle according as
+the bird flies--shall we not by the same token choose him by
+whom the battle should be led?"
+
+And the thing seemed natural to them, for it was after the
+custom of the tribe.
+
+Then they took one of the doves that built in the roof of the
+palace, and they bought it to the spot where Morven stood, and
+he, looking up to the stars and muttering to himself, released
+the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees a little distance from the spot, and
+as the dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and
+pursued the dove; and the dove was terrified, and soared
+circling high above the crowd, when, lo, the hawk, poising
+itself one moment on its wings, swooped with a sudden swoop,
+and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of Siror.
+
+"Behold," cried Morven in a loud voice, "behold your king!"
+
+"Hail, all hail the king!" shouted the people. "All hail the
+chosen of the stars!"
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand, and the hawk left the prince,
+and alighted on Morven's shoulder.
+
+"Bird of the gods!" said he, reverently, "hast thou not a secret
+message for my ear?" Then the hawk put its beak to Morven's ear,
+and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested with
+Morven from that moment and would not be scared away.
+
+And Morven said:
+
+"The stars have sent me this bird, that, in the day-time, when I
+see them not, we may never be without a counsellor in distress."
+
+So Siror was made king, and Maven the son of Osslah was
+constrained by the king's will to take Orna for his wife; and
+the people and the chiefs honored Morven, the prophet, above all
+the elders of the tribe.
+
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, "Am I not already
+equal with the king? nay, is not the king my servant? did I not
+place him over the heads of his brothers? am I not, therefore,
+more fit to reign than he is? shall I not push him from his
+seat?
+
+"It is a troublesome and stormy office to reign over the wild
+men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hail, and to lead die
+warriors to the fray.
+
+"Surely, if I feasted not, neither went out to war, they might
+say, 'This is no king, but the cripple Morven;' and some of the
+race of Siror might slay me secretly.
+
+"But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose
+and govern them, living as now at mine own ease?
+
+"_Verily, the stars shall give me a new palace, and many
+subjects_."
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his
+eye often sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said "It were better to TRUST this man than to BLIND,
+for surely I want a helpmate and a friend."
+
+So he said to the wise man as he sat alone watching the setting
+sun:
+
+"It seemeth to me, O Darvan! I that we ought to build a great
+pile in honor of the stars and the pile should be more glorious
+than all the palaces of the chiefs and the palaces of the king;
+for are not the stars our masters?
+
+"And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace,
+and we would serve the gods of night, and fatten their altars
+with the choicest of the herd, and the freshest of the fruits of
+the earth."
+
+And Darvan said:
+
+"thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But will the
+people help to build the pile, for they are a war-like race and
+they love not toil?"
+
+And Morven answered:
+
+"_Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done. Fear
+not_."
+
+"In truth thou art a wondrous man, thy words ever come to pass,
+answered Darvan; "and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the
+language of the stars."
+
+"Assuredly if thou servest me thou shalt know," answered the
+proud Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the
+herdsman should command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much.
+
+Now she loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he
+was not savage and fierce as the men she had known, and she was
+proud of his fame among the tribe; and he took her in his arms
+and kissed her, and asked her why she wept.
+
+Then she told him that her brother, the king, had visited her
+and had spoken bitter words of Morven.
+
+"He taketh from me the affection of my people," said Siror, "and
+blindeth them with lies. And since he hath made me king, what if
+he take my kingdom from me? Verily, a new tale of the stars
+might undo the old."
+
+And the king had ordered her to keep watch on Morven's secrecy,
+and to see whether truth was in him when he boasted of his
+commune with the Powers of Night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her
+husband all.
+
+And Morven resented the king's ingratitude, and was troubled
+much, for a king is a powerful foe; but tie comforted Orna, and
+bade her dissemble and complain also of him to her brother, so
+that he might confide to her unsuspectingly whatsoever he might
+design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven's house in which he kept the sacred
+hawk, and wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds
+against future need, and the door of the cave was always barred.
+
+And one day he was thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the
+wall, that he had never noted before, and the sun came playfully
+in; and while he looked he perceived the sunbeam was darkened,
+and presently he saw a human face peering in through the chink.
+
+And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+
+
+Morven ran hastily from the cave, but the spy had disappeared
+among the trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of
+Darvan and sat himself down.
+
+Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned
+pale when he saw Morven.
+
+But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a feast,
+which, for the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the
+moon, in honor of the stars.
+
+And going out of Darvan's chamber, he returned to his wife, and
+bade her hair, and go at the dawn of day to the king, her
+brother, and complain bitterly of Morven's treatment, and pluck
+the black schemes from the breast of the king. "For surely,"
+said he, "Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some evil awaits
+me that I would fain know."
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said:
+
+"The herdsman's son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to
+me; stall I not be avenged?"
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword.
+
+"Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have learned from one of
+the elders that which convinceth me that the man hath lied to
+the people, and the base-born shall surely die.
+
+"Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest my
+brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death."
+
+And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.
+
+"Fly now, O my beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my
+brethren, or surely the sword of Siror will end thy days."
+
+Then the son of Osslab folded his arms, and seemed buried in
+black thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again
+and again she had implored him to fly.
+
+"Fly!" he said at length. "Nay, I was doubting what punishment
+the stars should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly.
+Morven, the prophet, conquers by arms mightier than the sword."
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how
+to save himself from the vengeance of the king.
+
+
+Now, while Morven was musing hopelessly, he heard a roar of
+waters; and behold the river, for it was now the end of autumn,
+had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the valley to the
+houses of the city.
+
+And now the men of the tribe, and the women, and the children,
+came running, and with shrieks to Morven's house, crying:
+
+"Behold the river has burst upon us!--Save us, O ruler of the
+stars!"
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven and he resolved to
+risk his fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said:
+
+"Ye know not what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye
+have brought it on yourselves."
+
+And they cried: "How? O son of Osslah--we are ignorant of our
+crime."
+
+And he answered:
+
+"Go down to the king's palace and wait before it, and surely I
+will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+this punishment from the gods."
+
+Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a receding sea; and
+when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone to the house
+of Darvan, which was next his own: and Darvan was greatly
+terrified, for he was of a great age, and had no children,
+neither friends, and he feared that he could not of himself
+escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him, soothingly:
+
+"Lo, the people love me, and I will see that thou art saved for
+verily thou hast been friendly to me, and done me much service
+with the king."
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and
+looked forth, and saw that they were quite alone; then he seized
+the old man by the throat, and ceased not his grip till he was
+quite dead.
+
+And leaving the body of the elder on the floor, Morven, stole
+from the house and shut the gate.
+
+And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and afar off the
+shrieks of women, he lifted up his head, and said proudly:
+
+"No! in this hour terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no
+art save the power of my soul."
+
+So, leaning on his pine staff, he strode down to the palace.
+
+And it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that
+they might see each other's faces in the universal fear.
+
+Red flashed the quivering flames on the dark robes and pale
+front of Morven; and he seemed mightier than the rest, because
+his face alone was calm amidst the tumult.
+
+And louder and hoarser came the roar of the waters; and swift
+rusted the shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice:
+
+"Where is the king; and wherefore is he absent from his people
+in the hour of dread?"
+
+Then the gate of the palace opened; and, behold Siror was
+sitting in the hall by the vast pine-fire and his brother by his
+side, and his chiefs around him: for they would not deign to
+come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the herdsman's son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people
+(the same rack whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:
+
+"Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river
+hath burst its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you.
+
+"Learn then, that the stars resent as the foulest of human
+crimes an insult to their servants and delegates below.
+
+"Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye have
+surnamed the Prophet!
+
+"He harms not man or beast; he lives alone; and, far from the
+wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and fear the
+Powers of Night!
+
+"So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger--so is he able
+to save ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your
+warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring forth their young,
+and the earth its fruits.
+
+"What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear?
+
+"Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my life; and
+there are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against
+the bosom that is only filled with love for you.
+
+"Therefore have the stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of
+the river--therefore doth this evil menace ye.
+
+"Neither will it pass away until they who dig the pit for the
+servant of the stars are buried in the same."
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth:
+
+"Name them who conspired against thy life, O holy prophet! and
+surely they shall be torn limb from limb."
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and
+he said:
+
+"Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye
+believe the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the
+heavens themselves I swear, that if my death would satisfy their
+fury, nor bring down upon yourselves, and your children's
+children, the anger of the throned stars, gladly would I give my
+bosom to the knife. Yes," he cried, lifting up his voice, and
+pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king sat by
+the pine-fire--"yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose above
+thy brother--yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and
+come hither--strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the
+Prophet of the Gods!"
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a
+shuddering silence.
+
+Morven resumed:
+
+"Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch, his
+brother, and Darvan, the elder of the wise men, have purposed to
+slay your prophet, even at such hour as when alone he seeks the
+shade of the forest to devise new benefits for you. Let the king
+deny it, if he can!"
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall,
+and his spear quivered in his hand.
+
+"Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father's herdsman! and
+for thy sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou
+speakest of thy power with the stars, and thou laughest at the
+folly of them who hear thee: wherefore put him to death."
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth
+to slay the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed:
+
+"Hear him, O dread ones of the night--hark how he blasphemeth."
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried:
+
+"He blasphemeth--he blasphemeth against the prophet!"
+
+But the king and the chiefs who hated Morven, because of his
+power with the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were
+irresolute, nor knew they how to act, for never yet had they
+rebelled against their chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet
+and the king.
+
+And Siror cried:
+
+"Summon Darvan to us, for he bath watched the steps of Morven,
+and he shall lift the veil from my people's eyes."
+
+Then three of the swift of foot started forth to the house of
+Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice:
+
+"Hark! thus saith the star who, now riding through yonder cloud
+breaks forth upon my eyes--'For the lie that the elder hath
+uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars shall fall
+upon him.' Seek, and as ye find him, so may ye find ever the
+foes of Morven and the gods."
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek
+of Siror grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving
+torches, stood motionless with folded arms.
+
+And hark--far and fast came on the war-steeds of the wave--the
+people heard them marching to the land, and tossing their white
+manes in the roaring wind.
+
+"Lo, as ye listen," said Morven, calmly, "the river sweeps on.
+Haste, for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or
+your king."
+
+"Slave!" shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far
+above the heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form
+of Morven, and rent the trunk of the oak behind.
+
+Then the people, wroth at the danger of their beloved seer,
+uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with brandished
+swords, facing their chieftains and their king.
+
+But at that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the
+tribe, the three warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on
+their shoulders, and laid him at the feet of the king, and they
+said tremblingly:
+
+"Thus found we the elder in the centre of his own hall."
+
+And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the
+prediction of Morven was thus verified.
+
+"So perish the enemies of Morven and the Stars!" cried the son
+of Osslah. And the people echoed the cry.
+
+Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword
+above his head, he plunged into the crowd:
+
+"Thy blood, base-born, or mine."
+
+"So be it!" answered Morven, quailing not. "People, smite the
+blasphemer. Hark how the river pours down upon your children and
+your hearths. On, on, or ye perish!"
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+"Smite! smite!" cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house
+gathered round the king.
+
+And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the cries
+of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people, mingled with
+the roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of
+their own tribe. And the last cry of the victors was, "_Morven
+the prophet_--MORVEN THE KING!"
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the
+valley, led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women
+and their children, to a high mount, where they waited the
+dawning sun.
+
+But Orna sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no
+more, and her race had perished from the earth.
+
+And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread
+the greater part of the city, and now stayed its course among
+the hollows of the vale.
+
+Then Morven said to the people: "The star kings are avenged, and
+their wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the water have
+melted into the crevices of the soil."
+
+And on the fourth day they returned to the city, and no man
+dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then
+assembling the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them
+build a mighty temple in honor of the stars, and made them heap
+within it all that the tribe held most precious.
+
+And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of the
+tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who had served
+him best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in
+the great temple: and Morven was their chief.
+
+And he put away the crown they pressed upon him, and he chose
+from among the elders a new king.
+
+And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars
+in the great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and
+hold council, and proclaim war: but he suffered the king to
+feast, and to hunt, and to make merry in the banquet halls.
+
+And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first who, in
+the North, _sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards
+human flesh_, upon the altars.
+
+And he drew auguries from the entrails of the victim, and made
+schools for the science of the prophet; and Morven's piety was
+the wonder of the tribe, in that he refused to be a king.
+
+And Morven, the high-priest, was _ten thousand times mightier
+than the king_.
+
+He taught the people to till the ground, and to sow the herb;
+and by his wisdom, and the valor that his prophecies instilled
+into men, he conquered all the neighboring tribes.
+
+And the sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire,
+and with them spread the name and the laws of Morven.
+
+And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them to
+build a temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the years of Morven.
+
+The sister of Siror bowed down her head and survived not long
+the slaughter of her race.
+
+And she left Morven childless.
+
+And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught, for her only in
+the world had his heart the power to love.
+
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:
+
+"Lo: I have conquered and travailed; and never before in the
+world did man conquer what I have conquered.
+
+"Verily, the empire of the iron thews and the giant limbs is no
+more; I have found a new power, that henceforth shall sway the
+lands;--_the empire of plotting brain and a commanding mind_.
+
+"But, behold, my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will
+grow neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age.
+
+"Desolate and lonely shall I pass away unto my grave.
+
+"O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like unto thee, and
+to thy love do I owe my glory and my life.
+
+"Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark
+cavern of my heart--would for thy sake that thy brethren had
+been spared, for verily with my life would I have purchased
+thine.
+
+"Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that thy love was dearer
+to me than the fear of others."
+
+And Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely to the cares of
+his calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever
+there was left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a
+man without love, _and he forbade love and marriage to the
+priest_.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose OTHER prophets; for the
+world had grown wiser even by Morven's wisdom, and some did say
+unto themselves:
+
+"Behold Morven, the herdsman's son, is a king of kings: this did
+the stars for their servant; shall we not, therefore, be also
+servants to the star?"
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about
+prophesying of what the stars foretold them.
+
+And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more than other men,
+knew that the prophets lied; wherefore he went forth against
+them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them and
+burned them by a slow fire: for thus said Morven to the people:
+
+"_A true prophet hath honor, but I only am a true prophet!_"
+
+"To all false prophets there shall be surely death."
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries
+of the temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honor; and they carved his effigy
+on a mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for
+a thousand ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face
+was calm with the calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North
+that made _Religion the stepping stone to Power_.
+
+Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each
+upon his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the
+world. The night was dark and troubled, the dread winds were
+abroad, and fast and frequent hurried the clouds beneath the
+thrones of the kings of night. But ever and anon fiery meteors
+flashed along the depths of heaven, and were again swallowed up
+in the graves of darkness.
+
+And far below his brethren, and with a lurid haze around his
+orb, sat the discontented star that had watched over the hunters
+of the North. And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread
+a thick and mighty gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose
+columns of wreathing smoke; and still, when the great winds
+rested for an instant on their paths, voices of woe and
+laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from the
+abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from
+the abyss, and its wings threw blackness over the world. High
+upward to the throne of the discontented star sailed the fearful
+shape, and the star trembled on his throne when the form stood
+before him face to face. And the shape said: "Hail, brother!--
+all hail!"
+
+"I know thee not," answered the star: "thou art not the
+archangel that visitests the kings of night."
+
+And the shape laughed loud. "I am the fallen star of the
+morning.--I am Lucifer, thy brother. Hast thou not, O sullen
+king, served me and mine? and hast thou not wrested the earth
+from thy Lord who sittest above and given it to me by _darkening
+the souls of men with the religion of fear?_ Wherefore come,
+brother, come;--thou hast a throne prepared beside my own in the
+fiery gloom. Come.--The heavens are no more for thee." Then the
+star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of Lucifer.
+For ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the
+soul of pride.
+
+And slowly they sank down to the gulf of gloom. It was the first
+night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby
+throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But
+sorrow dimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for they
+mourned in silence and in fear for a fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden
+sound, and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings;
+and the archangel gave to each of the stars, as before, the
+message of his Lord; and to each star was his appointed charge.
+
+And when the heraldry seemed done, there came a laugh from the
+abyss of gloom, and half way from the gulf rose the lurid shape
+of Lucifer, the fiend.
+
+"Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd. Behold! one
+star is missing from the three thousand and ten."
+
+"Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother
+hath been filled."
+
+And lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all
+lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face
+was so soft to look upon, that the dimmest of human eyes might
+have gazed upon its splendor unabashed; but the dark fiend alone
+was dazzled by its lustre, and, with a yell that shook the
+flaming pillars of the universe, he plunged backwards into the
+gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice
+of God:
+
+"Behold! _on the throne of the discontented star sits the star
+of hope; and he that breathed into mankind the Religion of Fear
+hath a successor in him who shall teach earth the Religion of
+Love._"
+
+And evermore the Star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the Star
+of Love keeps vigil in heaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
+
+BY LORD BROUGHAM.
+
+
+
+A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
+
+The question which has more than, any other harassed
+metaphysical reasoners, but especially theologians, and upon
+which it is probable that no very satisfactory conclusion will
+ever be reached by the human faculties, is the Origin and
+Sufferance of Evil.
+
+Its existence being always assumed, philosophers have formed
+various theories for explaining it, but they have always drawn
+very different inferences from it.
+
+The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence of the
+Deity, because they held that the existence of Evil either
+proved him to be limited in power or of a malignant nature;
+either of which imperfections is inconsistent with the first
+notions of a divine being.
+
+In this kind of reasoning they have been followed both by the
+atheists and sceptics of later times.
+
+Bayle regarded the subject of evil as one of the great arsenals
+from whence his weapons were to be chiefly drawn. None of the
+articles in his famous Dictionary are more labored than those in
+which he treats of this subject. _Monichian_, and still more
+_Paulician_, almost assume the appearance of formal treatises
+upon the question; and both _Marchionite_ and _Zoroaster_ treat
+of the same subject. All these articles are of considerable
+value; they contain the greater part of the learning upon the
+question; and they are distinguished by the acuteness of
+reasoning which was the other characteristic of their celebrated
+author.
+
+Those ancient philosophers who did not agree with Epicurus in
+arguing from the existence of evil against the existence of a
+providence that superintended and influenced the destinies of
+the world, were put to no little difficulty in accounting for
+the fact which they did not deny, and yet maintaining the power
+of a divine ruler. The doctrine of a double principle, or of two
+divine beings of opposite natures, one beneficent, the other
+mischievous, was the solution which one class of reasoners
+deemed satisfactory, and to which they held themselves driven by
+the phenomena of the universe.
+
+Others unable to deny, the existence of things which men
+denominate evil, both physical and moral, explain them in a
+different way. They maintained that physical evil only obtains
+the name from our imperfect and vicious or feeble dispositions;
+that to a wise man there is no such thing; that we may rise
+superior to all such groveling notions as make us dread or
+repine at any events which can befall the body; that pain,
+sickness, loss of fortune or of reputation, exile, death itself,
+are only accounted ills by a weak and pampered mind; that if we
+find the world tiresome, or woeful, or displeasing, we may at
+any moment quit it; and that therefore we have no right whatever
+to call any suffering connected with existence on earth an evil,
+because almost all sufferings can be borne by a patient and firm
+mind; since if the situation we are placed in becomes either
+intolerable, or upon the whole more painful than agreeable, it
+is our own fault that we remain in it.
+
+But these philosophers took a further view of the question which
+especially applied to moral evil. They considered that nothing
+could be more groundless than to suppose that if there were no
+evil there could be any good in the world; and they illustrated
+this position by asking how we could know anything of temperance,
+fortitude or justice, unless there were such things as excess,
+cowardice and injustice.
+
+These were the doctrines of the Stoics, from whose sublime and
+impracticable philosophy they seemed naturally enough to flow.
+Aulus Gellius relates that the last-mentioned argument was
+expounded by Chrysippus, in his work upon providence. The answer
+given by Plutarch seems quite sufficient: "As well might you say
+that Achilles could not have a fine head of hair unless
+Thersites had been bald; or that one man's limbs could not be
+all sound if another had not the gout."
+
+In truth, the Stoical doctrine proceeds upon the assumption that
+all virtue is only the negative of vice; and is as absurd, if
+indeed it be not the very same absurdity, as the doctrine which
+should deny the existence of affirmative or positive truths,
+resolving them all into the opposite of negative propositions.
+Indeed, if we even were to admit this as an abstract position,
+the actual existence of evil would still be unnecessary to the
+idea, and still more to the existence, of good. For the
+conception of evil, the bare idea of its possibility, would be
+quite sufficient, and there would be no occasion for a single
+example of it.
+
+The other doctrine, that of two opposite principles, was
+embraced by most of the other sects, as it should seem, at some
+period or other of their inquiries. Plato himself, in his later
+works, was clearly a supporter of the system; for he held that
+there were at least two principles, a good and an evil; to which
+he added a third, the moderator or mediator between them.
+
+Whether this doctrine was, like many others, imported into
+Greece from the East, or was the natural growth of the schools,
+we cannot ascertain. Certain it is that the Greeks themselves
+believed it to have been taught by Zoroaster in Asia, at least
+five centuries before the Trojan war; so that it had an
+existence there long before the name of philosophy was known in
+the western world.
+
+Zoroaster's doctrine agreed in every respect with Plato's; for
+besides Oomazes, the good, and Arimanius, the evil principle, he
+taught that there was a third, or mediatory one, called Mithras.
+That it never became any part of the popular belief in Greece or
+Italy is quite clear. All the polytheism of those countries
+recognized each of the gods as authors alike of good and evil.
+Nor did even the chief of the divinities, under whose power the
+rest were placed, offer any exception to the general rule; for
+Jupiter not only gave good from one urn and ill from another, but
+he was also, according to the barbarous mythology of classical
+antiquity, himself a model at once of human perfections and of
+human vices.
+
+After the light of the Christian religion had made some way
+toward supplanting the ancient polytheism, the doctrine of two
+principles was broached; first by Marcion, who lived in the time
+of Adrian and Antonius Pius, early in the second century; and
+next by Manes, a hundred years later. He was a Persian slave,
+who was brought into Greece, where he taught this doctrine,
+since known by his name, having learned it, as is said, from
+Scythianus, an Arabian. The Manichean doctrines, afterwards
+called also Paulician, from a great teacher of them in the
+seventh century, were like almost all the heresies in the
+primitive church, soon mixed up with gross impurities of sacred
+rites as well as extravagant absurdities of creed.
+
+The Manicheans were, probably as much on this account as from
+the spirit of religious intolerance, early the objects of severe
+persecution; and the Code of Justinian itself denounces capital
+punishment against any of the sect, if found within the Roman
+dominions.
+
+It must be confessed that the theory of two principles, when
+kept free from the absurdities and impurities which were
+introduced into the Manichean doctrine, is not unnaturally
+adopted by men who have no aid from the light of revelation,[1]
+and who are confounded by the appearance of a world where evil
+and good are mixed together, or seem to struggle with one
+another, sometimes the one prevailing, and sometimes the other;
+and accordingly, in all countries, in the most barbarous
+nations, as well as among the most refined, we find plain traces
+of reflecting men having been driven to this solution of the
+difficulty.
+
+It seems upon a superficial view to be very easily deducible
+from the phenomena; and as the idea of infinite power, with
+which it is manifestly inconsistent, does by no means so
+naturally present itself to the mind, as long as only a very
+great degree of power, a power which in comparison of all human
+force may be termed infinite, is the attribute with which the
+Deity is believed to be endued. Manichean hypothesis is by no
+means so easily refuted. That the power of the Deity was
+supposed to have limits even in the systems of the most
+enlightened heathens is unquestionable. They, generally
+speaking, believed in the eternity of matter, and conceived some
+of its qualities to be so essentially necessary to its existence
+that no divine agency could alter them. They ascribed to the
+Deity a plastic power, a power not of creating or annihilating,
+but only of moulding, disposing and moving matter. So over mind
+they generally give him the like power, considering it as a kind
+of emanation from his own greater mind or essence, and destined
+to be re-united with him hereafter. Nay, over all the gods, and
+of superior potency to any, they conceived fate to preside; an
+overruling and paramount necessity, of which they formed some
+dark conceptions, and to which the chief of all the gods was
+supposed to submit. It is, indeed, extremely difficult to state
+precisely what the philosophic theory of theology was in Greece
+and Rome, because the wide difference between the esoteric and
+exoteric doctrines, between the belief of the learned few and
+the popular superstition, makes it very difficult to avoid
+confounding the two, and lending to the former some of the
+grosser errors with which the latter abounded. Nevertheless, we
+may rely upon what has been just stated, as conveying, generally
+speaking, the opinion of philosophers, although some sects
+certainly had a still more scanty measure of belief.
+
+But we shall presently find that in the speculation of the much
+more enlightened moderns, Christians of course, errors of a like
+kind are to be traced. They constantly argue the great question
+of evil upon a latent assumption, that the power of the Deity
+is restricted by some powers or qualities inherent in matter;
+notions analogous to that of faith are occasionally perceptible;
+not stated or expanded indeed into propositions, but influencing
+the course of the reasoning; while the belief of infinite
+attributes is never kept steadily in view, except when it is
+called in as requisite to refute the Manichean doctrines. Some
+observers of the controversy have indeed not scrupled to affirm
+that those of whom we speak are really Manicheans without
+knowing it; and build their systems upon assumptions secretly
+borrowed from the disciples of Zoroaster, without ever stating
+those assumptions openly in the form of postulates or definition.
+
+The refutation of the Manichean hypothesis is extremely easy if
+we be permitted to assume that both the principles which it
+supposes are either of infinite power or of equal power. If they
+are of infinite power, the supposition of their co-existence
+involves a contradiction in terms; for the one being in
+opposition to the other, the power of each must be something
+taken from that of the other; consequently neither can be of
+infinite power. If, again, we only suppose both to be of equal
+power, and always acting against each other, there could be
+nothing whatever done, neither good or evil; the universe would
+be at a standstill; or rather no act of creation could ever have
+been performed, and no existence could be conceived beyond that
+of the two antagonistic principles.
+
+Archbishop Tillotson's argument, properly speaking, amounts to
+this last proposition, and is applicable to equal and opposite
+principles, although he applies it to two beings, both infinitely
+powerful and counteracting one another. When he says they would
+tie up each other's bands, he might apply this argument to such
+antagonistic principles if only equal, although not infinitely
+powerful. The hypothesis of their being both infinitely powerful
+needs no such refutation; it is a contradiction in terms. But it
+must be recollected that the advocates of the Manichean doctrine
+endeavor to guard themselves against the attack by contending,
+that the conflict between the two principles ends in a kind of
+compromise, so that neither has it all his own way; there is a
+mixture of evil admitted by the good principle, because else
+the whole would beat a standstill; while there is much good
+admitted by the evil principle, else nothing, either good or
+evil, would be done. Another answer is therefore required to
+this theory than what Tillotson and his followers have given.
+
+_First_, we must observe that this reasoning of the Manicheans
+proceeds upon the analogy of what we see in mortal contentions;
+where neither party having the power to defeat the other, each
+is content to yield a little to his adversary, and so, by mutual
+concession, both are successful to some extent, and both to some
+extent disappointed. But in a speculation concerning the nature
+of the Deity, there seems no place for such notions.
+
+_Secondly_, the equality of power is not an arbitrary
+assumption; it seems to follow from the existence of the two
+opposing principles. For if they are independent of one another
+as to existence, which they must needs be, else one would
+immediately destroy the other, so must they also, in each
+particular instance, be independent of each other, and also
+equal each to the other, else one would have the mastery, and
+the influence of the other could not be perceived. To say that
+in some things the good principle prevails and in others the
+evil, is really saying nothing more than that good exists here
+and evil there. It does not further the argument one step, nor
+give anything like an explanation. For it must always be borne
+in mind that the whole question respecting the Origin of Evil
+proceeds upon the assumption of a wise, benevolent and powerful
+Being having created the world. The difficulty, and the only
+difficulty, is, how to reconcile existing evil with such a
+Being's attributes; and if the Manichean only explains this by
+saying the good Being did what is good, and another and evil
+Being did what is bad in the universe, he really tells us
+nothing more than the fact; he does not apply his explanation to
+the difficulty; and he supposes the existence of a second Deity
+gratuitously and to no kind of purpose.
+
+But, _thirdly_, in whatever light we view the hypothesis, it
+seems exposed to a similar objection, namely, of explaining
+nothing in its application, while it is wholly gratuitous in
+itself. It assumes, of course, that creation was the act of the
+good Being; and it also assumes that Being's goodness to have
+been perfect, though his power is limited. Then as he must have
+known the existence of the evil principle and foreseen the
+certainty of misery being occasioned by his existence, why did
+he voluntarily create sentient beings, to put them, in some
+respects at least, under the evil one's power, and thus be
+exposed to suffering? The good Being, according to this theory,
+is the remote cause of the evil which is endured, because but
+for his act of creation the evil Being could have had, no
+subjects whereon to work mischief; so that the hypothesis wholly
+fails in removing, by more than one step, the difficulty which
+it was invented to solve.
+
+_Fourthly_, there is no advantage gained to the argument by
+supposing two Beings, rather than one Being of a mixed nature.
+The facts lead to this supposition just as naturally as to the
+hypothesis of two principles. The existence of the evil Being is
+as much a detraction from the power of the good one, as if we
+only at once suppose the latter to be of limited power, and that
+he prefers making and supporting creatures who suffer much less
+than they enjoy, to making no creatures at all. The supposition
+that he made them as happy as he could, and that not being able
+to make them less miserable, he yet perceived that upon the
+whole their existence would occasion more happiness than if they
+never had any being at all, will just account for the phenomena
+as well as the Manichean theory, and will as little as that
+theory assume any malevolence in the power which created and
+preserved the universe. If, however, it be objected that this
+hypothesis leaves unexplained the fetters upon the good Being's
+power, the answer is obvious; it leaves those fetters not at all
+less explained than the Manichean theory does; for that theory
+gives no explanation of the existence of a counteracting
+principle, and it assumes both an antagonistic power, to limit
+the Deity's power, and a malevolent principle to set the
+antagonistic power in motion; whereas our supposition assumes no
+malevolence at all, but only a restraint upon the divine power.
+
+_Fifthly_, this leads us to another and most formidable
+objection. To conceive the eternal existence of one Being
+infinite in power, "self-created and creating all others," is by
+no means impossible. Indeed, as everything must have had a
+cause, nothing we see being by possibility self-created, we
+naturally mount from particulars to generals, until finally we
+rise to the idea of a first cause, uncreated, and self-existing,
+and eternal. If the phenomena compels us to affix limits to his
+goodness, we find it impossible to conceive limits to the power
+of a creative, eternal, self-existing principle. But even
+supposing we could form the conception of such a Being having
+his power limited as well as his goodness, still we can conceive
+no second Being independent of him. This would necessarily lead
+to the supposition of some third Being, above and antecedent to
+both, and the creator of both--the real first cause--and then
+the whole question would be to solve over again,--Why these two
+antagonistic Beings were suffered to exist by the great Being of
+all?
+
+The Manichean doctrine, then, is exposed to every objection
+to which a theory can be obnoxious. It is gratuitous; it is
+inapplicable to the facts; it supposes more causes than are
+necessary; it fails to explain the phenomena, leaving the
+difficulties exactly where it found them. Nevertheless, such is
+the theory, how easily soever refuted when openly avowed and
+explicitly stated, which in various disguises appears to pervade
+the explanations, given of the facts by most of the other systems;
+nay, to form, secretly and unacknowledged, their principal
+ground-work. For it really makes very little difference in the
+matter whether we are to account for evil by holding that the
+Deity has created as much happiness as was consistent with "the
+nature of things," and has taken every means of avoiding all
+evil except "where it necessarily existed" or at once give
+those limiting influences a separate and independent existence,
+and call them by a name of their own, which is the Manichean
+hypothesis.
+
+The most remarkable argument on this subject, and the most
+distinguished both for its clear and well ordered statement, and
+for the systematic shape which it assumes, is that of Archbishop
+King. It is the great text-book of those who study this subject;
+and like the famous legal work of Littleton, it has found an
+expounder yet abler and more learned than the author himself.
+Bishop Law's commentary is full of information, of reasoning and
+of explication; nor can we easily find anything valuable upon
+the subject which is not contained in the volumes of that work.
+It will, however, only require a slight examination of the
+doctrines maintained by these learned and pious men, to satisfy
+us that they all along either assume the thing to be proved, or
+proceed upon suppositions quite inconsistent with the infinite
+power of the Deity--the only position which raises a question,
+and which makes the difficulty that requires to be solved.
+
+According to all the systems as well as this one, evil is of two
+kinds--physical and moral. To the former class belong all the
+sufferings to which sentient beings are exposed from the
+qualities and affections of matter independent of their own
+acts; the latter class consists of the sufferings of whatever
+kind which arise from their own conduct. This division of the
+subject, however, is liable to one serious objection; it
+comprehends under the second head a class of evils which ought
+more properly to be ranged under the first. Nor is this a mere
+question of classification: it affects the whole scope of the
+argument. The second of the above-mentioned classes comprehends
+both the physical evils which human agency causes, but which it
+would have no power to cause unless the qualities of matter were
+such as to produce pain, privation and death; and also the moral
+evil of guilt which may possibly exist independent of material
+agency, but which, whether independent or not upon that physical
+action, is quite separable from it, residing wholly in the mind.
+Thus a person who destroys the life of another produces physical
+evil by means of the constitution of matter, and moral evil is
+the source of his wicked action. The true arrangement then is
+this: Physical evil is that which depends on the constitution of
+matter, or only is so far connected with the constitution of
+mind as that the nature and existence of a sentient being must
+be assumed in order to its mischief being felt. And this
+physical evil is of two kinds; that which originates in human
+action, and that which is independent of human action, befalling
+us from the unalterable course of nature. Of the former class
+are the pains, privations and destruction inflicted by men one
+upon another; of the latter class are diseases, old age and
+death. Moral evil consists in the crimes, whether of commission
+or omission, which men are guilty of--including under the latter
+head those sufferings which we endure from ill-regulated minds
+through want of fortitude or self-control. It is clear that as
+far as the question of the origin of evil is concerned, the
+first of these two classes, physical evil, depends upon the
+properties of matter, and the last upon those of mind. The
+second as well as the first subdivision of the physical class
+depends upon matter; because, however ill-disposed the agent's
+mind may be, he could inflict the mischief only in consequence
+of the constitution of matter. Therefore, the Being, who created
+matter enabled him to perpetrate the evil, even admitting that
+this Being did not, by creating the mind also give rise to the
+evil disposition; and admitting that, as far as regards this
+disposition it has the same origin with the evil of the second
+class, or moral evil, the acts of a rational agent.
+
+It is quite true that many reasoners refuse to allow any
+distinction between the evil produced by natural causes and the
+evils caused by rational agents, whether as regards their own
+guilt, or the mischief it caused to others. Those reasoners deny
+that the creation of man's will and the endowing it with liberty
+explains anything; they hold that the creation of a mind whose
+will is to do evil, amounts to the same thing, and belongs to
+the same class, with the creation of matter whose nature is to
+give pain and misery. But this position, which involves the
+doctrine of necessity, must, at the very least, admit of one
+modification. Where no human agency whatever is interposed, and
+the calamity comes without any one being to blame for it, the
+mischief seems a step, and a large step, nearer the creative or
+the superintending cause, because it is, as far as men go,
+altogether inevitable. The main tendency of the argument,
+therefore, is confined to physical evil; and this has always
+been found the most difficult to account for, that is to
+reconcile with the government of a perfectly good and powerful
+Being. It would indeed be very easily explained, and the
+reconcilement would be readily made, if we were at liberty to
+suppose matter independent in its existence, and in certain
+qualities, of the divine control; but this would be to suppose
+the Deity's power limited and imperfect, which is just one horn
+of the Epicurean dilemma, _"Aut vult et non potest;"_ and in
+assuming this, we do not so much beg the question as wholly give
+it up and admit we cannot solve the difficulty. Yet obvious as
+this is, we shall presently see that the reasoners who have
+undertaken the solution, and especially King and Law, under such
+phrases as "the nature of things," and "the laws of the material
+universe," have been constantly, through the whole argument,
+guilty of this _petitio principii_ (begging the question), or
+rather this abandonment of the whole question, and never more so
+than at the very moment when they complacently plumed themselves
+upon having overcome the difficulty.
+
+Having premised these observations for the purpose of clearing
+the ground and avoiding confusion in the argument, we may now
+consider that Archbishop King's theory is in both its parts; for
+there are in truth two distinct explanations, the one resembling
+an argument _a priori_, the other an argument _a posteriori_. It
+is, however, not a little remarkable that Bishop Law, in the
+admirable abstract or analysis which he gives of the Archbishop's
+treatise at the end of his preface, begins with the second branch,
+omitting all mention of the first, as if he considered it to be
+merely introductory matter; and yet his fourteenth note (t. cap.
+I s. 3.) shows that he was aware of its being an argument wholly
+independent of the rest of the reasonings; for he there says
+that the author had given one demonstration _a priori_, and that
+no difficulties raised by an examination of the phenomena, no
+objection _a posteriori_, ought to overrule it, unless these
+difficulties are equally certain and clear with the demonstration,
+and admit of no solution consistent with that demonstration.
+
+The necessity of a first cause being shown, and it being evident
+that therefore this cause is uncreated and self-existent, and
+independent of any other, the conclusion is next drawn that its
+power must be infinite. This is shown by the consideration that
+there is no other antecedent cause, and no other principle which
+was not created by the first cause, and consequently which was
+not of inferior power; therefore, there is nothing which can
+limit the power of the first cause; and there being no limiter
+or restrainer, there can be no limitation or restriction.
+
+Again, the infinity of the Deity's power is attempted to be
+proved in another way.
+
+The number of possible things is infinite; but every possibility
+implies a power to do the possible thing; and as one possible
+thing implies a power to do it, an infinite number of possible
+things implies an infinite power. Or as Descartes and his
+followers put it, we can have no idea of anything that has not
+either an actual or a possible existence; but we have an idea of
+a Being of infinite perfection; therefore, he must actually
+exist; for otherwise there would be one perfection wanting, and
+so he would not be infinite, which he either is actually or
+possibly. It is needless to remark that this whole argument,
+whatever may be said of the former one, is a pure fallacy, and a
+_petitio principii_ throughout. The Cartesian form of it is the
+most glaringly fallacious, and indeed exposes itself; for by
+that reasoning we might prove the existence of a fiery dragon or
+any other phantom of the brain. But even King's more concealed
+sophism is equally absurd. What ground is there for saying that
+the number of possible things is infinite? He adds, "at least in
+power," which means either nothing or only that we have the
+power of conceiving an infinite number of possibilities. But
+because we can conceive or fancy an infinity of possibilities,
+does it follow that there actually exists this infinity? The
+whole argument is unworthy of a moment's consideration. The
+other is more plausible, that restriction implies a restraining
+power. But even this is not satisfactory when closely examined.
+For although the first cause must be self-existent and of
+eternal duration, we only are driven by the necessity of
+supposing a cause whereon all the argument rests, to suppose one
+capable of causing all that actually exists; and, therefore, to
+extend this inference and suppose that the cause is of infinite
+power seems gratuitous. Nor is it necessary to suppose another
+power limiting its efficacy, if we do not find it necessary to
+suppose its own constitution and essence such as we term
+infinitely powerful. However, after noticing this manifest
+defect in the fundamental part of the argument, that which
+infers infinite power, let us for the present assume the
+position to be proved either by these or by any other reasons,
+and see if the structure raised upon it is such as can stand the
+test of examination.
+
+Thus, then, an infinitely powerful Being exists, and he was the
+creator of the universe; but to incline him towards the creation
+there could be no possible motive of happiness to himself, and
+he must, says King, have either sought his own happiness or that
+of the universe which he made. Therefore his own ideas must have
+been the communication of happiness to the creature. He could
+only desire to exercise his attributes without, or eternally to
+himself, which before creating other beings he could not do. But
+this could only gratify his nature, which wants nothing, being
+perfect in itself, by communicating his goodness and providing
+for the happiness of other sentient beings created by him for
+this purpose. Therefore, says King, "it manifestly follows that
+the world is as well as it could be made by infinite power and
+goodness; for since the exercise of the divine power and the
+communication of his goodness are the ends, for which the world
+is formed, there is no doubt but God has attained these ends."
+And again, "If then anything inconvenient or incommodious be
+now, or was from the beginning in it, that certainly could not
+be hindered or removed even by infinite power, wisdom and
+goodness."
+
+Now certainly no one can deny, that if God be infinitely
+powerful and also infinitely good, it must follow that whatever
+looks like evil, either is not really evil, or that it is such
+as infinite power could not avoid. This is implied in the very
+terms of the hypothesis. It may also be admitted that if the
+Deity's only object in his dispensation be the happiness of his
+creatures, the same conclusion follows even without assuming his
+nature to be infinitely good; for we admit what, for the purpose
+of the argument, is the same thing, namely, that there entered
+no evil into his design in creating or maintaining the universe.
+But all this really assumes the very thing to be proved. King
+gets over the difficulty and reaches his conclusion by saying,
+"The Deity could have only one of two objects--his own happiness
+or that of his creatures."--The skeptic makes answer, "He might
+have another object, namely, the misery of his creatures;" and
+then the whole question is, whether or not he had this other
+object; or, which is the same thing, whether or not his nature
+is perfectly good. It must never be forgotten that unless evil
+exists there is nothing to dispute about--the question falls.
+The whole difficulty arises from the admission that evil exists,
+or what we call evil, exists. From this we inquire whether or
+not the author of it can be perfectly benevolent? or if he be,
+with what view he has created it? This assumes him to be
+infinitely powerful, or at least powerful enough to have
+prevented the evil; but indeed we are now arguing with the
+Archbishop on the supposition that he has proved the Deity to be
+of infinite power. The skeptic rests upon his dilemma, and
+either alternative, limited power or limited goodness, satisfies
+him.
+
+It is quite plain, therefore, that King has assumed the thing to
+be proved in his first argument, or argument _a priori_. For he
+proceeds upon the postulates that the Deity is infinitely good,
+and that he only had human happiness in view when he made the
+world. Either supposition would have served his purpose; and
+making either would have been taking for granted the whole
+matter in dispute. But he has assumed both; and it must be
+added, he has made his assumption of both as if he was only
+laying down a single position. This part of the work is
+certainly more slovenly than the rest. It is the third section
+of the first chapter.
+
+It is certainly not from any reluctance to admit the existence
+of evil that the learned author and his able commentator have
+been led into this inconclusive course of reasoning. We shall
+nowhere find more striking expositions of the state of things in
+this respect, nor more gloomy descriptions of our condition,
+than in their celebrated work. "Whence so many, inaccuracies,"
+says the Archbishop, "in the work of a most good and powerful
+God? Whence that perpetual war between the very elements,
+between animals, between men? Whence errors, miseries and vices,
+the constant companions of human life from its infancy? Whence
+good to evil men, evil to the good? If we behold anything
+irregular in the work of men, if any machine serves not the end
+it was made for, if we find something in it repugnant to itself
+or others, we attribute that to the ignorance, impatience or
+malice of the workman. But since these qualities have no place
+in God, how come they to have place in anything? Or why does God
+suffer his works to be deformed by them?"--Chap. ii. s. 3.
+Bishop Law, in his admirable preface, still more cogently puts
+the case: "When I inquire how I got into the world, and came to
+be what I am, I am told that an absolutely perfect being
+produced me out of nothing, and placed me here on purpose to
+communicate some part of his happiness to me, and to make me in
+some manner like himself. This end is not obtained--the direct
+contrary appears--I find myself surrounded with nothing but
+perplexity, want and misery--by whose fault I know not--how to
+better myself I cannot tell. What notions of good and goodness
+can this afford me? What ideas of religion? What hopes of a
+future state? For if God's aim in producing me be entirely
+unknown, if it be either his glory (as some will have it), which
+my present state is far from advancing, nor mine own good, which
+the same is equally inconsistent with, how know I what I have to
+do here, or indeed in what manner I must endeavor to please him?
+Or why should I endeavor it at all? For if I must be miserable
+in this world, what security have I that I shall not be so in
+another too (if there be one), since if it were the will of my
+Almighty Creator, I might (for aught I see) have been happy in
+both."--Pref. viii. The question thus is stated. The difficulty
+is raised in its full and formidable magnitude by both these
+learned and able men; that they have signally failed to lay it
+by the argument _a priori_ is plain. Indeed, it seems wholly
+impossible ever to answer by an argument _a priori_ any
+objection whatever which arises altogether out of the facts made
+known to us by experience alone, and which are therefore in the
+nature of contingent truths, resting upon contingent evidence,
+while all demonstrations _a priori_ must necessarily proceed
+upon mathematical truths. Let us now see if their labors have
+been more successful in applying to the solution of the
+difficulty the reasoning _a posteriori._
+
+Archbishop King divides evil into three kinds--imperfection,
+natural evil and moral evil--including under the last head all
+the physical evils that arise from human actions, as well as the
+evils which consists in the guilt of those actions.
+
+The existence of imperfection is stated to be necessary,
+because everything which is created and not self-existent must
+be imperfect; consequently every work of the Deity, in other
+words, everything but the Deity himself, must have imperfection
+in its nature. Nor is the existence of some beings which are
+imperfect any interference with the attributes of others. Nor
+the existence of beings with many imperfections any interference
+with others having pre-eminence. The goodness of the Deity
+therefore is not impugned by the existence of various orders of
+created beings more or less approaching to perfection. His
+creating none at all would have left the universe less admirable
+and containing less happiness than it now does. Therefore, the
+act of mere benevolence which called those various orders into
+existence is not impeached in respect of goodness any more than
+of power by the variety of the attributes possessed by the
+different beings created.
+
+He now proceeds to grapple with the real difficulty of the
+question. And it is truly astonishing to find this acute
+metaphysician begin with an assumption which entirely begs
+that question. As imperfection, says he, arises from created
+beings having been made out of nothing, so natural evils arise
+"from all natural things having a relation to matter, and on
+this account being necessarily subject to natural evil." As
+long as matter is subject to motion, it must be the subject of
+generation and corruption. "These and all other natural evils,"
+says the author, "are so necessarily connected with the material
+origin of things that they cannot be separated from it, and thus
+the structure of the world either ought not to have been formed
+at all, or these evils must have been tolerated without any
+imputation on the divine power and goodness." Again, he says,
+"corruption could not be avoided without violence done to the
+laws of motion and the nature of matter." Again, "All manner of
+inconveniences could not be avoided because of the imperfection
+of matter and the nature of motion. That state of things were
+therefore preferable which was attained with the fewest and the
+least inconveniences." Then follows a kind of menace, "And who
+but a very rash, indiscreet person will affirm that God has not
+made choice of this?"--when every one must perceive that the
+bare propounding of the question concerning evil calls upon us
+to exercise this temerity and commit this indiscretion.--Chap.
+iv. s. I, div. 7. He then goes into more detail as to particular
+cases of natural evil; but all are handled in the same way. Thus
+death is explained by saying that the bodies of animals are a
+kind of vessels which contain fluids in motion, and being
+broken, the fluids are spilt and the motions cease; "because by
+the native imperfection of matter it is capable of dissolution,
+and the spilling and stagnation must necessarily follow, and
+with it animal life must cease."--Chap. iv. s. 3. Disease is dealt
+with in like manner. "It could not be avoided unless animals had
+been made of a quite different frame and constitution."--Chap. iv.
+s. 7. The whole reasoning is summed up in the concluding section
+of this part, where the author somewhat triumphantly says, "The
+difficult question then, whence comes evil? is not unanswerable.
+For it arises from the very nature and constitution of created
+beings, and could not be avoided without a contradiction."--
+Chap. iv. s. 9. To this the commentary of Bishop Law adds
+(Note 4i), "that natural evil has been shown to be, in every
+case, unavoidable, without introducing into the system a greater
+evil."
+
+It is certain that many persons, led away by the authority of a
+great name, have been accustomed to regard this work as a
+text-book, and have appealed to Archbishop King and his learned
+commentator as having solved the question. So many men have
+referred to the _Principia_ as showing the motions of the
+heavenly bodies, who never read, or indeed could read, a page of
+that immortal work. But no man ever did open it who could read
+it and find himself disappointed in any one particular; the
+whole demonstration is perfect; not a link is wanting; nothing
+is assumed. How different the case here! We open the work of the
+prelate and find it from the first to last a chain of gratuitous
+assumptions, and, of the main point, nothing whatever is either
+proved or explained. Evil arises, he says, from the nature of
+matter. Who doubts it? But is not the whole question why matter
+was created with such properties as of necessity to produce
+evil? It was impossible, says he, to avoid it consistently with
+the laws of motion and matter. Unquestionably; but the whole
+dispute is upon those laws. If indeed the laws of nature, the
+existing constitution of the material world, were assumed as
+necessary, and as binding upon the Deity, how is it possible that
+any question ever could have been raised? The Deity having the
+power to make those laws, to endow matter with that constitution,
+and having also the power to make different laws and to give
+matter another constitution, the whole question is, how his
+choosing to create the present existing order of things--the
+laws and the constitution which we find to prevail--can be
+reconciled with perfect goodness. The whole argument of the
+Archbishop assumes that matter and its laws are independent of
+the Deity; and the only conclusion to which the inquiry leads
+us is that the Creator has made a world with as little of evil
+in it as the nature of things,--that is, as the laws of nature
+and matter--allowed him; which is nonsense, if those laws were
+made by him, and leaves the question where it was, or rather
+solves it by giving up the omnipotence of the Creator, if these
+laws were binding upon him.
+
+It must be added, however, that Dr. King and Dr. Law are not
+singular in pursuing this most inconclusive course of reasoning.
+
+Thus Dr. J. Clarke, in his treatise on natural evil, quoted by
+Bishop Law (Note 32), shows how mischiefs arise from the laws of
+matter; and says this could not be avoided "without altering
+those primary laws, i. e., making it something else than what it
+is, or changing it into another form; the result of which would
+only be to render it liable to evils of another kind against
+which the same objections would equally lie." So Dr. J. Burnett,
+in his discourses on evil, at the Boyle Lecture (vol. ii. P.
+201), conceives that he explains death by saying that the
+materials of which the body is composed "cannot last beyond
+seventy years, or thereabouts, and it was originally intended
+that we should die at that age." Pain, too, he imagines is
+accounted for by observing that we are endowed with feelings,
+and that if we could not feel pain, so neither could we pleasure
+(p. 202). Again, he says that there are certain qualities which
+"in the nature of things matter is incapable of" (p. 207). And
+as if he really felt the pressure of this difficulty, be at
+length comes to this conclusion, that life is a free gift, which
+we had no right to exact, and which the Deity lay under no
+necessity to grant, and therefore we must take it with the
+conditions annexed (p. 210); which is undeniably true, but
+is excluding the discussion and not answering the question
+proposed. Nor must it be forgotten that some reasoners deal
+strangely with the facts. Thus Derham, in his _Physico-Theology_,
+explaining the use of poison in snakes, first desires us to
+bear in mind that many venomous ones are of use medicinally
+in stubborn diseases, which is not true, and if it were, would
+prove nothing, unless the venom, not the flesh, were proved to
+be medicinal; and then says, they are "scourges upon ungrateful
+and sinful men;" adding the truly astounding absurdity, "that
+the nations which know not God are the most annoyed with noxious
+reptiles and other pernicious creatures." (Book ix. c. I); which
+if it were true would raise a double difficulty, by showing that
+one people was scourged because another had neglected to preach
+the gospel among them. Dr. J. Burnett, too, accounts for animals
+being suffered to be killed as food for man, by affirming that
+they thereby gain all the care which man is thus led to bestow
+upon them, and so are, on the whole, the better for being eaten.
+(Boyle Lecture, II. 207). But the most singular error has perhaps
+been fallen into by Dr. Sherlock, and the most, unhappy--which
+yet Bishop Law has cited as a sufficient answer to the objection
+respecting death: "It is a great instrument of government, and
+makes men afraid of committing such villanies as the laws of
+their country have made capital." (Note 34). So that the greatest
+error in the criminal legislation of all countries forms part of
+the divine providence, and man has at length discovered, by the
+light of reason, the folly and the wickedness of using an
+instrument expressly created by divine Omniscience to be abused!
+
+The remaining portion of King's work, filling the second volume
+of Bishop Law's edition, is devoted to the explanation of Moral
+Evil; and here the gratuitous assumption of the "nature of
+things," and the "laws of nature," more or less pervade the
+whole as in the former parts of the Inquiry.
+
+The fundamental position of the whole is, that man having been
+endowed with free will, his happiness consists in making due
+elections, or in the right exercise of that free will. Five
+causes are then given of undue elections, in which of course his
+misery consists as far as that depends on himself; these causes
+are error, negligence, over-indulgence of free choice, obstinacy
+or bad habit, and the importunity of natural appetites; which
+last, it must in passing be remarked, belongs to the head of
+physical evil, and cannot be assumed in this discussion without
+begging the question. The great difficulty is then stated and
+grappled with, namely, how to reconcile these undue elections
+with divine goodness. The objector states that free will might
+exist without the power of making undue elections, he being
+suffered to range, as it were, only among lawful objects of
+choice. But the answer to this seems sound, that such a will
+would only be free in name; it would be free to choose among
+certain things, but would not be free-will. The objector again
+urges, that either the choice is free and may fall upon evil
+objects, against the goodness of God, or it is so restrained as
+only to fall on good objects. Against freedom of the will King's
+solution is, that more evil would result from preventing these
+undue elections than from suffering them, and so the Deity has
+only done the best he could in the circumstances; a solution
+obviously liable to the same objection as that respecting
+Natural Evil. There are three ways, says the Archbishop, in
+which undue elections might have been prevented; not creating a
+free agent--constant interference with his free-will--removing
+him to another state where he would not be tempted to go astray
+in his choice. A fourth mode may, however, be suggested--creating
+a free-agent without any inclination to evil, or any temptation
+from external objects. When our author disposes of the second
+method, by stating that it assumes a constant miracle, as great
+in the moral as altering the course of the planets hourly would
+be in the material universe, nothing can be more sound or more
+satisfactory. But when he argues that our whole happiness
+consists in a consciousness of freedom of election, and that we
+should never know happiness were we restrained in any particular,
+it seems wholly inconceivable how he should have omitted to
+consider the prodigious comfort of a state in which we should
+be guaranteed against any error or impropriety of choice; a
+state in which we should both be unable to go astray and always
+feel conscious of that security. He, however, begs the question
+most manifestly in dealing with the two other methods stated,
+by which undue elections might have been precluded. "You would
+have freedom," says he, "without any inclination to sin; but
+it may justly be doubted if this is possible _in the present
+state of things_," (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 2); and again, in
+answering the question why God did not remove us into another
+state where no temptation could seduce us, he says: "It is
+plain that _in the present state of things_ it is impossible
+for men to live without natural evils or the danger of sinning."
+(_Ib_.) Now the whole question arises upon the constitution of
+the present state of things. If that is allowed to be inevitable,
+or is taken as a datum in the discussion, there ceases to be any
+question at all.
+
+The doctrine of a chain of being is enlarged upon, and with much
+felicity of illustration. But it only wraps up the difficulty in
+other words, without solving it. For then the question becomes
+this--Why did the Deity create such a chain as could not be
+filled up without misery? It is, indeed, merely restating the
+fact of evil existing; for whether we say there is suffering
+among sentient beings--or the universe consists of beings more
+or less happy, more or less miserable--or there exists a chain
+of beings varying in perfection and in felicity--it is manifestly
+all one proposition. The remark of Bayle upon this view of the
+subject is really not at all unsound, and is eminently ingenious:
+"Would you defend a king who should confine all his subjects of
+a certain age in dungeons, upon the ground that if he did not,
+many of the cells he had built must remain empty?" The answer
+of Bishop Law to this remark is by no means satisfactory. He
+says it assumes that more misery than happiness exists. Now,
+in this view of the question, the balance is quite immaterial.
+The existence of any evil at all raises the question as much
+as the preponderance of evil over good, because the question
+conceives a perfectly good Being, and asks how such a Being
+can have permitted any evil at all. Upon this part of the
+subject both King and Law have fallen into an error which recent
+discoveries place in a singularly clear light. They say that the
+argument they are dealing with would lead to leaving the earth
+to the brutes without human inhabitants. But the recent
+discoveries in Fossil Osteology have proved that the earth, for
+ages before the last 5,000 or 6,000 years, was left to the lower
+animals; nay, that in a still earlier period of its existence no
+animal life at all was maintained upon its surface. So that, in
+fact, the foundation is removed of the _reductio ad absurdum_
+attempted by the learned prelates.
+
+A singular argument is used towards the latter end of the
+inquiry. When the Deity, it is said, resolved to create other
+beings, He must of necessity tolerate imperfect natures in his
+handiwork, just as he must the equality of a circle's radii when
+he drew a circle. Who does not perceive the difference? The
+meaning of the word circle is that the radii are all equal; this
+equality is a necessary truth. But it is not shown that men
+could not exist without the imperfections they labor under.
+Yet this is the argument suggested by these authors while
+complaining (chap. v. s. 5, sub. 7, div. 7), that Lactantius
+had not sufficiently answered the Epicurean dilemma; it is the
+substitute propounded to supply that father's deficiency.--
+"When, therefore," says the Archbishop, "matter, motion and
+free-will are constituted, the Deity must necessarily permit
+corruption of things and the abuse of liberty, or something
+worse, for these cannot be separated without a contradiction,
+and God is no more important, because he cannot separate
+equality of radii from a circle."--Chap. v. s. 5, subs. 7.
+If he could not have created evil, he would not have been
+omnipotent; if he would not, he must let his power lie idle; and
+rejecting evil have rejected all the good. "Thus," exclaims the
+author with triumph and self-complacency, "then vanishes this
+Herculean argument which induced the Epicureans to discard the
+good Deity, and the Manicheans to substitute an evil one." (_Ib._
+subs. 7, _sub. fine._) Nor is the explanation rendered more
+satisfactory, or indeed more intelligible, by the concluding
+passage of all, in which we are told that "from a conflict
+of two properties, namely, omnipotence and goodness, evils
+necessarily arise. These attributes amicably conspire together,
+and yet restrain and limit each other." It might have been
+expected from hence that no evil at all should be found to
+exist. "There is a kind of struggle and opposition between
+them, whereof the evils in nature bear the shadow and resemblance.
+Here, then, and no where else, mar we find the primary and most
+certain rise and origin of evils."
+
+Such is this celebrated work; and it may safely be affirmed
+that a more complete failure to overcome a great and admitted
+difficulty--a more unsatisfactory solution of an important
+question--is not to be found in the whole history of metaphysical
+science.
+
+Among the authors who have treated of this subject, a high place
+is justly given to Archdeacon Bulguy, whose work on _Divine
+Benevolence_ is always referred to by Dr. Paley with great
+commendation. But certain it is that this learned and pious
+writer either had never formed to himself a very precise notion
+of the real question under discussion, namely, the compatibility
+of the appearances which we see and which we consider as evil,
+with a Being infinitely powerful as well as good; or he had in
+his mind some opinions respecting the divine nature, opinions of
+a limitary kind, which he does not state distinctly, although he
+constantly suffers them to influence his seasonings. Hence,
+whenever he comes close to the real difficulty he appears to beg
+the question. A very few instances of what really pervades the
+whole work will suffice to show how unsatisfactory its general
+scope is, although it contains, like the treatise of Dr. King
+and Dr. Law's Commentary, many valuable observations on the
+details of the subject.
+
+And first we may perceive that what he terms a _"previous
+remark,"_ and desires the reader "to carry along through the
+whole proof of divine benevolence," really contains a statement
+that _the difficulty is to be evaded and not met._ "An intention
+of producing good," says he, "will be sufficiently apparent in
+any particular instance if the thing considered can neither be
+changed nor taken away without loss or harm, _all other things
+continuing the same._ Should you suppose _various_ things in
+the system changed _at once_, you can neither judge of the
+possibility nor the consequences of the changes, having no
+degree of experience to direct you." Now assuredly this
+postulate makes the whole question as easy a one as ever
+metaphysician or naturalist had to solve. For it is no longer
+--Why did a powerful and benevolent Being create a world in
+which there is evil--but only--The world being given, how far
+are its different arrangements consistent with one another?
+According to this, the earthquake at Lisbon, Voltaire's favorite
+instance, destroyed thousands of persons, because it is in the
+nature of things that subterraneous vapors should explode, and
+that when houses fall on human beings they should be killed.
+Then if Dr. Balguy goes to his other argument, on which be often
+dwells, that if this nature were altered, we cannot possibly
+tell whether worse might not ensue; this, too, is assuming a
+limited power in the Deity, contrary to the hypothesis. It may
+most justly be said, that if there be any one supposition
+necessarily excluded from the whole argument, it is the
+fundamental supposition of the "previous remark," namely, "all
+other things continuing the same."
+
+But see how this assumption pervades and paralyzes the whole
+argument, rendering it utterly inconclusive. The author is to
+answer an objection derived from the constitution of our
+appetites for food, and his reply is, that "we cannot tell how
+far it was _possible_ for the stomachs and palates of animals to
+be differently formed, unless by some remedy worse than the
+disease." Again, upon the question of pain: "How do we know that
+it was _possible_ for the uneasy sensation to be confined to
+particular cases?" So we meet the same fallacy under another
+form, as evil being the result of "general principles." But no
+one has ever pushed this so far as Dr. Balguy, for he says,
+"that in a government so conducted, many events are likely to
+happen contrary to the intention of its author." He now calls in
+the aid of chance, or accident.--"It is probable," he says,
+"that God should be good, for evil is more likely to be
+_accidental_ than appears from experience in the conduct
+of men." Indeed, his fundamental position of the Deity's
+benevolence is rested upon this foundation, that "pleasures only
+were intended, and that the pains are accidental consequences,
+although the means of producing pleasures." The same recourse to
+accident is repeatedly had. Thus, "the events to which we are
+exposed in this imperfect state appear to be the _accidental_,
+not natural, effects of our frame and condition." Now can any
+one thing be more manifest than that the very first notion of a
+wise and powerful Being excludes all such assumptions as things
+happening contrary to His intention; and that when we use the
+word chance or accident, which only means our human ignorance of
+causes, we at once give up the whole question, as if we said,
+"It is a subject about which we know nothing." So again as to
+power. "A good design is more _difficult_ to be executed, and
+therefore more likely to be executed _imperfectly_, than an evil
+one, that is, with a mixture of effects foreign to the design
+and opposite to it." This at once assumes the Deity to be
+powerless. But a general statement is afterwards made more
+distinctly to the same effect. "Most sure it is that he can do
+all things possible. But are we in any degree competent judges
+of the bounds of possibility?" So again under another form
+nature is introduced as something different from its author, and
+offering limits to his power. "It is plainly not the method of
+nature to obtain her ends instantaneously." Passing over such
+propositions as that "_useless_ evil is a thing never seen,"
+(when the whole question is why the same ends were not attained
+without evil), and a variety of other subordinate assumptions
+contrary to the hypothesis, we may rest with this general
+statement, which almost every page of Dr. Balguy's book bears
+out, that the question which be has set himself to solve is
+anything rather than the real one touching the Origin of Evil;
+and that this attempt at a solution is as ineffectual as any of
+those which we have been considering.
+
+Is, then, the question wholly incapable of solution, which all
+these learned and ingenious men have so entirely failed in
+solving? Must the difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and
+only be approached to discover that it is insuperable? _Must the
+subject, of all others the most interesting for us to know well,
+be to us always as a sealed book, of which we can never know
+anything?_ From the nature of the thing--from the question
+relating to the operation of a power which, to our limited
+faculties, must ever be incomprehensible--there seems too much
+reason for believing that nothing precise or satisfactory ever
+will be attained by human reason regarding this great argument;
+and that the bounds which limit our views will only be passed
+when we have quitted the encumbrances of our mortal state, and
+are permitted to survey those regions beyond the sphere of our
+present circumscribed existence. The other branch of Natural
+Theology, that which investigates the evidences of Intelligence
+and Design, and leads us to a clear apprehension of the Deity's
+power and wisdom, is as satisfactorily cultivated as any other
+department of science, rests upon the same species of proof, and
+affords results as precise as they are sublime. This branch will
+never be distinctly known, and will always so disappoint the
+inquirer as to render the lights of Revelation peculiarly
+acceptable, although even those lights leave much of it still
+involved in darkness--still mysterious and obscure.[2]
+
+Yet let us endeavor to suggest some possible explication, while
+we admit that nothing certain, nothing entirely satisfactory can
+be reached. The failure of the great writers whose works we have
+been contemplating may well teach us humility, make us distrust
+ourselves, and moderate within us any sanguine hopes of success.
+But they should not make us wholly despair of at least showing
+in what direction the solution of the difficulty is to be
+sought, and whereabouts it will probably be found situated, when
+our feeble reason shall be strengthened and expanded. For one
+cause of their discomfiture certainly has been their aiming too
+high, attempting a complete solution of a problem which only
+admitted of approximation, and discussion of limits.
+
+It is admitted on all hands that the demonstration is complete
+which shows the existence of intelligence and design in the
+universe. The structure of the eye and ear in exact confirmity
+to the laws of optics and acoustics, shows as clearly as any
+experiment can show anything, that the source, cause or origin
+is common both to the properties of light and the formation of
+the lenses and retina in the eye--both to the properties of
+sound and the tympanum, malleus, incus and stapes of the ear. No
+doubt whatever can exist upon the subject, any more than, if we
+saw a particular order issued to a body of men to perform
+certain uncommon evolutions, and afterwards saw the same body
+performing those same evolutions, we could doubt their having
+received the order. A designing and intelligent and skillful
+author of these admirably adapted works is equally a clear
+inference from the same facts. We can no more doubt it than we
+can question, when we see a mill grinding corn into flour, that
+the machinery was made by some one who designed by means of it
+to prepare the materials of bread. The same conclusions are
+drawn in a vast variety of other instances, both with respect to
+the parts of human and other bodies, and with respect to most of
+the other arrangements of nature. Similar conclusions are also
+drawn from our consciousness, and the knowledge which it gives
+us of the structure of the mind.[3] Thus we find that attention
+quickens memory and enables us to recollect; and that habit
+renders all exertions and all acquisitions easy, beside having
+the effect of alleviating pain.
+
+But when we carry our survey into other parts, whether of the
+natural or moral system, we cannot discover any design at all.
+We frequently perceive structures the use of which we know
+nothing about; parts of the animal frame that apparently have no
+functions to perform--nay, that are the source of pain without
+yielding any perceptible advantage; arrangements and movements
+of bodies which are of one particular kind, and yet we are quite
+at a loss to discern any reason why they might not have been of
+many other descriptions; operations of nature that seem to serve
+no purpose whatever; and other operations and other arrangements,
+chosen equally without any beneficial view, and yet which often
+give rise to much apparent confusion and mischief. Now, the
+question is, _first_, whether in any one of these cases of
+arrangement and structures with no visible object at all, we
+can for a moment suppose that there really is no object answered,
+or only conceive that we have been unable to discover it?
+_Secondly_, whether in the cases where mischief sometimes is
+perceived, and no other purpose appears to be effected, we do
+not almost as uniformly lay the blame on our own ignorance,
+and conclude, not that the arrangement was made without any
+design, and that mischief arises without any contriver, but
+that if we knew the whole case we should find a design and
+contrivance, and also that the apparent mischief would sink
+into the general good? It is not necessary to admit, for our
+present purpose, this latter proposition, though it brings us
+closer to the matter in hand; it is sufficient for the present
+to admit, what no one doubts, that when a part of the body,
+for instance, is discovered, to which, like the spleen, we
+cannot assign any function in the animal system, we never think
+of concluding that it is made for no use, but only that we have
+as yet not been able to discover its use.
+
+Now, let us ask, why do we, without any hesitation whatever, or
+any exception whatever, always and immediately arrive at this
+conclusion respecting intelligence and design? Nothing could be
+more unphilosophical, nay, more groundless, than such a process
+of reasoning, if we had only been able to trace design in one or
+two instances; for instance, if we found only the eye to show
+proofs of contrivance, it would be wholly gratuitous, when we
+saw the ear, to assume that it was adapted to the nature of
+sound, and still more so, if, on examination, we perceived it
+bore no perceptible relation to the laws of acoustics. The proof
+of contrivance in one particular is nothing like a proof, nay,
+does not even furnish the least presumption of contrivance in
+other particulars; because, _a priori_, it is just as easy to
+suppose one part of nature to be designed for a purpose, and
+another part, nay, all other parts, to be formed at random and
+without any contrivance, as to suppose that the formation of the
+whole is governed by design. Why, then, do we, invariably and
+undoubtedly, adopt the course of reasoning which has been
+mentioned, and never for a moment suspect anything to be formed
+without some reason--some rational purpose? The only ground of
+this belief is, that we have been able distinctly to trace
+design in so vast a majority of cases as leaves us no power of
+doubting that, if our faculties had been sufficiently powerful,
+or our, investigation sufficiently diligent, we should also have
+been able to trace it in those comparatively few instances
+respecting which we still are in the dark.
+
+It may be worth while to give a few instances of the ignorance
+in which we once were of design in some important arrangements
+of nature, and of the knowledge which we now possess to show the
+purpose of their formation. Before Sir Isaac Newton's optical
+discoveries, we could not tell why the structure of the eye was
+so complex, and why several lenses and humors were required
+to form a picture of objects upon the retina. Indeed, until
+Dolland's subsequent discovery of the achromatic effect of
+combining various glasses, and Mr. Blair's still more recent
+experiments on the powers of different refracting media, we were
+not able distinctly to perceive the operation and use of the
+complicacy in the structure of the eye. We now well understand
+its nature, and are able to comprehend how that which had at one
+time, nay, for ages, seemed to be an unnecessary complexity;
+forms the most perfect of all optical instruments, and according
+to the most certain laws of refraction and of dispersion.
+
+So, too, we had observed for some centuries the forms of the
+orbits in which the heavenly bodies move, and we had found these
+to be ellipses with a very small eccentricity. But why this was
+the form of those orbits no one could even conjecture. If any
+person, the most deeply skilled in mathematical science, and the
+most internally convinced of the universal prevalence of design
+and contrivance in the structure of the universe, had been asked
+what reason there was for the planets moving in ellipses so,
+nearly approaching to circles, he could not have given any good
+reason, at least beyond a guess. The force of gravitation, even
+admitting that to be, as it were, a condition of the creation of
+matter, would have made those bodies revolve in ellipses of any
+degree of eccentricity just as well, provided the angle and the
+force of projection had been varied. Then, why was this form
+rather, than any other chosen? No one knew; yet no one doubted
+that there was ample reason for it. Accordingly the sublime
+discoveries of Lagrange and La Place have shown us that this
+small eccentricity is one material element in the formula by
+which it is shown that all the irregularities of the system are
+periodical, and that the deviation never can exceed a certain
+amount on either hand.
+
+But, again, while we are ignorant of this, perhaps the most
+sublime truth in all science, we were always arguing as if the
+system had an imperfection, as if the disturbing forces of the
+different planets and the sun, acting on one another, constantly
+changed the orbits of each planet, and must, in a course of
+ages, work the destruction of the whole planetary arrangement
+which we had contemplated with so great admiration and with awe.
+It was deemed enough if we could show that this derangement must
+be extremely slow, and that, therefore, the system might last
+for many more ages without requiring any interposition of
+omnipotent skill to preserve it by rectifying its motions. Thus
+one of the most celebrated writers above cited argues that,
+"from the nature of gravitation and the concentricity of the
+orbits, the irregularities produced are so slowly operated in
+contracting, dilating and inclining those orbits, that the
+system may go on for many thousand years before any extraordinary
+interference becomes necessary in order to correct it." And Dr.
+Burnett adds, that "those small irregularities cast no discredit
+on the good contrivance of the whole." Nothing, however, could
+cast greater discredit if it were as he supposed, and as all men
+previous to the late discoveries supposed; it was only, they
+rather think, a "small irregularity," which was every hour
+tending to the destruction of the whole system, and which
+must have deranged or confounded its whole structure long before
+it destroyed it. Yet now we see that the wisdom, to which a
+thousand years are as one day, not satisfied with constructing a
+fabric which might last for "many thousand years without His
+interference," has so formed it that it may thus endure forever.
+
+Now if such be the grounds of our belief in the universal
+prevalence of Design, and such the different lights which at
+different periods of our progress in science we possess upon
+this branch of the divine government; if we undoubtingly believe
+that contrivance is universal only because we can trace and
+comprehend it in a great majority of instances, and if the
+number of exceptions to the rule is occasionally diminished as
+our knowledge of the particulars is from time to time extended--
+may we not apply the same principle to the apprehension of
+Benevolent purpose, and infer from the number of instances
+in which we plainly perceive a good intention, that if we
+were better acquainted with those cases in which a contrary
+intention is now apparent, we should there, too, find the
+generally pervading character of Benevolence to prevail? Not
+only is this the manner in which we reason respecting the Design
+of the Creator from examining his works; it is the manner in
+which we treat the conduct of our fellow-creatures. A man of the
+most extensive benevolence and strictest integrity in his
+general deportment has done something equivocal; nay, something
+apparently harsh and cruel; we are slow to condemn him; we give
+him credit for acting with a good motive and for a righteous
+purpose; we rest satisfied that "if we only knew everything he
+would come out blameless." This arises from a just and a sound
+view of human character, and its general consistency with
+itself. The same reasoning may surely be applied with all
+humility and reverence, to the works and the intentions of the
+great Being who has implanted in our minds the principles which
+lead to that just and sound view of the deeds and motives of
+men.
+
+But let the argument be rested upon our course of reasoning
+respecting divine contrivance. The existence of Evil is in no
+case more apparent than the existence of Disorder seems to be in
+many things. To go no further than the last example which has
+been given--the mathematician could perceive the derangement in
+the planetary orbits, could demonstrate that it must ensue from
+the mutual action of the heavenly bodies on each other, could
+calculate its progress with the utmost exactness, could tell
+with all nicety how much it would alter the forms of the
+orbits in a given time, could foresee the time when the whole
+system must be irretrievably destroyed by its operation as a
+mathematical certainty. Nothing, that we call evil can be much
+more certainly perceived than this derangement, of itself an
+evil, certainly a great imperfection, if the system was observed
+by the mind of man as we regard human works. Yet we now find,
+from well considering some things which had escaped attention,
+that the system is absolutely free from derangement; that all
+the disturbances counterbalance each other; and that the orbits
+never can either be flattened or bulged out beyond a definite or
+very inconsiderable quantity. Can any one doubt that there is
+also a reason for even the small and limited, this regular and
+temporary derangement? Why it exists at all, or in any the least
+degree, we as yet know not. But who will presume to doubt that
+it has a reason which would at once satisfy our minds were it
+known to us? Nay, who will affirm that the discovery of it may
+not yet be in reserve for some later and happier age? Then are
+we not entitled to apply the same reasoning to what at present
+appears Evil in a system of which, after all we know of it, so
+much still remains concealed from our view?
+
+The mere act of creation in a Being of wisdom so admirable and
+power so vast, seems to make it extremely probable that perfect
+goodness accompanies the exertion of his perfect skill. There is
+something so repugnant to all our feelings, but also to all the
+conceptions of our reason, in the supposition of such a Being
+desiring the misery, for its own sake, of the Beings whom he
+voluntarily called into existence and endowed with a sentient
+nature, that the mind naturally and irresistibly recoils from
+such a thought. But this is not all. If the nature of that great
+Being were evil, his power being unbounded, there would be some
+proportion between the amounts of ills and the monuments of that
+power. Yet we are struck dumb with the immensity of His works to
+which no imperfection can be ascribed, and in which no evil can
+be traced, while the amount of mischief that we see might sink
+into a most insignificant space; and is such as a being of
+inconsiderable power and very limited skill could easily have
+accomplished. This is not the same consideration with the
+balance of good against evil; and inquirers do not seem to have
+sufficiently attended to it. The argument, however, deserves
+much attention, for it is purely and strictly inductive. The
+divine nature is shown to be clothed with prodigious power and
+incomparable wisdom and skill,--power and skill so vast and so
+exceeding our comprehension that we ordinarily term them
+infinite, and are only inclined to conceive the possibility
+of limiting, by the course of the argument upon evil, one
+alternative of which is assumed to raise an exception. But
+admitting on account of the question under discussion, that we
+have only a right to say that power and skill are prodigiously
+great, though possibly not boundless, they are plainly shown in
+the phenomena of the universe to be the attributes of a Being, who,
+if evil-disposed, could have made the monuments of Ill upon a
+scale resembling those of Power and Skill; so that if those
+things which seem to us evil be really the result of a mischievous
+design in such a Being, we cannot comprehend why they are upon
+so entirely different a scale. This is a strong presumption from
+the facts that we are wrong in imputing those appearances to such
+a disposition. If so, what seems evil must needs be capable of
+some other explanation consistent with divine goodness--that is
+to say, would not prove to be evil at all if we knew the whole
+of those facts.
+
+But it is necessary to proceed a step further, especially with a
+view to the fundamental position now contended for, the
+extending to the question of Benevolence the same principles
+which we apply to that of Intelligence. The evil which exists,
+or that which we suppose to be evil, not only is of a kind and a
+magnitude requiring inconceivably less power and less skill than
+the admitted good of the creation--it also bears a very small
+proportion in amount; quite as small a proportion as the
+cases of unknown or undiscoverable design bear to those of
+acknowledged and proved contrivance. Generally speaking, the
+preservation and the happiness of sensitive creatures appears
+to be the great object of creative exertion and conservative
+providence. The expanding of our faculties, both bodily and
+mentally, is accompanied with pleasure; the exercise of those
+powers is almost always attended with gratification; all labor
+so acts as to make rest peculiarly delicious; much of labor is
+enjoyment; the gratification of those appetites by which both
+the individual is preserved and the race is continued, is highly
+pleasurable to all animals; and it must be observed that instead
+of being attracted by grateful sensations to do anything
+requisite for our good or even our existence, we might have been
+just as certainly urged by the feeling of pain, or the dread of
+it, which is a kind of suffering in itself. Nature, then,
+resembles the law-giver who, to make his subjects obey, should
+prefer holding out rewards for compliance with his commands
+rather than denounce punishments for disobedience. But nature is
+yet more kind; she is gratuitously kind; she not only prefers
+inducement to threat or compulsion, but she adds more gratification
+than was necessary to make us obey her calls. How well might all
+creation have existed and been continued, though the air had not
+been balmy in spring, or the shade and the spring refreshing in
+summer; had the earth not been enamelled with flowers; and the
+air scented with perfumes! How needless for the propagation of
+plants was it that the seed should be enveloped in fruits the
+most savory to our palate, and if those fruits serve some other
+purpose, how foreign to that purpose was the formation of our
+nerves so framed as to be soothed or excited by their flavor!
+We here perceive design, because we trace adaptation. But we
+at the same time perceive benevolent design, because we perceive
+gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment bestowed. Thus, too, see
+the care with which animals of all kinds are tended from their
+birth. The mother's instinct is not more certainly the means of
+securing and providing for her young, than her gratification in
+the act of maternal care is great and is also needless for making
+her perform that duty. The grove is not made vocal during pairing
+and incubation, in order to secure the laying or the hatching of
+eggs; for if it were as still as the grave, or were filled with
+the most discordant croaking, the process would be as well
+performed. So, too, mark the care with which injuries are
+remedied by what has been correctly called the _vis medicatrix_.
+Is a muscle injured?--Suppuration takes place, the process of
+granulation succeeds, and new flesh is formed to supply the gap,
+or if that is less wide, a more simple healing process knits
+together the severed parts. Is a bone injured?--A process
+commences by which an extraordinary secretion of bony matter
+takes place, and the void is supplied. Nay, the irreparable
+injury of a joint gives rise to the formation of a new hinge,
+by which the same functions may be not inconveniently, though
+less perfectly, performed. Thus, too, recovery of vigor after
+sickness is provided for by increased appetite; but there is here
+superadded, generally, a feeling of comfort and lightness, an
+enjoyment of existence so delightful, that it is a common remark
+how nearly this compensates the sufferings of the illness. In
+the economy of the mind it is the same thing. All our exertions
+are stimulated by curiosity, and the gratification is extreme of
+satisfying it. But it might have been otherwise ordered, and
+some painful feeling might have been made the only stimulant to
+the acquisition of knowledge. So, the charm of novelty is
+proverbial; but it might have been the unceasing cause of the
+most painful alarms. Habit renders every thing easy; but the
+repetition might have only increased the annoyance. The loss of
+one organ makes the others more acute. But the partial injury
+might have caused, as it were, a general paralysis. 'Tis thus
+that Paley is well justified in exclaiming, "It is a happy world
+after all!" The pains and the sufferings, bodily and mental, to
+which we are exposed, if they do not sink into nothing, at least
+retreat within comparatively narrow bounds; the ills are hardly
+seen when we survey the great and splendid picture of worldly
+enjoyment or ease.
+
+But the existence of considerable misery is undeniable: and the
+question is, of course, confined to that. Its exaggeration, in
+the ordinary estimate both of the vulgar and of skeptical
+reasoners, is equally certain. Paley, Bishop Sumner, as well as
+Derham, King, Ray and others of the older writers, have made
+many judicious and generally correct observations upon its
+amount, and they, as well as some of the able and learned
+authors of the _Bridgwater Treatises_, have done much in
+establishing deductions necessary to be made, in order that we
+may arrive at the true amount. That many things, apparently
+unmixed evils, when examined more narrowly, prove to be
+partially beneficial, is the fair result of their well-meant
+labors; and this, although anything rather than a proof that
+there is no evil at all, yet is valuable as still further
+proving the analogy between this branch of the argument and that
+upon design; and in giving hopes that all may possibly be found
+hereafter to be good, as everything will assuredly be found to
+be contrived with an intelligent and useful purpose. It may be
+right to add a remark or two upon some evils, and those of the
+greatest magnitude in the common estimate of human happiness,
+with a view of further illustrating this part of the subject.
+
+Mere imperfection must altogether be deducted from the account.
+It never can be contended that any evil nature can be ascribed
+to the first cause, merely for not having endowed sentient
+creatures with greater power or wisdom, for not having increased
+and multiplied the sources of enjoyment, or for not having made
+those pleasures which we have more exquisitely grateful. No one
+can be so foolish as to argue that the Deity is either limited
+in power, or deficient in goodness, because he has chosen to
+create some beings of a less perfect order than others. The mere
+negation in the creating of some, indeed of many, nay, of any
+conceivable number of desirable attributes, is therefore no
+proper evidence of evil design or of limited power in the
+Creator--it is no proof of the existence of evil properly so
+called. But does not this also erase death from the catalogue of
+ills? It might well please the Deity to create a mortal being
+which, consisting of soul and body, was only to live upon this
+earth for a limited number of years. If, when that time has
+expired, this being is removed to another and a superior state
+of existence, no evil whatever accrues to it from the change;
+and all views of the government of this world lead to the
+important and consolitary conclusion, that such is the design of
+the Creator; that he cannot have bestowed on us minds capable of
+such expansion and culture only to be extinguished when they
+have reached their highest pitch of improvement; or if this be
+considered as begging the question by assuming benevolent
+design, we cannot easily conceive that while the mind's force is
+so little affected by the body's decay, the destruction or
+dissolution of the latter should be the extinction of the
+former. But that death operates as an evil of the very highest
+kind in two ways is obvious; the dread of it often embitters
+life, and the death of friends brings to the mind by far its
+most painful infliction; certainly the greatest suffering it can
+undergo without any criminal consciousness of its own.
+
+For this evil, then--this grievous and admitted evil--how shall
+we account? But first let us consider whether it be not
+unavoidable; not merely under the present dispensation, and in
+the existing state of things; for that is wholly irrelevant to
+the question which is raised upon the fitness of this very state
+of things; but whether it be not a necessary evil. That man
+might have been created immortal is not denied; but if it were
+the will of the Deity to form a limited being and to place him
+upon the earth for only a certain period of time, his death was
+the necessary consequence of this determination. Then as to the
+pain which one person's removal inflicts upon surviving parties,
+this seems the equally necessary consequence of their having
+affections. For if any being feels love towards another, this
+implies his desire that the intercourse with that other should
+continue; or what is the same thing, the repugnance and aversion
+to its ceasing; that is, he must suffer affliction for that
+removal of the beloved object. To create sentient beings
+devoid of all feelings of affection was no doubt possible to
+Omnipotence; but to endow those beings with such feelings
+as would give the constant gratification derived from the
+benevolent affections, and yet to make them wholly indifferent
+to the loss of the objects of those affections, was not possible
+even for Omnipotence; because it was a contradiction in terms,
+equivalent to making a thing both exist and not exist at one and
+the same time. Would there have been any considerable happiness
+in a life stripped of these kindly affections? We cannot affirm
+that there would not, because we are ignorant what other
+enjoyments might have been substituted for the indulgence of
+them. But neither can we affirm that any such substitution could
+have been found; and it lies upon those who deny the necessary
+connection between the human mind, or any sentient being's mind,
+and grief for the loss of friends, to show that there are
+other enjoyments which could furnish an equivalent to the
+gratification derived from the benevolent feelings. The question
+then reduces itself to this: Wherefore did a being, who could
+have made sentient beings immortal, choose to make them mortal?
+or, Wherefore has he placed man upon the earth for a time only?
+or, Wherefore has he set bounds to the powers and capacities
+which he has been pleased to bestow upon his creatures? And this
+is a question which we certainly never shall be able to solve;
+but a question extremely different from the one more usually
+put--How happens it that a good being has made a world full of
+misery and death?
+
+In the necessary ignorance wherein we are of the whole designs
+of the Deity, we cannot wonder if some things, nay, if many
+things, are to our faculties inscrutable. But we assuredly have
+no right to say that those difficulties which try and vex us are
+incapable of a solution, any more than we have to say, that
+those cases in which as yet we can see no trace of design, are
+not equally the result of intelligence, and equally conducive to
+a fixed and useful purpose with those in which we have been able
+to perceive the whole, or nearly the whole scheme. Great as have
+been our achievements in physical astronomy, we are as yet
+wholly unable to understand why a power pervades the system
+acting inversely as the squares of the distance from the point
+to which it attracts, rather than a power acting according to
+any other law; and why it has been the pleasure of the almighty
+Architect of that universe, that the orbits of the planets
+should be nearly circular instead of approaching to, or being
+exactly the same with many other trajectories of a nearly
+similar form, though of other properties; nay, instead of being
+curves of a wholly different class and shape. Yet we never doubt
+that there was a reason for this choice; nay, we fancy it
+possible that even on earth we may hereafter understand it more
+clearly than we now do: and never question that in another state
+of being we may be permitted to enjoy the contemplation of it.
+Why should we doubt that, at least in that higher state, we may
+also be enabled to perceive such an arrangement as shall make
+evil wholly disappear from our present system, by showing that
+it was necessary and inevitable, even in the works of the Deity;
+or, which is the same thing, that its existence conduces to such
+a degree of perfection and happiness upon, the whole, as could
+not, even by Omnipotence, be attained without it; or, which is
+the same thing, that the whole creation as it exists, taking
+both worlds together, is perfect, and incapable of being in any
+particular changed without being made worse and less perfect?
+Taking both worlds together--For certainly were our views
+limited to the present sublunary state, we may well affirm
+that no solution whatever could even be imagined of the
+difficulty--if we are never again to live; if those we here
+loved are forever lost to us; if our faculties can receive no
+further expansion; if our mental powers are only trained and
+improved to be extinguished at their acme--then indeed are we
+reduced to the melancholy and gloomy dilemma of the Epicureans;
+and evil is confessed to checker, nay, almost to cloud over our
+whole lot, without the possibility of comprehending why, or of
+reconciling its existence with the supposition of a providence
+at once powerful and good. But this inference is also an
+additional argument for a future state, when we couple it with
+these other conclusions respecting the economy of the world to
+which we are led by wholly different routes, when we investigate
+the phenomena around us and within us.
+
+Suppose, for example, it should be found that there are certain
+purposes which can in no way whatever--no conceivable way--be
+answered except by placing man in a state of trial or probation;
+suppose the essential nature of mind shall be found to be such
+that it could not in any way whatever exist so as to be capable
+of the greatest purity and improvement--in other words, the
+highest perfection--without having undergone a probation; or
+suppose it should be found impossible to communicate certain
+enjoyments to rational and sentient beings without having
+previously subjected them to certain trials and certain
+sufferings--as, for instance, the pleasures derived from
+a consciousness of perfect security, the certainty that we
+can suffer and perish no more--this surely is a possible
+supposition. Now, to continue the last example--Whatever
+pleasure there is in the contrast between ease and previous
+vexation or pain, whatever enjoyment we derive from the feeling
+of absolute security after the vexation and uncertainty of a
+precarious state, implies a previous suffering--a previous state
+of precarious enjoyment; and not only implies it but necessarily
+implies it, so that the power of Omnipotence itself could not
+convey to us the enjoyment without having given us the previous
+suffering. Then is it not possible that the object of an all
+powerful and perfectly benevolent being should be to create like
+beings, to whom as entire happiness, as complete and perfect
+enjoyment, should be given as any created beings--that is, any
+being, except the Creator himself--can by possibility enjoy?
+This is certainly not only a very possible supposition, but it
+appears to be quite consistent with, if it be not a necessary
+consequence of, his being perfectly good as well as powerful and
+wise. Now we have shown, therefore, that such being supposed
+the design of Providence, even Omnipotence itself could not
+accomplish this design, as far as one great and important class
+of enjoyments is concerned, without the previous existence of
+some pain, some misery. Whatever gratification arises from
+relief--from contrast--from security succeeding anxiety--
+from restoration of lost affections--from renewing severed
+connections--and many others of a like kind, could not by any
+possibility be enjoyed unless the correlative suffering had
+first been undergone. Nor will the argument be at all impeached
+by observing, that one Being may be made to feel the pleasure of
+ease and security by seeing others subjected to suffering and
+distress; for that assumes the infliction of misery on those
+others; it is "_alterius_ spectare laborem" that we are
+supposing to be sweet; and this is still partial evil.
+
+As the whole argument respecting evil must, from the nature of
+the question, resolve itself into either a proof of some
+absolute or mathematical necessity not to be removed by infinite
+power, or the showing that some such proof may be possible
+although we have not yet discovered it, an illustration may
+naturally be expected to be attainable from mathematical
+considerations. Thus, we have already adverted to the law of
+periodical irregularities in the solar system. Any one before it
+was discovered seemed entitled to expatiate upon the operation
+of the disturbing forces arising from mutual attraction, and to
+charge the system arranged upon the principle of universal
+gravitation with want of skill, nay, with leading to inevitable
+mischief--mischief or evil of so prodigious an extent as to
+exceed incalculably all the instances of evil and of suffering
+which we see around us in this single planet. Nevertheless, what
+then appeared so clearly to be a defect and an evil, is now well
+known to be the very absolute perfection of the whole heavenly
+architecture.
+
+Again, we may derive a similar illustration from a much more
+limited instance, but one immediately connected with strict
+mathematical reasoning, and founded altogether in the nature of
+necessary truth. The problem has been solved by mathematicians,
+Sir Isaac Newton having first investigated it, of finding the
+form of a symmetrical solid, or solid of revolution, which in
+moving through a fluid shall experience the least possible
+resistance. The figure bears a striking resemblance to that of a
+fish. Now suppose a fish were formed exactly in this shape, and
+that some animal endowed with reason were placed upon a portion
+of its surface, and able to trace its form for only a limited
+extent, say at the narrow part, where the broad portion or end
+of the moving body were opposed, or seemed as if it were
+opposed, to the surrounding fluid when the fish moved--the
+reasoner would at once conclude that the contrivance of the
+fish's form was very inconvenient, and that nothing could be
+much worse adapted for expeditious or easy movement through the
+waters.
+
+Yet it is certain that upon being afterwards permitted to view
+THE WHOLE body of the fish, what had seemed a defect and an
+evil, not only would appear plainly to be none at all, but it
+would appear manifest that this seeming evil or defect was a
+part of the most perfect and excellent structure which it was
+possible even for Omnipotence and Omniscience to have adopted,
+and that no other conceivable arrangement could by possibility
+have produced so much advantage, or tended so much to fulfill
+the design in view. Previous to being enlightened by such an
+enlarged view of the whole facts, it would thus be a rash and
+unphilosophical thing in the reasoner whose existence we are
+supposing to pronounce an unfavorable opinion. Still more unwise
+would it be if numerous other observations had evinced traces of
+skill and goodness in the fish's structure. The true and the
+safe conclusion would be to suspend an opinion which could only
+be unsatisfactorily formed upon imperfect data; and to rest in
+the humble hope and belief that one day all would appear for the
+best.
+
+THE END.
+
+----------------------------
+[1] The "light of revelation," as well as the "light of the
+Christian religion," has not dispelled the darkness of ignorance.
+The torch of reason is a surer guide.--_Pub._
+
+[2] The human race has from time immemorial been afflicted
+with so-called revelations, all claiming inspiration, all
+conflicting, and all being equally "mysterious and obscure." The
+wars arising among these sectarians have retarded civilization,
+and deluged the earth in blood. The revelations of science,
+founded upon reason and demonstration, have proved the only safe
+and beneficent guide.--_Pub._
+
+[3] While it is true that the argument of Design, here given,
+places the subject one step in advance, it is still unsatisfactory,
+because it fails to explain to us who designed the designer, and
+the mystery of creation still remains unsolved.
+
+"What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?" is the
+pertinent question which Bishop Watson, in his _Apology for the
+Bible_, asked, and vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas
+Paine.--_Pub._
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FALLEN STAR ***
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+<TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Fallen Star, by E. L. Bulwer, and A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil, by Lord Brougham</TITLE>
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+<H1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Fallen Star, by E. L. Bulwer, and A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil, by Lord Brougham</H1>
+
+<pre>
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+Title: The Fallen Star
+
+Author: E. L. Bulwer
+
+Title: A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
+
+Author: Lord Brougham
+
+Release Date: August, 2005  [EBook #8654]
+[This file was first posted on July 30, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: utf-8
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FALLEN STAR ***
+
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+E-text prepared by David Deley
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+</PRE>
+
+<CENTER><H3>THE</H3></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H1>FALLEN STAR</H1></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H3>or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION</H3></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H2>by E.L. Bulwer</H2></CENTER>
+<br>
+
+<CENTER><H3>AND</H3></CENTER>
+<br>
+<CENTER><H1>A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL</H1></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H2>by Lord Brougham</H2></CENTER>
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<CENTER>PUBLISHER&#8217;S PREFACE</CENTER>
+<P>
+RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his <i>American
+Dictionary of the English Language</i>, is derived
+from &#8220;Religo, to bind anew;&#8221; and, in this <i>History
+of a False Religion</i>, our author has shown how
+easily its votaries were insnared, deceived, and
+mentally bound in a labyrinth of falsehood and
+error, by a designing knave, who established a new
+religion and a new order of priesthood by imposing
+on their ignorance and credulity.
+
+<P>
+
+  The history of the origin of one supernatural
+religion will, with slight alterations, serve to
+describe them all. Their claim to credence rests on
+the exhibition of so-called miracles&#8212;that is, on
+a violation of the laws of nature,&#8212;for, if
+religions were founded on the demonstrated truths of
+science, there would be no mystery, no
+supernaturalism, no miracles, no skepticism, no
+false religion. We would have only verified truths
+and demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief.
+But this simple foundation does not satisfy the
+unreasoning multitude. They demand signs, portents,
+mysteries, wonders and miracles for their faith and
+the supply of prophets, knaves and impostors has
+always been found ample to satisfy this abnormal
+demand of credulity.
+
+<P>
+
+  Designing men, even at the present day, find
+little difficulty in establishing new systems of
+faith and belief. Joseph Smith, who invented the
+Mormon religion, had more followers and influence in
+this country at his death, than the Carpenter&#8217;s Son
+obtained centuries ago from the unlettered
+inhabitants of Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his
+success among educated people in this so-called
+enlightened age, while Jesus taught in an age of
+semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
+asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles
+and even fishes understood human language, were
+often gifted with human speech, and sometimes seemed
+to possess even more than ordinary human
+intelligence.
+
+<P>
+
+  They taught that the serpent, using the language
+of sophistry, beguiled Eve in Eden, who in turn
+corrupted Adam, her first and only husband. At the
+baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan, the
+voice of a dove resounded in the heavens, saying,
+quite audibly and distinctly, &#8220;Thou art my beloved
+Son; in thee I am well pleased.&#8221; Balaam disputed
+with his patient beast of burden, on their celebrated
+journey in the land of Moab, and the ass proved
+wiser in the argument that ensued than the inspired
+prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes
+left his native element and taught philosophy to the
+Chaldeans on dry land. One reputable woman, of
+Jewish lineage,&#8212;the mother of an interesting
+family&#8212;was changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom
+while another female of great notoriety known to
+fame as the celebrated &#8220;Witch of Endor,&#8221; raised
+Samuel from his grave in Ramah. Saint Peter found a
+shilling in the mouth of a fish which he caught in
+the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky incident enabled
+the impecunious apostle to pay the &#8220;tribute money&#8221;
+in Capernaum. Another famous Israelite,&#8212;so it is
+said,&#8212;broke the record of balloon ascensions in
+Judea, and ascended into heaven in a chariot of
+fire.
+
+<P>
+
+  In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies
+occur, and miracles become common, The untaught
+masses are easily deceived, and their unreasoning
+credulity enables them to proudly boast of their
+unquestioning faith. When their feelings are excited
+and their passions aroused by professional
+evangelists, they even profess to believe that which
+they cannot comprehend; and, in the satirical
+language of Bulwer, they endeavor to &#8220;<i>assist
+their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+superstition</i>.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing
+religions which afflict mankind, it is self-evident
+that but one religion may justly claim the
+inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident to
+all reasoning minds that that religion is the
+religion of kindness and humanity,&#8212;the religion
+of noble thoughts and generous deeds,&#8212;which
+removes the enmities of race and creed, and &#8220;makes
+the whole world kin!&#8221; And which, in its observance
+is blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and
+love.
+
+<P>
+
+  This religion needs no creed, no profession of
+faith, no incense, no prayer, no penance, no
+sacrifice. Its whole duty consists in comforting the
+afflicted, assisting the unfortunate, protecting the
+helpless, and in honestly fulfilling our duties to
+our fellow mortals. In the language of Confucius,
+the ancient Chinese Sage, it is simply &#8220;to behave to
+others as I would require others to behave to me.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Do unto others as you would they should do
+unto you,&#8221; says Jesus; and in the Epistle of James,
+we are told that &#8220;Pure Religion and undefiled
+before God and the Father is this, To visit the
+fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to
+keep himself unspotted from the world.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The same benign and generous conduct is commended
+in even grander and nobler language in the lectures
+to the French Masonic Lodges: &#8220;Love one another,
+teach one another, help one another. That is all our
+doctrine, all our science, all our law.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+It is believed that the learned dissertation of
+Lord Brougham on the <i>Origin of Evil</i>, which is
+annexed to this work, will need no commendation
+to ensure its careful perusal.
+<BR><BR>
+                         PETER ECKLER.
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+<HR width=70 align=center>
+
+<CENTER><H1>THE FALLEN STAR</H1></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H2>or, HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.</H2></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H2>by E.L. Bulwer</H2></CENTER>
+<br>
+<CENTER><H2>AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.</H2></CENTER>
+<HR width=70 align=center>
+And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and
+watched with sleepless eyes upon the world.
+It was the night ushering in the new year, a
+night on which every star receives from the archangel
+that then visits the universal galaxy, its
+peculiar charge.
+
+<P>The destinies of men and empires are then portioned
+forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously
+to ourselves, our fates become minioned to the
+stars.
+
+<P>A hushed and solemn night is that in which
+the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost of
+the dead year, and the young and radiant stranger
+rushes forth from the clouded chasms of eternity.
+On that night, it is said that there are given to
+the spirits that we see not, a privilege and a power;
+the dead are troubled in their forgotten graves, and
+men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are
+contending for their doom.
+
+<P>It was night in heaven; all was unutterably
+silent, the music of the spheres had paused, and
+not a sound came from the angels of the stars; and
+they who sat upon those shining thrones were
+three thousand and ten, each resembling each.
+
+<P>Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with
+celestial beauty, and on their faces was written the
+dread of calm, that fearful stillness which feels not,
+sympathizes not with the dooms over which it
+broods.
+
+<P>War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires,
+and their fall, they ordain, they, compass, unexultant
+and uncompassionate. The fell and thrilling
+crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps&#8212;the
+parricide with his stealthy step, and horrent
+brow, and lifted knife; the unwifed mother that
+glides out and looks behind, and behind, and
+shudders, and casts her babe upon the river, and
+hears the wail, and pities not&#8212;the splash, and
+does not tremble!
+
+<P>These the starred kings behold&#8212;to these they
+lead the unconscious step; but the guilt blanches
+not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither their
+unwrinkled youth.
+
+<P>Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins
+of each was a graven belt, graven with many and
+mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a burning
+ball, and the right arm dropped over the knee
+as they bent down from their thrones; they moved
+<!-- Page 5 -->
+not a limb or feature, save the finger of the right
+hand, which ever and anon moved slowly, pointing,
+and regulated the fates of men as the hand of the
+dial speaks the career of time.
+
+<P>One only of the three thousand and ten wore not
+the same aspect as his crowned brethren; a star,
+smaller than the rest, and less luminous. The countenance
+of this star was not impressed with the
+awful calmness of the others; but there were sullenness
+and discontent upon his mighty brow.
+
+<P>And this star said to himself&#8212;&#8220;Behold, I am
+created less glorious than my fellows, and the archangel
+apportions not to me the same lordly destinies.
+Not for me are the dooms of kings and
+bards, the rulers of empires, or, yet nobler, the
+swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish are the
+spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained
+to lead through a dull life to a fameless grave. And
+wherefore?&#8212;Is it mine own fault, or is it the fault
+which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less
+glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel
+comes, I will bow not my crowned head to
+his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral Lucifer
+before me: <i>he</i> rebelled because of his glory, <i>I</i> because
+of my obscurity; <i>he</i> from the ambition of
+pride, and <i>I</i> from its discontent.&#8221;
+
+<P>And while the star was thus communing with
+himself, the upward heavens were parted as by a
+long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+<!-- Page 6 -->
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of
+the stars; his vast limbs floated in the liquid lustre,
+and his outspread wings, each plume the glory of
+a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds
+veiled his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and
+while above all was bathed in the serenity of his
+splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth:
+
+<P>&#8220;He bowed the heavens and came down, and
+darkness was under his feet.&#8221;
+
+<P>And the stillness on the faces of the stars became
+yet more still, and the awfulness was humbled into
+awe. Right above their thrones paused the course
+of the archangel; and his wings stretched from
+east to west, overshadowing with the shadow of
+light the immensity of space. Then forth in the
+shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his
+voice: and, fulfilling the heraldry of god, to each
+star he appointed the duty and the charge, and
+each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the
+majesty of the word. But at last, when each of
+the brighter stars had, in succession, received the
+mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of
+the earth, the purple and diadems of kings&#8212;the
+archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart
+from his fellows
+
+<P>&#8220;Behold,&#8221; said the archangel, &#8220;the rude tribes
+of the north, the fishermen of the river that flows
+<!-- Page 7 -->
+beneath, and the hunters of the forests, that darken
+the mountain-tops with verdure! these be thy
+charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem
+thou, O star of the sullen beams, that thy duties
+are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren;
+for the peasant is not less to thy master and mine
+than the monarch; nor doth the doom of empires
+rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd.
+The passions and the heart are the dominion of the
+stars&#8212;a mighty realm; nor less mighty beneath
+the hide that garbs the shepherd, than the jewelled
+robes of eastern kings.&#8221;
+
+<P>Then the star lifted his pale front from his
+breast, and answered the archangel:
+
+<P>&#8220;Lo!&#8221; he said, &#8220;ages have past, and each year
+thou hast appointed me to the same ignoble charge.
+Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men
+be my charge, give unto me the charge not of
+many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into
+him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and
+ascends its steeps. If the humble are given to me,
+let there be amongst them one whom I may lead
+on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold,
+O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for
+uncounted years upon my solitary throne, brooding
+over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered
+wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking
+upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the
+<!-- Page 8 -->
+multitude are swayed, and tracked the steps that
+lead weakness into power; and fain would I be
+the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
+rule.&#8221;
+
+<P>As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the
+change on the brow of the archangel.
+
+<P>&#8220;Proud and melancholy star,&#8221; said the herald,
+&#8220;thy wish would war with the courses of the invisible
+destiny, that, throned far above, sways and
+harmonizes all; the source from which the lesser
+rivers of fate are eternally gushing through the
+heart of the universe of things. Thinkest thou
+that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to
+become a king?&#8221;
+
+<P>And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the
+face of the archangel, and answered:
+
+<P>&#8220;Yea!&#8212;grant me but one trial!&#8221;
+
+<P>Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest
+centre of the heaven was rent as by a thunderbolt;
+and the divine herald covered his face with his
+hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with
+the consciousness of unquestionable power, spoke
+forth to the repining star:
+
+<P>&#8220;The time has arrived when thou mayest have
+thy wish. Below thee, upon yon solitary plain,
+sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
+thy influence, may be moulded to thy will.&#8221;
+
+<P>The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence
+was over the seas of space, and the archangel,
+<!-- Page 9 -->
+once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into the
+farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding
+to the stars of far-distant worlds.
+
+<P>But the soul of the discontented star exulted
+within itself; and it said, &#8220;I will call forth a king
+from the valley of the herdsmen, that shall trample
+on the kings subject to my fellows, and render the
+charge of the contemned star more glorious than
+the minions of its favored brethren; thus shall I
+revenge neglect&#8212;thus shall I prove my claim
+hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!&#8221;
+<BR><BR><BR>
+<P>At that time, though the world had rolled on for
+ages, and the pilgrimage of man had passed
+through various states of existence, which our dim
+traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the
+condition of our race in the northern hemisphere
+was then what <i>we</i>, in our imperfect lore, have conceived
+to be among the earliest.
+
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<HR width=70 align=center>
+<CENTER><H1>FORMING A NEW RELIGION.</H1></CENTER>
+<HR width=70 align=center>
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 1 -->
+<!-- (These part divisions in comments are not part of the original book) -->
+<P>
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry
+of arts forgotten, a lonely man sat at midnight,
+gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just passed
+from the earth&#8212;the clouds had rolled away, and
+the high stars looked down upon the rapid waters of
+the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the waves
+and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile: the white sheep
+lay scattered on the plain, and slumber with them.
+He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes of a
+neighboring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he
+coummuned with himself:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The king sits upon his throne, and is honored
+by a warrior race, and the warrior exults in the
+trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman is
+bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is sung
+at night round the pine-fires, by the lips of the
+bard; and the bard himself hath honor in the hail.
+But I, who belong not to the race of kings, and
+whose limbs can bound not to the rapture of war,
+nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the haunts of
+the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp,
+and whose voice is harsh in the song; <i>I</i> have
+neither honor nor command, and men bow not the
+head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the
+consciousness of a great power that should rule my
+species&#8212;not obey. My eye pierces the secret
+hearts of men&#8212;I see their thoughts ere their lips
+proclaim them; and I scorn, while I see, the
+weakness and the vices which I never shared. I laugh
+at the madness of the warrior&#8212;I mock within my
+soul at the tyranny of kings. Surely there is
+something in man&#8217;s nature more fitted to command&#8212;more
+worthy of renoun, than the sinews of the arm,
+or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+birth!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within
+himself, still looking at the heavens, the solitary
+man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its place,
+and speeding through the silent air, till it as
+suddenly paused right over the midnight river, and
+facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
+
+<P>
+
+  As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts
+grew slowly over him. He drank, as it were, from
+its solemn aspect, the spirit of a great design. A
+dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth, snatched
+the star from his sight; but left to his awakened
+mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that had
+come to him as he gazed.
+
+<P>
+
+   When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved
+ him of his charge over the herd, and he went away,
+ but not to his father&#8217;s home. Musingly he plunged
+ into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter
+ forest; and shaped out of his wild thoughts, more
+ palpably and clearly, the outline of his daring hope.
+
+<P>
+
+   While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in
+the forest, and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the
+Alrich might pass that way, he ascended one of
+the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure
+the winter had not denied the shelter he sought,
+and, concealed by its branches, he looked anxiously
+forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
+
+<P>
+
+   And IT came&#8212;it came with a tramp and a crash,
+and a crushing tread upon the crunched boughs
+and matted leaves that strewed the soil&#8212;it came&#8212;it
+came, the monster that the world now holds
+no more&#8212;the mighty mammoth of the North!
+
+<P>
+
+  Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and
+its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy
+shade: its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders
+with which it snapped asunder the young oaks of
+the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved
+downward to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened
+white and ghastly, curdling the blood of one
+destined hereafter to be the dreaded ruler of the
+men of that distant age.
+
+<P>
+
+   The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the
+form of the herdsman, even amidst the thick darkness
+of the pine. It paused&#8212;it glared upon him&#8212;its
+jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering
+thunder, seemed to the son of Osslah as the knell of
+a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him for some
+moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible
+way, crashing the boughs as it marched along, till
+the last sound of its heavy tread died away upon
+his ear.
+
+<P>
+
+  Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned
+the courage to descend the tree, he saw the shining
+of arms through the bare branches of the wood,
+and presently a small hand of the hostile Alrich
+came into sight. He was perfectly hidden from
+them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+one say to another:
+
+<P>
+
+&#8220;The night covers all things; why attack them by day?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered
+&#8220;Right. To-night, when they sleep in their
+city, we will upon them. Lo! they will be drenched
+in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;But where, O chief,&#8221; said a third of the band,
+shall our men hide during the day? for there are
+many hunters among the youth of the Oestrich
+tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares,
+and arm their race against our coming.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;I have prepared for that,&#8221; answered the chief.
+&#8220;Is not the dark cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will
+it not shelter us from the eyes of the victims?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the men laughed, and shouting, they
+went their way adown the forest.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 2 -->
+<P>
+  When they were gone Morven cautiously descended,
+and, striking into a broad path, hastened to a vale
+that lay between the forest and the river in which
+was the city where the chief of his country dwelt.
+
+<P>
+
+  As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that
+day, who thronged the streets (if streets they
+might be called), their half garments parting from
+their huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and
+the hunting spears in their hands, they laughed
+and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple!
+what dost thou among men?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  For the son of Osslah was small in stature and
+of slender strength, and his step had halted from
+his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly.
+
+<P>
+
+  At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail
+pile, in which some old men dwelt by themselves,
+and counseled the king when times of danger, or
+when the failure of the season, the famine, or the
+drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the
+savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+
+<P>
+
+  They gave the counsels of experience, and when
+experience failed, they drew, in their believing
+ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights
+of the wandering birds. Filled (by the voices of
+the elements, and the variety of mysteries which
+ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes,
+and that eternal reasoning of all experience, which
+assigns causes to effects) with the notion of superior
+powers, <i>they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition</i>. But as yet
+they knew no craft and practiced no <i>voluntary</i>
+delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries,
+which had created their faith, to seek to belie
+them. They counselled as they believed, and the bold
+dream had never dared to cross men thus worn and
+grey with age, of governing their warriors and their
+kings by the wisdom of deceit.
+
+<P>
+
+  The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a
+fearless step, and approached the place at the
+upper end of the hall, where the old men sat in
+conclave.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;How, base-torn and craven limbed!&#8221; cried the
+eldest, who had been a noted warrior in his day;
+&#8220;darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the secret
+councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not,
+scatterling! that the penalty is death?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Slay me, if thou wilt,&#8221; answered Morven &#8220;but
+hear!
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our
+ancient kings, tending, as my father bade me, the
+sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of
+Alrich should descend unseen from the mountains
+upon the herd, a storm came darkly on; and when
+the storm, had ceased and I looked above on the
+sky, I saw a star descend from its height towards
+me, and a voice from the star said, &#8216;Son of Osslah,
+leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise
+men, and say unto them, that they take thee as
+one of their number, or that sudden will be the
+destruction of them, and theirs.&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;But I had courage to answer the voice, and I
+said, &#8216;Mock not the poor son of the herdsman.
+Behold they will kill me if I utter so rash a word,
+for I am poor and valueless in the eyes of the tribe
+of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the grey of
+hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Then the voice said, &#8216;Do my bidding, and I
+will give thee a token that thou comest from the
+powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men that
+this very night if they refuse to receive thee of
+their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over
+the star; and I communed with myself, and came,
+O dread fathers, mournfully unto you. For I
+feared that ye would smite me because of my bold
+tongue, and that ye would, sentence me to the
+death, in that I asked what may scarce be given
+even to the sons of kings.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the grim elders looked one at the other
+and marvelled much, nor knew they what answer
+they should make to the herdsman&#8217;s son.
+
+<P>
+
+  At length one of the wise men said, &#8220;Surely
+there must be truth in the son of Osslah, for he
+would not dare to falsify the great lights of heaven.
+If he had given unto men the words of the star,
+verily we might doubt the truth. But who would
+brave the vengeance of the gods of night?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the elders shook their heads approvingly;
+but one answered and said:
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;Shall we take the herdsman&#8217;s son as our equal?
+No!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The name of the man who thus answered was
+Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the elders.
+
+<P>
+
+  But Morven spoke out:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not
+to be an equal with yourselves. Enough if I tend
+the gates of your palace, and serve you as the son
+of Osslah may serve;&#8221; and he bowed his head
+humbly as he spoke.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then said the chief of the elders, for he was
+wiser than the others, &#8220;But how wilt thou deliver
+us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless the
+star hath informed thee of the service thou canst
+render to us if we take thee into our palace, as well
+as the ill that will fall on us if we refuse.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Morven answered meekly: &#8220;Surely, if thou acceptest
+thy servant, the star will teach him that which may
+requite thee; but as yet he knows only what he has
+uttered.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they
+communed with themselves and they differed
+much; but though fierce men and bold at the war
+cry of a human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy
+of a star. So they resolved to take the son of
+Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+<P>
+
+  He heard their decree and towed his head, and
+went to the gate, and sat down by it in silence.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the sun went down in the west, and the
+first stats of the twilight began to glimmer, when
+Morven started front his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an
+agony and a fear possessed him; he writhed as a
+man whom the spear of a foeman has pierced with
+a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face
+on the stony earth.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 3 -->
+<P>
+  The elders approached him; wondering, they
+lifted him up. He slowly recovered as from a
+swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Heard ye not the voice of the star?&#8221; he said.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the chief of the elders answered, &#8220;Nay, we
+heard no sound.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;To me only the word was given. Summon
+instantly, O councilors of the king! summon the
+armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let
+them take the sword and the spear, and follow thy
+servant.  For lo! the star hath announced to him
+that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beast of the forests.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command,
+and the elders were amazed.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Why, pause ye?&#8221;  he cried. &#8220;Do the gods of
+the night lie? On my head rest the peril if I
+deceive ye.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the elders communed together; and they
+went forth and summoned the men of arms, and
+all the young of the tribe; and each man took the
+sword and the spear, and Morven also. And the
+son of Osslah walked first, still looking up at
+the star; and he motioned them to be silent, and
+move with a stealthy step.
+
+<P>
+
+  So they went through the thickest of the forest,
+till they came to the mouth of a great cave,
+overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the cave of Oderlin; and he bade the leaders
+place the armed men on either side the cave, to the
+right and to the left, among the hushes.
+
+<P>
+
+  So they watched silently till the night deepened,
+when they heard a noise in the cave and the sound
+of feet, and forth came an armed man; and the
+spear of Morven pierced him, and be fell dead at
+the month of the cave. Another and another, and
+both fell! Then loud and long was heard the warcry
+of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a
+narrow bed, the river of armed men.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the Sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and
+the foe were sorely perplexed and terrified by the
+suddenness of the battle and the darkness of the
+night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+<P>
+
+  And when the morning came, the children of
+Oestrich counted the slain, and found the leader of
+Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them, and great was the joy thereof.
+
+<P>
+
+  So they went back in triumph to the city, and
+they carded the brave son of Osslah on their
+shoulders, and shouted forth, &#8220;Glory to the servant
+of the star.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 4 -->
+  Now the king of the tribe had one daughter,
+and she was stately amongst the women of the
+tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed
+upon her with the eyes of love, but he did not dare
+to speak.
+
+<P>
+
+  Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the
+foolishness of men; he loved them not, for they
+had mocked him; he honored them not, for he had
+blinded the wisest of their elders.
+
+<P>
+
+  He shunned their feasts and merriment and
+lived apart and solitary.
+
+<P>
+
+  The austerity of his life increased the mysterious
+homage which his commune with the stars had
+won him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed
+his head to the favorite of the gods.
+
+<P>
+
+  One day he was wandering by the side of the
+river, and he saw a large bird of prey rise from the
+earth, and give chase to a hawk that had not yet
+gained the full strength of its wings. From his
+youth the solitary Morven had loved to watch, in
+the great forests and by the banks of the mighty
+stream, the habits of the things which nature had
+submitted to man; and looking now on the birds,
+he said to himself, &#8220;Thus is it ever; by cunning
+or by strength each thing wishes to master its
+kind.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  While thus, moralizing, the larger bird had
+stricken down the hawk, and it fell terrified and
+panting at his feet.
+
+<P>
+
+  Morven took the hawk in his hands, and the
+vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and
+nearer to its protected prey; but Morven scared
+away the vulture, and placing the hawk in his
+bosom, he carried it home, and tended it carefully,
+and fed it from his hand until it had regained its
+strength; and the hawk knew him, and followed
+him as a dog.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said, smiling to himself, &#8220;Behold,
+<i>the credulous fools around me put faith in the flight
+and motions of birds</i>. I will teach this poor hawk
+to minister to my ends.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   So he tamed the bird, and tutored it according
+to its nature; but he concealed it carefully from
+others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+<P>
+
+   The king of the country was old and like to die,
+and the eyes of the tribe were turned to his two
+sons, nor knew they which was the worthier to
+reign.
+
+<P>
+
+   And Morven passing through the forest one
+evening, saw the younger of the two, who was a great
+hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and looking
+with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Wherefore musest thou, O swift footed Siror?&#8221;
+said the son of Osslah; &#8220;and wherefore art thou
+sad?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Thou canst not assist me,&#8221; answered the
+prince, sternly; &#8220;take thy way.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Nay,&#8221; answered Morven, &#8220;thou knowest not
+what thou sayest; am I not the favorite of the
+stars?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach
+of death makes doting: talk not to inc of the stars;
+I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Hush,&#8221; said Morven, solemnly, and covering
+his face; &#8220;hush! lest the heavens avenge thy
+rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto
+me to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can
+tell thee the thoughts of thine.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Speak out, base-born!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is
+less known in war than the name of thy brother;
+yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head,
+and to sit at the high seat of thy father?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The young man turned pale.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Thou hast truth in thy lips,&#8221; said he, with a
+faltering voice.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Not from me, but from the stars, descends the
+truth.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Can the stars grant my wish?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;They can; let us meet to-morrow.&#8221; Thus saying,
+Morven passed into the forest.
+
+<P>
+
+  The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;I have consulted the gods of night, and they
+have given me the power that I prayed for, but on
+one condition.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+&#8220;Name it.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars
+thou must build up a heap of stones, and take thy
+sister into the wood, and lay her on the pile, and
+plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt
+then reign.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The prince shuddered, and started to his feet,
+and shook his spear at the pale front of Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Tremble,&#8221; said the son of Osslah, with a loud
+voice. &#8220;Hark to the gods, who threaten thee with
+death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm against
+their servant!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one
+of the frequent storms of the early summer was
+about to break.
+
+<P>
+
+  The spear dropped from the prince&#8217;s hand; he
+sat down and cast his eyes on the ground.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and
+reign?&#8221; said Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;I will!&#8221; cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou
+wilt lead her hither, alone; I may not attend thee.
+Now, let us pile the stones.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to
+the fragments of rock that Morven pointed to him,
+and they built the altar, and went their way.
+
+<P><BR>
+
+  And beautiful is the dying of the great sum
+when the last song of the birds fades into the lap
+of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over
+the grave of day.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 5 -->
+<P>
+  &#8220;Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?&#8221;
+said Gina; &#8220;and why doth thy lip quiver? and
+why dost thou tarn away thy face?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt
+us forth, my sister?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled
+together?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Let others answer; <i>I</i> piled them not.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Thou tremblest brother: we will return.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft
+pierced to-day; a bird of beautiful plumage that I
+slew for thee.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Here!&#8221; cried Siror; and he seized the maiden
+in his arms, and, casting her on the rude altar, he
+drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
+
+<P>
+
+   Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the
+growth of immemorial ages; and from the oak, or
+from the heavens; broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice:
+
+<P>
+
+
+&#8220;Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear
+their own: the maiden thou shalt not slay; yet
+shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and
+thou shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite of
+the stars. Arise, and go thy way!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had
+overpowered for a time the springs of life; and
+Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 6 -->
+<P>
+  &#8220;Alas!&#8221; said Morven, when, at the next day, he
+again met the aspiring prince; &#8220;alas! the stars
+have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am
+insensible to the fires of love; and ever, as thou
+and thy tribe know, I have shunned the eyes of
+women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step
+and my sullen features; and so in my youth I
+learned betimes to banish all thoughts of love.
+But since they told me (as they declared to <i>thee</i>),
+that only through that marriage, thou, O beloved
+prince! canst obtain thy fatter&#8217;s plumed crown, I
+yield me to their will.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;But,&#8221; said the prince, &#8220;not until I am king
+can I give thee my sister in marriage; for thou
+knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust,
+if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the
+son of the herdsman Osslah.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home
+and fear not: but, when thou art king, the sacrifice
+must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I
+dare to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the
+dread kings of the night!&#8212;Who shall gainsay
+their word?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine,&#8221;
+answered the prince.
+
+<P>
+
+  Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone;
+and he said to himself, &#8220;the king is old, yet may
+he live long between me and mine hope!&#8221; and he
+began to cast in his mind how he might shorten
+the time.
+
+<P>
+
+  Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly,
+that night advanced, and he had lost his path
+among the thick woods, and knew not how to regain
+his home; so he lay down quietly beneath a tree, and
+rested till day dawned.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then hunger came upon him and he searched
+among the bushes for such simple roots as those
+with which, for he was ever careless of food, he
+was used to appease the cravings of nature.
+
+<P>
+
+  He found, among other more familiar herbs and
+roots, a red berry of a sweetish taste, which he had
+never observed before. He ate of it sparingly, and
+had not proceeded far in the wood before he found
+his eyes swim, and a deadly sickness come over
+him. For several hours he lay convulsed on the
+ground expecting death; but the gaunt spareness
+of his frame, and his unvarying abstinence,
+prevailed over the poison, and he recovered slowly,
+and after great anguish: but he went with feeble
+steps back to the spot where the berries grew, and,
+plucking several, hid them in his bosom, and by
+nightfall regained the city.
+
+<P>
+
+  The next day he went forth among his father&#8217;s
+herds, and seizing a lamb, forced some of the
+berries into its stomach, and the lamb, escaping,
+ran away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took
+some more of the berries and boiled them down,
+and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the
+wine in secret to one of his father&#8217;s servants, and
+the servant died.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Morven sought the king, and coming into
+his presence alone, he said unto him, &#8220;How fares
+my lord?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The king sat on a couch, made of the skins of
+wolves, and his eye was glassy and dim; but vast
+were his aged limbs and huge was his stature, and
+he had been taller by a head than the children of
+men, and none living could bend the bow he had
+bent in youth. Grey, gaunt and worn, as some
+mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom
+of the earth&#8212;a relic of the strength of old.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the king said, faintly, and with a ghastly
+laugh:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The men of my years fare ill. What avails
+my strength? Better had I been born a cripple
+like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament
+in growing old.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The red flash passed over Morven&#8217;s brow; but
+he bent humbly&#8212;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;O king, what if I could give thee back thy
+youth? What if I could restore to thee the vigor
+which distinguished thee above the sons of men,
+when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before
+thy sword?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he
+said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I
+hear much of thy great wisdom, and how thou
+speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the
+old young?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Tempt them not by doubt,&#8221; said Morven, reverently.
+&#8220;All things are possible to the rulers of
+the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves thy
+servant spake to him at the dead of night, and
+said, &#8216;Arise, and go unto the king; and tell him
+that the stars honor the tribe of Oestrich, and
+remember how the king bent his bow against the Sons
+of Alrich; wherefore, look thou under the stone that
+lies to the right of thy dwelling&#8212;even beside the
+pine-tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and
+in the vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that
+shall make the king thy master forget his age
+forever.&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I
+went forth, and looked under the stone, and behold
+the vessel of clay; and I have brought it hither to
+my lord, the king.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Quick&#8212;slave&#8212;quick! that I may drink and
+regain my youth!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Nay, listen, O king! farther said the star to
+me:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;It is only at night, when the stars have power,
+that this their gift will avail; wherefore, the king
+must wait till the hush of the midnight, when the
+moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid
+with his wine.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;And he must reveal to none that he hath received
+the gift from the hand of the servant of the stars.
+For THEY do their work in secret, and when men
+sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths,
+and he who reveals their benefits shall surely
+die.&#8217;&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;Fear not,&#8221; said the king, grasping the vessel;
+&#8220;none shall know: and, behold, I will rise on the
+morrow; and my two sons&#8212;wrangling for my
+crown&#8212;verily, I shall be younger than they!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely
+thanked the servant of the stars, neither did he
+promise him reward: for the kings in those days
+had little thought&#8212;save for themselves.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said to him, &#8220;Shall I not attend
+my lord? for without me, perchance, the drug
+might fail of its effect.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Aye,&#8221; said the king, &#8220;rest here.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Nay,&#8221; replied Morven; &#8220;thy servants will marvel
+and talk much, if they see the son of Osslah
+sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred.
+Suffer that the lesser door of the palace be unbarred,
+so that at the night hour, when the moon
+is midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into
+thy chamber, and mix the liquid with thy wine.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;So be it,&#8221; said the king. &#8220;Thou art wise
+though thy limbs are crooked and curt; and the
+stars might have chosen a taller man.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the king laughed again; and Morven
+laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth of
+the son of Osslah.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 7 -->
+<P>
+  The night had began to wane, and the inhabitants
+of Oestrich were buried in deep sleep, when,
+hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, &#8220;Woe, woe! Awake ye sons of Oestrich&#8212;woe!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then forth, wild&#8212;haggard&#8212;alarmed&#8212;spear in
+hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged tribe,
+and they saw a man on a height in the middle of
+the city, shrieking, &#8220;Woe!&#8221; and it was Morven,
+the son of Osslah!
+
+<P>
+
+  And he said unto them, as they gathered round
+him, &#8220;Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear.
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;The star of the west hath spoken to me and
+thus saith the star:
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Evil shall fall upon the kingly house of
+Oestrich&#8212;yea, ere the morning dawns; wherefore,
+go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the
+inhabitants to woe!&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;So I rose and did the bidding of the star.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And while Morven was yet speaking, a servant
+of the king&#8217;s house ran up to the crowd, crying
+loudly:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The king is dead!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  So they went into the palace and found the king
+stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all
+cramped and crippled by the pangs of death, and
+his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe&#8212;the
+foe of all living flesh!
+
+<P>
+
+  Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked
+on Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest
+warrior would have called forth: and they bore
+him back to the council-hall of the wise men,
+wailing and clashing their arms in woe, and
+shouting, ever and anon:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;<i>Honor to Morven, the prophet!</i>&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And that was the first time the word PROPHET
+was ever used in those countries.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 8 -->
+<P>
+  At noon, on the third day from the king&#8217;s death,
+Siror sought Morven, and he said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet
+this evening at sunset to elect his successor, and
+the warriors and the young men will surely choose
+my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail
+me not, therefore.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Peace, boy!&#8221; said Morven, sternly; &#8220;nor dare
+to question the truth of the gods of night.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  For Morven now began to presume on his power
+among the people, and to speak as rulers speak,
+even to the sons of kings.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the voice silenced the fiery Siror, nor dared
+he to reply.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Behold,&#8221; said Morven, taking up a chaplet of
+colored plumes, &#8220;wear this on thy head, and put
+on a brave face&#8212;for the people like a hopeful spirit&#8212;and
+go down with thy brother to the place where
+the new king is to be chosen, and leave the rest to
+the stars.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;But, above all things, forget not that chaplet;
+it has been blessed by the gods of night.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+<P>
+
+  It was evening and the warriors and chiefs of
+the tribe were assembled in the place where the
+new king was to be elected.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the voices of the many favored Prince
+Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain twelve
+foeman with his spear; and verily, in those days,
+that was a great virtue in a king.
+
+<P>
+
+  Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and
+the people cried out:
+
+<P>
+
+&#8220;Way for Morven, the prophet, the prophet!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  For the people held the son of Osslah in even
+greater respect than did the chiefs.
+
+<P>
+
+  Now, since he had become of note, Morven had
+assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit
+his stature was short, and his limbs halted, yet his
+countenance was grave and high.
+
+<P>
+
+  He only of the tribe wore a garment that swept
+the ground, and his head was bare, and his long
+black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was
+change or human passion seen in his calm aspect.
+
+<P>
+
+  He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor was his
+presence frequent in the streets.
+
+<P>
+
+  He laughed not, neither did he smile, save when
+alone in the forest&#8212;and then he laughed at the
+follies of his tribe.
+
+<P>
+
+  So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither
+turning to the left nor to the right, as the crowd
+gave way; and he supported his steps with a staff
+of the knotted pine.
+
+<P>
+
+   And when he came to the place where the chiefs
+were met, and the two princes stood in the centre,
+he bade the people around him proclaim silence.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he
+thus spake to the multitude:
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Princes, wantors and bards! ye, O council of
+the wise men! and ye, O hunters of the forests,
+and snarers of the fishes of the streams! harken to
+Morven, the son of Osslah.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Ye know that I am lowly of race, and weak of
+limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe
+of Alrich, and did ye not slay them in the dead of
+night with a great slaughter?
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Surely, ye must know that this of himself did
+not the herdsman&#8217;s son; surely he was but the
+agent of the bright gods that love the children of
+Oestrich.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Three nights since, when slumber was on the
+earth, was not my voice heard in the streets?
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of
+Oestrich? and verily the dark arm had fallen on
+the bosom of the mighty, that is no more.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a
+dream, or was I not as the voice of the bright gods
+that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the
+son of Osslah, but listen to his words; for are they
+not the wisdom of the stars?
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Behold, last night, I sat alone in the valley,
+and the trees were hushed around, and not a breath
+stirred; and I looked upon the star that councels
+the son of Osslah; and I said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that
+bathest thy beauty in the streams and piercest the
+pine-boughs with thy presence; behold thy servant
+grieved because the mighty one hath passed away,
+and many foes surround the houses of my brethren;
+and it is well that they should have a king
+valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of
+the stars.
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our
+hands the warriors of Alrich, and didst warn us of
+the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore, I pray
+thee, give unto the people a token that they may
+choose that king whom the gods of the night
+prefer!&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;Then a low voice sweeter than the music of
+the bard, stole along the silence.
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Thy love for thy race is grateful to the stars
+of night: go then, son of Osslah, and seek the
+meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a
+king, and tell them not to scorn thee because thou
+art slow to the chase and little known in war; for
+the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense for all.
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Say unto the people that as the wise men of
+the council shape their lessons by the flight of
+birds, so by the flight of birds stall a token be
+given unto them, and they shall choose their kings.
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;For,&#8217; said, the star of right, &#8216;the birds are
+children of the winds, they pass to and fro along
+the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds that are
+the warships of the gods.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;And their music is but broken melodies which
+they gleam from the harps above.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;Are they not the messengers of the storm?
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and
+the rain descends, know ye not, by the wail of
+birds and their low circles over the earth, that the
+tempest is at hand?
+
+<P>
+
+    &#8220;&#8216;Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children
+of the air are the fit interpreters between the
+sons of men and the lords of the world above.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;&#8216;Say then to the people and the chiefs, that
+they shall take, from among the doves that nest in
+the roof of the palace, a white dove, and they shall
+let it loose in the air, and verily the gods of the
+night shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from
+the people, and they shall send a messenger to
+grant the prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich
+a king worthy of themselves.&#8217;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;With that the star spoke no more.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among
+themselves, and they said, &#8220;Shall this man dictate
+to us who shall be king?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  But the people and the warriors shouted:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Listen to the star; do we not give or deny
+battle according as the bird flies&#8212;shall we not by
+the same token choose him by whom the battle
+should be led?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   And the thing seemed natural to them, for it
+was after the custom of the tribe.
+
+<P>
+
+   Then they took one of the doves that built in
+the roof of the palace, and they bought it to the
+spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to
+the stars and muttering to himself, released the
+bird.
+
+<P>
+
+   There was a copse of trees a little distance from
+the spot, and as the dove ascended, a hawk suddenly
+rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high
+above the crowd, when, lo, the hawk, poising itself
+one moment on its wings, swooped with a sudden
+swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the
+plumed head of Siror.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Behold,&#8221; cried Morven in a loud voice, &#8220;behold your
+king!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Hail, all hail the king!&#8221; shouted the people.
+&#8220;All hail the chosen of the stars!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Morven lifted his right hand, and the
+hawk left the prince, and alighted on Morven&#8217;s
+shoulder.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Bird of the gods!&#8221; said he, reverently, &#8220;hast
+thou not a secret message for my ear?&#8221; Then
+the hawk put its beak to Morven&#8217;s ear, and Morven
+bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested
+with Morven from that moment and would not be
+scared away.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The stars have sent me this bird, that, in the
+day-time, when I see them not, we may never be
+without a counsellor in distress.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  So Siror was made king, and Maven the son of
+Osslah was constrained by the king&#8217;s will to take
+Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honored Morven, the prophet, above all the elders
+of the tribe.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 9 -->
+<P>
+  One day Morven said unto himself, musing,
+&#8220;Am I not already equal with the king? nay, is
+not the king my servant? did I not place him over
+the heads of his brothers? am I not, therefore,
+more fit to reign than he is? shall I not push him
+from his seat?
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;It is a troublesome and stormy office to reign
+over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the
+crowded hail, and to lead die warriors to the fray.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Surely, if I feasted not, neither went out to
+war, they might say, &#8216;This is no king, but the cripple
+Morven;&#8217; and some of the race of Siror might
+slay me secretly.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;But can I not be greater far than kings, and
+continue to choose and govern them, living as now
+at mine own ease?
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;<i>Verily, the stars shall give me a new palace, and
+many subjects</i>.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven
+feared him, for his eye often sought the movements
+of the son of Osslah.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said &#8220;It were better to TRUST this
+man than to BLIND, for surely I want a helpmate
+and a friend.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  So he said to the wise man as he sat alone watching
+the setting sun:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;It seemeth to me, O Darvan! I that we ought to
+build a great pile in honor of the stars and the
+pile should be more glorious than all the palaces of
+the chiefs and the palaces of the king; for are not
+the stars our masters?
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in
+this new palace, and we would serve the gods of
+night, and fatten their altars with the choicest of
+the herd, and the freshest of the fruits of the earth.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Darvan said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;thou speakest as becomes the servant of the
+stars. But will the people help to build the pile,
+for they are a war-like race and they love not toil?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven answered:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;<i>Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be
+done. Fear not</i>.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;In truth thou art a wondrous man, thy words
+ever come to pass, answered Darvan; &#8220;and I
+wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language
+of the stars.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Assuredly if thou servest me thou shalt know,&#8221;
+answered the proud Morven; and Darvan was
+secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman should
+command the service of an elder and a chief.
+<P>
+  And when Morven returned to his wife he found
+her weeping much.
+
+<P>
+
+  Now she loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding
+love, for he was not savage and fierce as the men
+she had known, and she was proud of his fame among
+the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed
+her, and asked her why she wept.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then she told him that her brother, the king, had
+visited her and had spoken bitter words of Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;He taketh from me the affection of my people,&#8221;
+said Siror, &#8220;and blindeth them with lies. And
+since he hath made me king, what if he take my
+kingdom from me? Verily, a new tale of the stars
+might undo the old.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And the king had ordered her to keep watch on
+Morven&#8217;s secrecy, and to see whether truth was in
+him when he boasted of his commune with the
+Powers of Night.
+
+<P>
+
+  But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore
+she told her husband all.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven resented the king&#8217;s ingratitude,
+and was troubled much, for a king is a powerful
+foe; but tie comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he
+might confide to her unsuspectingly whatsoever he
+might design against Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  There was a cave by Morven&#8217;s house in which
+he kept the sacred hawk, and wherein he secretly
+trained and nurtured other birds against future
+need, and the door of the cave was always barred.
+
+<P>
+
+  And one day he was thus engaged when he beheld a
+chink in the wall, that he had never noted before,
+and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked
+he perceived the sunbeam was darkened, and presently
+he saw a human face peering in through the chink.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been
+watched.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 10 -->
+<P>
+
+  Morven ran hastily from the cave, but the spy had
+disappeared among the trees, and Morven went
+straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down.
+<P>
+  Darvan did not return home till late, and he
+started and turned pale when he saw Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade
+him to a feast, which, for the first time, he
+purposed giving at the full of the moon, in honor
+of the stars.
+
+<P>
+
+  And going out of Darvan&#8217;s chamber, he returned
+to his wife, and bade her hair, and go at
+the dawn of day to the king, her brother, and
+complain bitterly of Morven&#8217;s treatment, and pluck
+the black schemes from the breast of the king. &#8220;For
+surely,&#8221; said he, &#8220;Darvan hath lied to thy brother,
+and some evil awaits me that I would fain know.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  So the next morning Orna sought the king,
+and she said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;The herdsman&#8217;s son hath reviled me, and
+spoken harsh words to me; stall I not be
+avenged?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the king stamped his feet and shook his
+mighty sword.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Surely thou shalt be avenged, for I have
+learned from one of the elders that which convinceth
+me that the man hath lied to the people,
+and the base-born shall surely die.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the
+forest my brother and I will fall upon him and
+smite him to the death.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Fly now, O my beloved!&#8212;fly into the forests
+afar from my brethren, or surely the sword of
+Siror will end thy days.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the son of Osslab folded his arms, and
+seemed buried in black thoughts; nor did he heed
+the voice of Orna, until again and again she had
+implored him to fly.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Fly!&#8221; he said at length. &#8220;Nay, I was doubting
+what punishment the stars should pour down upon our
+foe. Let warriors fly. Morven, the prophet, conquers
+by arms mightier than the sword.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+  Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his
+mind, and knew not how to save himself from the
+vengeance of the king.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 10 -->
+<P>
+  Now, while Morven was musing hopelessly, he heard
+a roar of waters; and behold the river, for it was
+now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and
+was rushing along the valley to the houses of the
+city.
+
+<P>
+
+  And now the men of the tribe, and the women,
+and the children, came running, and with shrieks
+to Morven&#8217;s house, crying:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Behold the river has burst upon us!&#8212;Save us,
+O ruler of the stars!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven
+and he resolved to risk his fate upon one desperate
+scheme.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he came out from the house calm and sad,
+and he said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Ye know not what ye ask; I cannot save ye
+from this peril: ye have brought it on yourselves.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And they cried: &#8220;How? O son of Osslah&#8212;we
+are ignorant of our crime.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And he answered:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Go down to the king&#8217;s palace and wait before
+it, and surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn
+wherefore ye have incurred this punishment from
+the gods.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a
+receding sea; and when it was gone from the
+place, Morven went alone to the house of Darvan,
+which was next his own: and Darvan was greatly
+terrified, for he was of a great age, and had no
+children, neither friends, and he feared that he
+could not of himself escape the waters.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said to him, soothingly:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Lo, the people love me, and I will see that
+thou art saved for verily thou hast been friendly
+to me, and done me much service with the king.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door
+of the house and looked forth, and saw that they
+were quite alone; then he seized the old man by
+the throat, and ceased not his grip till he was
+quite dead.
+
+<P>
+
+  And leaving the body of the elder on the floor,
+Morven, stole from the house and shut the gate.
+
+<P>
+
+  And as he was going to his cave he mused a
+little while, when, hearing the mighty roar of the
+waves advancing, and afar off the shrieks of
+women, he lifted up his head, and said proudly:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;No! in this hour terror alone shall be my
+slave; I will use no art save the power of my soul.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  So, leaning on his pine staff, he strode down to
+the palace.
+
+<P>
+
+  And it was now evening, and many of the men
+held torches, that they might see each other&#8217;s faces
+in the universal fear.
+
+<P>
+
+  Red flashed the quivering flames on the dark
+robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed
+mightier than the rest, because his face alone was
+calm amidst the tumult.
+
+<P>
+
+  And louder and hoarser came the roar of the
+waters; and swift rusted the shades of night over
+the hastening tide.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven said in a stern voice:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Where is the king; and wherefore is he absent
+from his people in the hour of dread?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the gate of the palace opened; and, behold
+Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast pine-fire
+and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around
+him: for they would not deign to come amongst the
+crowd at the bidding of the herdsman&#8217;s son.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the
+heads of the people (the same rack whereon he
+had proclaimed the king), thus spake:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich!
+wherefore the river hath burst its bounds, and the
+peril hath come upon you.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Learn then, that the stars resent as the foulest
+of human crimes an insult to their servants and
+delegates below.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Ye are all aware of the manner of life of
+Morven, whom ye have surnamed the Prophet!
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;He harms not man or beast; he lives alone;
+and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he
+worships in awe and fear the Powers of Night!
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;So is he able to advise ye of the coming
+danger&#8212;so is he able to save ye from the foe.
+Thus are your huntsmen swift and your warriors
+bold; and thus do your cattle bring forth their
+young, and the earth its fruits.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear?
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Listen, men of Oestrich!&#8212;they have laid
+snares for my life; and there are amongst you
+those who have whetted the sword against the
+bosom that is only filled with love for you.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Therefore have the stern lords of heaven
+loosened the chains of the river&#8212;therefore doth
+this evil menace ye.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Neither will it pass away until they who dig
+the pit for the servant of the stars are buried in
+the same.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men
+looked fierce and threatening; and ten thousand
+voices shouted forth:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Name them who conspired against thy life, O
+holy prophet! and surely they shall be torn limb
+from limb.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he
+wept bitterly; and he said:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but
+now scarce will ye believe the foe that I have
+provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves I
+swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury,
+nor bring down upon yourselves, and your children&#8217;s
+children, the anger of the throned stars, gladly
+would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,&#8221; he cried,
+lifting up his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm
+towards the hall where the king sat by the
+pine-fire&#8212;&#8221;yes, thou whom by my voice the stars
+chose above thy brother&#8212;yes, Siror, the guilty one!
+take thy sword, and come hither&#8212;strike, if thou
+hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the Gods!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  The king started to his feet, and the crowd were
+hushed in a shuddering silence.
+
+<P>
+
+  Morven resumed:
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and
+Voltoch, his brother, and Darvan, the elder of the
+wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the
+shade of the forest to devise new benefits for you.
+Let the king deny it, if he can!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth
+from the hall, and his spear quivered in his hand.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my
+father&#8217;s herdsman! and for thy sins shalt thou
+surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of
+thy power with the stars, and thou laughest at the
+folly of them who hear thee: wherefore put him to
+death.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms,
+and rushed forth to slay the son of Osslah.
+
+<P>
+
+  But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high,
+exclaimed:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Hear him, O dread ones of the night&#8212;hark
+how he blasphemeth.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the crowd took up the word, and cried:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;He blasphemeth&#8212;he blasphemeth against the
+prophet!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  But the king and the chiefs who hated Morven,
+because of his power with the people, rushed into
+the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they
+rebelled against their chiefs, and they feared alike
+the prophet and the king.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Siror cried:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Summon Darvan to us, for he bath watched
+the steps of Morven, and he shall lift the veil from
+my people&#8217;s eyes.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  Then three of the swift of foot started forth to
+the house of Darvan.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven cried out with a loud voice:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Hark! thus saith the star who, now riding
+through yonder cloud breaks forth upon my eyes&#8212;&#8216;For
+the lie that the elder hath uttered against
+my servant, the curse of the stars shall fall upon
+him.&#8217; Seek, and as ye find him, so may ye find
+ever the foes of Morven and the gods.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and
+even the cheek of Siror grew pale; and Morven,
+erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms.
+
+<P>
+
+  And hark&#8212;far and fast came on the war-steeds
+of the wave&#8212;the people heard them marching to
+the land, and tossing their white manes in the
+roaring wind.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Lo, as ye listen,&#8221; said Morven, calmly, &#8220;the
+river sweeps on. Haste, for the gods will have a
+victim, be it your prophet or your king.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Slave!&#8221; shouted Siror, and his spear left his
+hand, and far above the heads of the crowd sped
+hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind.
+
+<P>
+
+   Then the people, wroth at the danger of their
+beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered
+round him with brandished swords, facing their
+chieftains and their king.
+
+<P>
+
+  But at that instant, ere the war had broken forth
+among the tribe, the three warriors returned, and
+they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him
+at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Thus found we the elder in the centre of his
+own hall.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse,
+and that the prediction of Morven was thus verified.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;So perish the enemies of Morven and the
+Stars!&#8221; cried the son of Osslah. And the people
+echoed the cry.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and
+waving his sword above his head, he plunged into
+the crowd:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Thy blood, base-born, or mine.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;So be it!&#8221; answered Morven, quailing not.
+&#8220;People, smite the blasphemer. Hark how the
+river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths. On, on, or ye perish!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Smite! smite!&#8221; cried Morven, as the chiefs of
+the royal house gathered round the king.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the clash of swords, and the gleam of
+spears, and the cries of the dying, and the yell of
+the trampling people, mingled with the roar of the
+elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+<P>
+
+  Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night
+by the swords of their own tribe. And the last
+cry of the victors was, &#8220;<i>Morven the prophet</i>&#8212;MORVEN THE
+KING!&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now
+spreading over the valley, led Orna his wife, and
+the men of Oestrich, their women and their children,
+to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun.
+
+<P>
+
+  But Orna sat apart and wept bitterly, for her
+brothers were no more, and her race had perished
+from the earth.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+<P>
+
+  When the morning rose, they saw that the river
+had overspread the greater part of the city, and
+now stayed its course among the hollows of the
+vale.
+
+<P>
+
+  Then Morven said to the people: &#8220;The star kings
+are avenged, and their wrath appeased. Tarry only
+here until the water have melted into the crevices
+of the soil.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And on the fourth day they returned to the
+city, and no man dared to name another, save
+Morven, as the king.
+
+<!-- THE FALLEN STAR: Part 10 -->
+<P>
+  But Morven retired into his cave and mused
+deeply; and then assembling the people, he gave
+them new laws; and he made them build a mighty
+temple in honor of the stars, and made them heap
+within it all that the tribe held most precious.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he took unto him fifty children from the
+most famous of the tribe; and he took also ten
+from among the men who had served him best,
+and he ordained that they should serve the stars
+in the great temple: and Morven was their chief.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he put away the crown they pressed upon
+him, and he chose from among the elders a new
+king.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he ordained that henceforth the servants
+only of the stars in the great temple should elect
+the king and the rulers, and hold council, and
+proclaim war: but he suffered the king to feast,
+and to hunt, and to make merry in the banquet halls.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven built altars in the temple, and was
+the first who, in the North, <i>sacrificed the beast and
+the bird, and afterwards human flesh</i>, upon the
+altars.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he drew auguries from the entrails of the
+victim, and made schools for the science of the
+prophet; and Morven&#8217;s piety was the wonder of
+the tribe, in that he refused to be a king.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven, the high-priest, was <i>ten thousand
+times mightier than the king</i>.
+
+<P>
+
+  He taught the people to till the ground, and to
+sow the herb; and by his wisdom, and the valor
+that his prophecies instilled into men, he conquered
+all the neighboring tribes.
+
+<P>
+
+  And the sons of Oestrich spread themselves over
+a mighty empire, and with them spread the name
+and the laws of Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  And in every province which he conquered, he
+ordered them to build a temple to the stars.
+
+<P>
+
+  But a heavy sorrow fell upon the years of
+Morven.
+
+<P>
+
+  The sister of Siror bowed down her head and
+survived not long the slaughter of her race.
+
+<P>
+
+  And she left Morven childless.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught,
+for her only in the world had his heart the power
+to love.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he sat down and covered his face, saying:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Lo: I have conquered and travailed; and
+never before in the world did man conquer what I
+have conquered.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Verily, the empire of the iron thews and the
+giant limbs is no more; I have found a new power,
+that henceforth shall sway the lands;&#8212;<i>the empire
+of plotting brain and a commanding mind</i>.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;But, behold, my fate is barren, and I feel already
+that it will grow neither fruit nor tree as a
+shelter to mine old age.
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Desolate and lonely shall I pass away unto
+my grave.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were
+like unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory
+and my life.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled
+in the dark cavern of my heart&#8212;would for thy
+sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine.
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that thy
+love was dearer to me than the fear of others.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven mourned night and day, and none
+might comfort him.
+
+<P>
+
+  But from that time forth he gave himself solely
+to the cares of his calling; and his nature and
+his affections, and whatever there was left soft in
+him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man
+without love, <i>and he forbade love and marriage to
+the priest</i>.
+
+<P>
+
+  Now, in his latter years, there arose OTHER
+prophets; for the world had grown wiser even by
+Morven&#8217;s wisdom, and some did say unto themselves:
+
+<P>
+
+  &#8220;Behold Morven, the herdsman&#8217;s son, is a king
+of kings: this did the stars for their servant;
+shall we not, therefore, be also servants to the
+star?&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   And they wore black garments like Morven, and
+went about prophesying of what the stars foretold
+them.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more
+than other men, knew that the prophets lied;
+wherefore he went forth against them with the
+ministers of the temple, and he took them and
+burned them by a slow fire: for thus said Morven
+to the people:
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;<i>A true prophet hath honor, but I only am a true prophet!</i>&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+   &#8220;To all false prophets there shall be surely death.&#8221;
+
+<P>
+
+  And the people applauded the piety of the son
+of Osslah.
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven educated the wisest of the children
+in the mysteries of the temple, so that they grew
+up to succeed him worthily.
+
+<P>
+
+  And he died full of years and honor; and they
+carved his effigy on a mighty stone before the
+temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand ages,
+and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was
+calm with the calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+<P>
+
+  And Morven was the first mortal of the North
+that made <i>Religion the stepping stone to Power</i>.
+
+<P>
+
+  Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+<!-- Conclusion -->
+<BR><BR><BR>
+<CENTER><H3>CONCLUSION</H3></CENTER>
+<P>It was the last night of the old year, and the
+stars sat, each upon his ruby throne, and
+watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The
+night was dark and troubled, the dread winds
+were abroad, and fast and frequent hurried the
+clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.
+But ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along
+the depths of heaven, and were again swallowed
+up in the graves of darkness.
+
+<P>And far below his brethren, and with a lurid
+haze around his orb, sat the discontented star that
+had watched over the hunters of the North.
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was
+spread a thick and mighty gloom, from which, as
+from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant
+on their paths, voices of woe and laughter,
+mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from
+the abyss to the upper air.
+
+<P>And now, in the middest night, a vast figure
+rose slowly from the abyss, and its wings threw
+blackness over the world. High upward to the
+throne of the discontented star sailed the fearful
+shape, and the star trembled on his throne when
+the form stood before him face to face. And the
+shape said: &#8220;Hail, brother!&#8212;all hail!&#8221;
+
+<P>&#8220;I know thee not,&#8221; answered the star: &#8220;thou art
+not the archangel that visitests the kings of night.&#8221;
+
+<P>And the shape laughed loud. &#8220;I am the fallen
+star of the morning.&#8212;I am Lucifer, thy brother.
+Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and
+mine? and hast thou not wrested the earth from
+thy Lord who sittest above and given it to me by
+<i>darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?</i>
+Wherefore come, brother, come;&#8212;thou hast a
+throne prepared beside my own in the fiery gloom.
+Come.&#8212;The heavens are no more for thee.&#8221; Then
+the star rose from his throne, and descended to
+the side of Lucifer. For ever hath the spirit of
+discontent had sympathy with the soul of pride.
+
+<P>And slowly they sank down to the gulf of gloom.
+It was the first night of the new year, and the
+stars sat each on his ruby throne, and watched
+with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow
+dimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for
+they mourned in silence and in fear for a fallen
+brother.
+
+<P>And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew
+open with a golden sound, and the swift archangel
+fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel
+gave to each of the stars, as before, the message of
+his Lord; and to each star was his appointed
+charge.
+
+<P>And when the heraldry seemed done, there came
+a laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half way from
+the gulf rose the lurid shape of Lucifer, the fiend.
+
+<P>&#8220;Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd.
+Behold! one star is missing from the three
+thousand and ten.&#8221;
+
+<P>&#8220;Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!&#8212;the throne
+of thy brother hath been filled.&#8221;
+
+<P>And lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld
+a young and all lustrous stranger on the
+throne of the erring star; and his face was so soft
+to look upon, that the dimmest of human eyes
+might have gazed upon its splendor unabashed;
+but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its lustre,
+and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of
+the universe, he plunged backwards into the gloom.
+
+<P>Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came
+forth the voice of God:
+
+<P>&#8220;Behold! <i>on the throne of the discontented star
+sits the star of hope; and he that breathed into mankind
+the Religion of Fear hath a successor in him
+who shall teach earth the Religion of Love.</i>&#8221;
+
+<P>And evermore the Star of Fear dwells with Lucifer,
+and the Star of Love keeps vigil in heaven.
+
+<BR><BR>
+<HR>
+<BR><BR>
+<CENTER><H1>ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.</H1></CENTER>
+<CENTER><H2>BY LORD BROUGHAM.</H2></CENTER>
+<BR><BR>
+<CENTER><H1>DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.</H1></CENTER>
+<HR width=70 align=center>
+
+<P>The question which has more than, any other
+harassed metaphysical reasoners, but especially
+theologians, and upon which it is probable
+that no very satisfactory conclusion will ever be
+reached by the human faculties, is the Origin and
+Sufferance of Evil.
+
+<P>Its existence being always assumed, philosophers
+have formed various theories for explaining
+it, but they have always drawn very different inferences from it.
+
+<P>The ancient Epicureans argued against the existence
+of the Deity, because they held that the
+existence of Evil either proved him to be limited
+in power or of a malignant nature; either of which
+imperfections is inconsistent with the first notions
+of a divine being.
+
+<P>In this kind of reasoning they have been followed
+both by the atheists and sceptics of later
+times.
+
+<P>Bayle regarded the subject of evil as one of the
+great arsenals from whence his weapons were to
+be chiefly drawn. None of the articles in his
+<!-- Page 62 -->
+famous Dictionary are more labored than those in
+which he treats of this subject. <i>Monichian</i>, and
+still more <i>Paulician</i>, almost assume the appearance
+of formal treatises upon the question; and both
+<i>Marchionite</i> and <i>Zoroaster</i> treat of the same subject.
+All these articles are of considerable value;
+they contain the greater part of the learning upon
+the question; and they are distinguished by the
+acuteness of reasoning which was the other characteristic
+of their celebrated author.
+
+<P>Those ancient philosophers who did not agree
+with Epicurus in arguing from the existence of
+evil against the existence of a providence that
+superintended and influenced the destinies of the
+world, were put to no little difficulty in accounting
+for the fact which they did not deny, and yet
+maintaining the power of a divine ruler. The
+doctrine of a double principle, or of two divine beings
+of opposite natures, one beneficent, the other
+mischievous, was the solution which one class of
+reasoners deemed satisfactory, and to which they
+held themselves driven by the phenomena of the
+universe.
+
+<P>Others unable to deny, the existence of things
+which men denominate evil, both physical and
+moral, explain them in a different way. They
+maintained that physical evil only obtains the
+name from our imperfect and vicious or feeble dispositions;
+that to a wise man there is no such
+<!-- Page 63 -->
+thing; that we may rise superior to all such
+groveling notions as make us dread or repine at
+any events which can befall the body; that pain,
+sickness, loss of fortune or of reputation, exile,
+death itself, are only accounted ills by a weak and
+pampered mind; that if we find the world tiresome,
+or woeful, or displeasing, we may at any
+moment quit it; and that therefore we have no
+right whatever to call any suffering connected
+with existence on earth an evil, because almost all
+sufferings can be borne by a patient and firm
+mind; since if the situation we are placed in becomes
+either intolerable, or upon the whole more
+painful than agreeable, it is our own fault that we
+remain in it.
+
+<P>But these philosophers took a further view of
+the question which especially applied to moral
+evil. They considered that nothing could be more
+groundless than to suppose that if there were no
+evil there could be any good in the world; and
+they illustrated this position by asking how we
+could know anything of temperance, fortitude or
+justice, unless there were such things as excess,
+cowardice and injustice.
+
+<P>These were the doctrines of the Stoics, from
+whose sublime and impracticable philosophy they
+seemed naturally enough to flow. Aulus Gellius
+relates that the last-mentioned argument was expounded
+by Chrysippus, in his work upon providence.
+<!-- Page 64 -->
+The answer given by Plutarch seems quite
+sufficient: &#8220;As well might you say that Achilles
+could not have a fine head of hair unless Thersites
+had been bald; or that one man's limbs could not
+be all sound if another had not the gout.&#8221;
+
+<P>In truth, the Stoical doctrine proceeds upon the
+assumption that all virtue is only the negative of
+vice; and is as absurd, if indeed it be not the very
+same absurdity, as the doctrine which should deny
+the existence of affirmative or positive truths, resolving
+them all into the opposite of negative
+propositions. Indeed, if we even were to admit
+this as an abstract position, the actual existence of
+evil would still be unnecessary to the idea, and
+still more to the existence, of good. For the conception
+of evil, the bare idea of its possibility,
+would be quite sufficient, and there would be no
+occasion for a single example of it.
+
+<P>The other doctrine, that of two opposite principles,
+was embraced by most of the other sects, as
+it should seem, at some period or other of their
+inquiries. Plato himself, in his later works, was
+clearly a supporter of the system; for he held that
+there were at least two principles, a good and an
+evil; to which he added a third, the moderator or
+mediator between them.
+
+<P>Whether this doctrine was, like many others,
+imported into Greece from the East, or was the
+natural growth of the schools, we cannot ascertain.
+<!-- Page 65 -->
+Certain it is that the Greeks themselves believed
+it to have been taught by Zoroaster in Asia, at
+least five centuries before the Trojan war; so that
+it had an existence there long before the name of
+philosophy was known in the western world.
+
+<P>Zoroaster's doctrine agreed in every respect with
+Plato's; for besides Oomazes, the good, and Arimanius,
+the evil principle, he taught that there
+was a third, or mediatory one, called Mithras.
+That it never became any part of the popular belief
+in Greece or Italy is quite clear. All the
+polytheism of those countries recognized each of
+the gods as authors alike of good and evil. Nor
+did even the chief of the divinities, under whose
+power the rest were placed, offer any exception to
+the general rule; for Jupiter not only gave good
+from one urn and ill from another, but he was
+also, according to the barbarous mythology of
+classical antiquity, himself a model at once of
+human perfections and of human vices.
+
+<P>After the light of the Christian religion had
+made some way toward supplanting the ancient
+polytheism, the doctrine of two principles was
+broached; first by Marcion, who lived in the time
+of Adrian and Antonius Pius, early in the second
+century; and next by Manes, a hundred years
+later. He was a Persian slave, who was brought
+into Greece, where he taught this doctrine, since
+known by his name, having learned it, as is said,
+<!-- Page 66 -->
+from Scythianus, an Arabian. The Manichean
+doctrines, afterwards called also Paulician, from a
+great teacher of them in the seventh century, were
+like almost all the heresies in the primitive church,
+soon mixed up with gross impurities of sacred
+rites as well as extravagant absurdities of creed.
+
+<P>The Manicheans were, probably as much on
+this account as from the spirit of religious intolerance,
+early the objects of severe persecution;
+and the Code of Justinian itself denounces capital
+punishment against any of the sect, if found within
+the Roman dominions.
+
+<P>It must be confessed that the theory of two
+principles, when kept free from the absurdities
+and impurities which were introduced into the
+Manichean doctrine, is not unnaturally adopted by
+men who have no aid from the light of revelation,<A NAME="S1" HREF="#R1"><FONT
+SIZE=-1><SUP>1</SUP></FONT></A>
+and who are confounded by the appearance of a
+world where evil and good are mixed together, or
+seem to struggle with one another, sometimes the
+one prevailing, and sometimes the other; and accordingly,
+in all countries, in the most barbarous
+nations, as well as among the most refined, we
+find plain traces of reflecting men having been
+driven to this solution of the difficulty.
+
+<P>It seems upon a superficial view to be very
+easily deducible from the phenomena; and as the
+<! -- Page 67 -->
+idea of infinite power, with which it is manifestly
+inconsistent, does by no means so naturally present
+itself to the mind, as long as only a very great
+degree of power, a power which in comparison of
+all human force may be termed infinite, is the attribute
+with which the Deity is believed to be endued.
+Manichean hypothesis is by no means so
+easily refuted. That the power of the Deity was
+supposed to have limits even in the systems of the
+most enlightened heathens is unquestionable.
+They, generally speaking, believed in the eternity
+of matter, and conceived some of its qualities to be
+so essentially necessary to its existence that no
+divine agency could alter them. They ascribed
+to the Deity a plastic power, a power not of creating
+or annihilating, but only of moulding, disposing
+and moving matter. So over mind they
+generally give him the like power, considering it
+as a kind of emanation from his own greater mind
+or essence, and destined to be re-united with him
+hereafter. Nay, over all the gods, and of superior
+potency to any, they conceived fate to preside; an
+overruling and paramount necessity, of which
+they formed some dark conceptions, and to which
+the chief of all the gods was supposed to submit.
+It is, indeed, extremely difficult to state precisely
+what the philosophic theory of theology was in
+Greece and Rome, because the wide difference
+between the esoteric and exoteric doctrines, between
+<!-- Page 68 -->
+the belief of the learned few and the popular
+superstition, makes it very difficult to avoid
+confounding the two, and lending to the former
+some of the grosser errors with which the latter
+abounded. Nevertheless, we may rely upon what
+has been just stated, as conveying, generally
+speaking, the opinion of philosophers, although
+some sects certainly had a still more scanty
+measure of belief.
+
+<P>But we shall presently find that in the speculation
+of the much more enlightened moderns, Christians
+of course, errors of a like kind are to be
+traced. They constantly argue the great question
+of evil upon a latent assumption, that the power of
+the Deity is restricted by some powers or qualities
+inherent in matter; notions analogous to that of
+faith are occasionally perceptible; not stated or
+expanded indeed into propositions, but influencing
+the course of the reasoning; while the belief of
+infinite attributes is never kept steadily in view,
+except when it is called in as requisite to refute
+the Manichean doctrines. Some observers of the
+controversy have indeed not scrupled to affirm
+that those of whom we speak are really Manicheans
+without knowing it; and build their systems
+upon assumptions secretly borrowed from the
+disciples of Zoroaster, without ever stating those
+assumptions openly in the form of postulates or
+definition.
+<!-- Page 69 -->
+<P>The refutation of the Manichean hypothesis is
+extremely easy if we be permitted to assume that
+both the principles which it supposes are either of
+infinite power or of equal power. If they are of
+infinite power, the supposition of their co-existence
+involves a contradiction in terms; for the one
+being in opposition to the other, the power of each
+must be something taken from that of the other;
+consequently neither can be of infinite power. If,
+again, we only suppose both to be of equal power,
+and always acting against each other, there could
+be nothing whatever done, neither good or evil;
+the universe would be at a standstill; or rather no
+act of creation could ever have been performed,
+and no existence could be conceived beyond that
+of the two antagonistic principles.
+
+<P>Archbishop Tillotson's argument, properly
+speaking, amounts to this last proposition, and is
+applicable to equal and opposite principles, although
+he applies it to two beings, both infinitely
+powerful and counteracting one another. When
+he says they would tie up each other's bands, he
+might apply this argument to such antagonistic
+principles if only equal, although not infinitely
+powerful. The hypothesis of their being both infinitely
+powerful needs no such refutation; it is a
+contradiction in terms. But it must be recollected
+that the advocates of the Manichean doctrine endeavor
+to guard themselves against the attack by
+<!-- Page 70 -->
+contending, that the conflict between the two
+principles ends in a kind of compromise, so that
+neither has it all his own way; there is a mixture
+of evil admitted by the good principle, because
+else the whole would beat a standstill; while there
+is much good admitted by the evil principle, else
+nothing, either good or evil, would be done. Another
+answer is therefore required to this theory
+than what Tillotson and his followers have given.
+
+<P><i>First</i>, we must observe that this reasoning of
+the Manicheans proceeds upon the analogy of what
+we see in mortal contentions; where neither party
+having the power to defeat the other, each is content
+to yield a little to his adversary, and so, by
+mutual concession, both are successful to some
+extent, and both to some extent disappointed.
+But in a speculation concerning the nature of the
+Deity, there seems no place for such notions.
+
+<P><i>Secondly</i>, the equality of power is not an arbitrary
+assumption; it seems to follow from the existence
+of the two opposing principles. For if they
+are independent of one another as to existence,
+which they must needs be, else one would immediately
+destroy the other, so must they also, in
+each particular instance, be independent of each
+other, and also equal each to the other, else one
+would have the mastery, and the influence of the
+other could not be perceived. To say that in some
+things the good principle prevails and in others
+<!-- Page 71 -->
+the evil, is really saying nothing more than that
+good exists here and evil there. It does not
+further the argument one step, nor give anything
+like an explanation. For it must always be borne
+in mind that the whole question respecting the
+Origin of Evil proceeds upon the assumption of a
+wise, benevolent and powerful Being having created
+the world. The difficulty, and the only difficulty,
+is, how to reconcile existing evil with such
+a Being's attributes; and if the Manichean only
+explains this by saying the good Being did what
+is good, and another and evil Being did what is
+bad in the universe, he really tells us nothing
+more than the fact; he does not apply his explanation
+to the difficulty; and he supposes the existence
+of a second Deity gratuitously and to no kind
+of purpose.
+
+<P>But, <i>thirdly</i>, in whatever light we view the
+hypothesis, it seems exposed to a similar objection,
+namely, of explaining nothing in its application,
+while it is wholly gratuitous in itself. It
+assumes, of course, that creation was the act of
+the good Being; and it also assumes that Being's
+goodness to have been perfect, though his power
+is limited. Then as he must have known the existence
+of the evil principle and foreseen the certainty
+of misery being occasioned by his existence,
+why did he voluntarily create sentient beings, to
+put them, in some respects at least, under the evil
+<!-- Page 72 -->
+one's power, and thus be exposed to suffering?
+The good Being, according to this theory, is the
+remote cause of the evil which is endured, because
+but for his act of creation the evil Being could
+have had, no subjects whereon to work mischief;
+so that the hypothesis wholly fails in removing,
+by more than one step, the difficulty which it was
+invented to solve.
+
+<P><i>Fourthly</i>, there is no advantage gained to the
+argument by supposing two Beings, rather than
+one Being of a mixed nature. The facts lead to
+this supposition just as naturally as to the hypothesis
+of two principles. The existence of the evil
+Being is as much a detraction from the power of
+the good one, as if we only at once suppose the
+latter to be of limited power, and that he prefers
+making and supporting creatures who suffer much
+less than they enjoy, to making no creatures at
+all. The supposition that he made them as happy
+as he could, and that not being able to make them
+less miserable, he yet perceived that upon the
+whole their existence would occasion more happiness
+than if they never had any being at all, will
+just account for the phenomena as well as the
+Manichean theory, and will as little as that theory
+assume any malevolence in the power which created
+and preserved the universe. If, however, it
+be objected that this hypothesis leaves unexplained
+the fetters upon the good Being's power,
+<!-- Page 73 -->
+the answer is obvious; it leaves those fetters not
+at all less explained than the Manichean theory
+does; for that theory gives no explanation of the
+existence of a counteracting principle, and it assumes
+both an antagonistic power, to limit the
+Deity's power, and a malevolent principle to set
+the antagonistic power in motion; whereas our
+supposition assumes no malevolence at all, but
+only a restraint upon the divine power.
+
+<P><i>Fifthly</i>, this leads us to another and most formidable
+objection. To conceive the eternal existence
+of one Being infinite in power, &#8220;self-created
+and creating all others,&#8221; is by no means impossible.
+Indeed, as everything must have had a cause,
+nothing we see being by possibility self-created,
+we naturally mount from particulars to generals,
+until finally we rise to the idea of a first cause,
+uncreated, and self-existing, and eternal. If the
+phenomena compels us to affix limits to his goodness,
+we find it impossible to conceive limits to the
+power of a creative, eternal, self-existing principle.
+But even supposing we could form the conception
+of such a Being having his power limited as well
+as his goodness, still we can conceive no second
+Being independent of him. This would necessarily
+lead to the supposition of some third Being,
+above and antecedent to both, and the creator of
+both&#8212;the real first cause&#8212;and then the whole
+question would be to solve over again,&#8212;Why
+<!-- Page 74 -->
+these two antagonistic Beings were suffered to exist
+by the great Being of all?
+
+<P>The Manichean doctrine, then, is exposed to
+every objection to which a theory can be obnoxious.
+It is gratuitous; it is inapplicable to the
+facts; it supposes more causes than are necessary;
+it fails to explain the phenomena, leaving the
+difficulties exactly where it found them. Nevertheless,
+such is the theory, how easily soever refuted
+when openly avowed and explicitly stated,
+which in various disguises appears to pervade the
+explanations, given of the facts by most of the
+other systems; nay, to form, secretly and unacknowledged,
+their principal ground-work. For it
+really makes very little difference in the matter
+whether we are to account for evil by holding that
+the Deity has created as much happiness as was
+consistent with &#8220;the nature of things,&#8221; and has
+taken every means of avoiding all evil except
+&#8220;where it necessarily existed&#8221; or at once give
+those limiting influences a separate and independent
+existence, and call them by a name of their
+own, which is the Manichean hypothesis.
+
+<P>The most remarkable argument on this subject,
+and the most distinguished both for its clear and
+well ordered statement, and for the systematic
+shape which it assumes, is that of Archbishop
+King. It is the great text-book of those who study
+this subject; and like the famous legal work of
+<!-- Page 75 -->
+Littleton, it has found an expounder yet abler and
+more learned than the author himself. Bishop
+Law's commentary is full of information, of reasoning
+and of explication; nor can we easily find
+anything valuable upon the subject which is not
+contained in the volumes of that work. It will,
+however, only require a slight examination of the
+doctrines maintained by these learned and pious
+men, to satisfy us that they all along either assume
+the thing to be proved, or proceed upon suppositions
+quite inconsistent with the infinite power
+of the Deity&#8212;the only position which raises a
+question, and which makes the difficulty that requires
+to be solved.
+
+<P>According to all the systems as well as this one,
+evil is of two kinds&#8212;physical and moral. To the
+former class belong all the sufferings to which
+sentient beings are exposed from the qualities and
+affections of matter independent of their own acts;
+the latter class consists of the sufferings of whatever
+kind which arise from their own conduct.
+This division of the subject, however, is liable to
+one serious objection; it comprehends under the
+second head a class of evils which ought more
+properly to be ranged under the first. Nor is this
+a mere question of classification: it affects the
+whole scope of the argument. The second of the
+above-mentioned classes comprehends both the
+physical evils which human agency causes, but
+<!-- Page 76 -->
+which it would have no power to cause unless the
+qualities of matter were such as to produce pain,
+privation and death; and also the moral evil of
+guilt which may possibly exist independent of
+material agency, but which, whether independent
+or not upon that physical action, is quite separable
+from it, residing wholly in the mind. Thus a
+person who destroys the life of another produces
+physical evil by means of the constitution of matter,
+and moral evil is the source of his wicked
+action. The true arrangement then is this: Physical
+evil is that which depends on the constitution
+of matter, or only is so far connected with the
+constitution of mind as that the nature and existence
+of a sentient being must be assumed in order
+to its mischief being felt. And this physical evil
+is of two kinds; that which originates in human
+action, and that which is independent of human
+action, befalling us from the unalterable course of
+nature. Of the former class are the pains, privations
+and destruction inflicted by men one upon
+another; of the latter class are diseases, old age
+and death. Moral evil consists in the crimes,
+whether of commission or omission, which men are
+guilty of&#8212;including under the latter head those
+sufferings which we endure from ill-regulated
+minds through want of fortitude or self-control.
+It is clear that as far as the question of the origin
+of evil is concerned, the first of these two classes,
+<!-- Page 77 -->
+physical evil, depends upon the properties of matter,
+and the last upon those of mind. The second
+as well as the first subdivision of the physical
+class depends upon matter; because, however ill-disposed
+the agent's mind may be, he could inflict
+the mischief only in consequence of the constitution
+of matter. Therefore, the Being, who created
+matter enabled him to perpetrate the evil, even
+admitting that this Being did not, by creating the
+mind also give rise to the evil disposition; and
+admitting that, as far as regards this disposition it
+has the same origin with the evil of the second
+class, or moral evil, the acts of a rational agent.
+
+<P>It is quite true that many reasoners refuse to
+allow any distinction between the evil produced
+by natural causes and the evils caused by rational
+agents, whether as regards their own guilt, or the
+mischief it caused to others. Those reasoners
+deny that the creation of man's will and the endowing
+it with liberty explains anything; they
+hold that the creation of a mind whose will is to
+do evil, amounts to the same thing, and belongs
+to the same class, with the creation of matter
+whose nature is to give pain and misery. But this
+position, which involves the doctrine of necessity,
+must, at the very least, admit of one modification.
+Where no human agency whatever is interposed,
+and the calamity comes without any one being to
+blame for it, the mischief seems a step, and a
+<!-- Page 78 -->
+large step, nearer the creative or the superintending
+cause, because it is, as far as men go, altogether
+inevitable. The main tendency of the argument,
+therefore, is confined to physical evil; and this
+has always been found the most difficult to account
+for, that is to reconcile with the government
+of a perfectly good and powerful Being. It would
+indeed be very easily explained, and the reconcilement
+would be readily made, if we were at
+liberty to suppose matter independent in its existence,
+and in certain qualities, of the divine control;
+but this would be to suppose the Deity's
+power limited and imperfect, which is just one
+horn of the Epicurean dilemma, &#8220;<i>Aut vult et non
+potest;</i>&#8221; and in assuming this, we do not so much
+beg the question as wholly give it up and admit
+we cannot solve the difficulty. Yet obvious as this
+is, we shall presently see that the reasoners who
+have undertaken the solution, and especially King
+and Law, under such phrases as &#8220;the nature of
+things,&#8221; and &#8220;the laws of the material universe,&#8221;
+have been constantly, through the whole argument,
+guilty of this <i>petitio principii</i> (begging the
+question), or rather this abandonment of the whole
+question, and never more so than at the very moment
+when they complacently plumed themselves
+upon having overcome the difficulty.
+
+<P>Having premised these observations for the purpose
+of clearing the ground and avoiding confusion
+<!-- Page 79 -->
+in the argument, we may now consider that Archbishop
+King's theory is in both its parts; for there
+are in truth two distinct explanations, the one resembling
+an argument <i>a priori</i>, the other an argument
+<i>a posteriori</i>. It is, however, not a little
+remarkable that Bishop Law, in the admirable abstract
+or analysis which he gives of the Archbishop's
+treatise at the end of his preface, begins
+with the second branch, omitting all mention of
+the first, as if he considered it to be merely introductory
+matter; and yet his fourteenth note (t.
+cap. <SPAN CLASS=smallcaps>i.</SPAN> s. 3.) shows that he was aware of its being
+an argument wholly independent of the rest of the
+reasonings; for he there says that the author had
+given one demonstration <i>a priori</i>, and that no
+difficulties raised by an examination of the phenomena,
+no objection <i>a posteriori</i>, ought to overrule
+it, unless these difficulties are equally certain
+and clear with the demonstration, and admit of no
+solution consistent with that demonstration.
+
+<P>The necessity of a first cause being shown, and
+it being evident that therefore this cause is uncreated
+and self-existent, and independent of any
+other, the conclusion is next drawn that its power
+must be infinite. This is shown by the consideration
+that there is no other antecedent cause, and
+no other principle which was not created by the
+first cause, and consequently which was not of inferior
+power; therefore, there is nothing which
+<!-- Page 80 -->
+can limit the power of the first cause; and there
+being no limiter or restrainer, there can be no
+limitation or restriction.
+
+<P>Again, the infinity of the Deity's power is attempted
+to be proved in another way.
+
+<P>The number of possible things is infinite; but
+every possibility implies a power to do the possible
+thing; and as one possible thing implies a power
+to do it, an infinite number of possible things implies
+an infinite power. Or as Descartes and his
+followers put it, we can have no idea of anything
+that has not either an actual or a possible existence;
+but we have an idea of a Being of infinite
+perfection; therefore, he must actually exist; for
+otherwise there would be one perfection wanting,
+and so he would not be infinite, which he either is
+actually or possibly. It is needless to remark that
+this whole argument, whatever may be said of the
+former one, is a pure fallacy, and a <i>petitio principii</i>
+throughout. The Cartesian form of it is the most
+glaringly fallacious, and indeed exposes itself; for
+by that reasoning we might prove the existence of
+a fiery dragon or any other phantom of the brain.
+But even King's more concealed sophism is equally
+absurd. What ground is there for saying that
+the number of possible things is infinite? He
+adds, &#8220;at least in power,&#8221; which means either
+nothing or only that we have the power of conceiving
+an infinite number of possibilities. But
+<!-- Page 81 -->
+because we can conceive or fancy an infinity of
+possibilities, does it follow that there actually exists
+this infinity? The whole argument is unworthy
+of a moment's consideration. The other is
+more plausible, that restriction implies a restraining
+power. But even this is not satisfactory when
+closely examined. For although the first cause
+must be self-existent and of eternal duration, we
+only are driven by the necessity of supposing a
+cause whereon all the argument rests, to suppose
+one capable of causing all that actually exists;
+and, therefore, to extend this inference and suppose
+that the cause is of infinite power seems gratuitous.
+Nor is it necessary to suppose another
+power limiting its efficacy, if we do not find it
+necessary to suppose its own constitution and essence
+such as we term infinitely powerful. However,
+after noticing this manifest defect in the
+fundamental part of the argument, that which infers
+infinite power, let us for the present assume
+the position to be proved either by these or by any
+other reasons, and see if the structure raised upon
+it is such as can stand the test of examination.
+
+<P>Thus, then, an infinitely powerful Being exists,
+and he was the creator of the universe; but to incline
+him towards the creation there could be no
+possible motive of happiness to himself, and he
+must, says King, have either sought his own
+happiness or that of the universe which he made.
+<!-- Page 82 -->
+Therefore his own ideas must have been the communication
+of happiness to the creature. He
+could only desire to exercise his attributes without,
+or eternally to himself, which before creating
+other beings he could not do. But this could only
+gratify his nature, which wants nothing, being
+perfect in itself, by communicating his goodness
+and providing for the happiness of other sentient
+beings created by him for this purpose. Therefore,
+says King, &#8220;it manifestly follows that the
+world is as well as it could be made by infinite
+power and goodness; for since the exercise of the
+divine power and the communication of his goodness
+are the ends, for which the world is formed,
+there is no doubt but God has attained these ends.&#8221;
+And again, &#8220;If then anything inconvenient or incommodious
+be now, or was from the beginning in
+it, that certainly could not be hindered or removed
+even by infinite power, wisdom and goodness.&#8221;
+
+<P>Now certainly no one can deny, that if God be
+infinitely powerful and also infinitely good, it must
+follow that whatever looks like evil, either is not
+really evil, or that it is such as infinite power could
+not avoid. This is implied in the very terms of
+the hypothesis. It may also be admitted that if
+the Deity's only object in his dispensation be the
+happiness of his creatures, the same conclusion
+follows even without assuming his nature to be
+infinitely good; for we admit what, for the purpose
+<!-- Page 83 -->
+of the argument, is the same thing, namely, that
+there entered no evil into his design in creating
+or maintaining the universe. But all this really
+assumes the very thing to be proved. King gets
+over the difficulty and reaches his conclusion by
+saying, &#8220;The Deity could have only one of two
+objects&#8212;his own happiness or that of his creatures.&#8221;&#8212;The
+skeptic makes answer, &#8220;He might
+have another object, namely, the misery of his
+creatures;&#8221; and then the whole question is,
+whether or not he had this other object; or, which
+is the same thing, whether or not his nature is
+perfectly good. It must never be forgotten that
+unless evil exists there is nothing to dispute
+about&#8212;the question falls. The whole difficulty
+arises from the admission that evil exists, or what
+we call evil, exists. From this we inquire whether
+or not the author of it can be perfectly benevolent?
+or if he be, with what view he has created it?
+This assumes him to be infinitely powerful, or at
+least powerful enough to have prevented the evil;
+but indeed we are now arguing with the Archbishop
+on the supposition that he has proved the
+Deity to be of infinite power. The skeptic rests
+upon his dilemma, and either alternative, limited
+power or limited goodness, satisfies him.
+
+<p>It is quite plain, therefore, that King has assumed
+the thing to be proved in his first argument,
+or argument <i>a priori</i>. For he proceeds upon
+<!-- Page 84 -->
+the postulates that the Deity is infinitely good,
+and that he only had human happiness in view
+when he made the world.  Either supposition
+would have served his purpose; and making either
+would have been taking for granted the whole
+matter in dispute. But he has assumed both; and
+it must be added, he has made his assumption of
+both as if he was only laying down a single position.
+This part of the work is certainly more
+slovenly than the rest. It is the third section of
+the first chapter.
+
+<P>It is certainly not from any reluctance to admit
+the existence of evil that the learned author and
+his able commentator have been led into this inconclusive
+course of reasoning. We shall nowhere
+find more striking expositions of the state
+of things in this respect, nor more gloomy descriptions
+of our condition, than in their celebrated
+work. &#8220;Whence so many, inaccuracies,&#8221; says the
+Archbishop, &#8220;in the work of a most good and
+powerful God? Whence that perpetual war between
+the very elements, between animals, between
+men? Whence errors, miseries and vices, the
+constant companions of human life from its infancy?
+Whence good to evil men, evil to the
+good? If we behold anything irregular in the
+work of men, if any machine serves not the end it
+was made for, if we find something in it repugnant
+to itself or others, we attribute that to the
+<!-- Page 85 -->
+ignorance, impatience or malice of the workman.
+But since these qualities have no place in God,
+how come they to have place in anything? Or
+why does God suffer his works to be deformed by
+them?&#8221;&#8212;Chap. ii. s. 3. Bishop Law, in his admirable
+preface, still more cogently puts the case:
+&#8220;When I inquire how I got into the world, and
+came to be what I am, I am told that an absolutely
+perfect being produced me out of nothing, and
+placed me here on purpose to communicate some
+part of his happiness to me, and to make me in
+some manner like himself. This end is not obtained&#8212;the
+direct contrary appears&#8212;I find myself
+surrounded with nothing but perplexity, want
+and misery&#8212;by whose fault I know not&#8212;how to
+better myself I cannot tell. What notions of good
+and goodness can this afford me? What ideas of
+religion? What hopes of a future state? For if
+God's aim in producing me be entirely unknown,
+if it be either his glory (as some will have it),
+which my present state is far from advancing, nor
+mine own good, which the same is equally inconsistent
+with, how know I what I have to do here,
+or indeed in what manner I must endeavor to
+please him? Or why should I endeavor it at all?
+For if I must be miserable in this world, what
+security have I that I shall not be so in another
+too (if there be one), since if it were the will of
+my Almighty Creator, I might (for aught I see)
+<!-- Page 86 -->
+have been happy in both.&#8221;&#8212;Pref. viii. The question
+thus is stated. The difficulty is raised in its
+full and formidable magnitude by both these
+learned and able men; that they have signally
+failed to lay it by the argument <i>a priori</i> is plain.
+Indeed, it seems wholly impossible ever to answer
+by an argument <i>a priori</i> any objection whatever
+which arises altogether out of the facts made
+known to us by experience alone, and which are
+therefore in the nature of contingent truths, resting
+upon contingent evidence, while all demonstrations
+<i>a priori</i> must necessarily proceed upon
+mathematical truths. Let us now see if their
+labors have been more successful in applying to
+the solution of the difficulty the reasoning <i>a
+posteriori.</i>
+
+<P>Archbishop King divides evil into three kinds&#8212;imperfection,
+natural evil and moral evil&#8212;including
+under the last head all the physical evils
+that arise from human actions, as well as the evils
+which consists in the guilt of those actions.
+
+<P>The existence of imperfection is stated to be
+necessary, because everything which is created
+and not self-existent must be imperfect; consequently
+every work of the Deity, in other words,
+everything but the Deity himself, must have imperfection
+in its nature. Nor is the existence of
+some beings which are imperfect any interference
+with the attributes of others. Nor the existence
+<!-- Page 87 -->
+of beings with many imperfections any interference
+with others having pre-eminence. The goodness
+of the Deity therefore is not impugned by
+the existence of various orders of created beings
+more or less approaching to perfection. His creating
+none at all would have left the universe less
+admirable and containing less happiness than it
+now does. Therefore, the act of mere benevolence
+which called those various orders into existence is
+not impeached in respect of goodness any more
+than of power by the variety of the attributes
+possessed by the different beings created.
+
+<P>He now proceeds to grapple with the real difficulty
+of the question. And it is truly astonishing
+to find this acute metaphysician begin with an assumption
+which entirely begs that question. As
+imperfection, says he, arises from created beings
+having been made out of nothing, so natural evils
+arise &#8220;from all natural things having a relation to
+matter, and on this account being necessarily
+subject to natural evil.&#8221; As long as matter is
+subject to motion, it must be the subject of generation
+and corruption. &#8220;These and all other natural
+evils,&#8221; says the author, &#8220;are so necessarily connected
+with the material origin of things that they
+cannot be separated from it, and thus the structure
+of the world either ought not to have been formed
+at all, or these evils must have been tolerated
+without any imputation on the divine power and
+<!-- Page 88 -->
+goodness.&#8221; Again, he says, &#8220;corruption could
+not be avoided without violence done to the laws
+of motion and the nature of matter.&#8221; Again, &#8220;All
+manner of inconveniences could not be avoided
+because of the imperfection of matter and the nature
+of motion. That state of things were therefore
+preferable which was attained with the fewest and
+the least inconveniences.&#8221; Then follows a kind
+of menace, &#8220;And who but a very rash, indiscreet
+person will affirm that God has not made choice
+of this?&#8221;&#8212;when every one must perceive that
+the bare propounding of the question concerning
+evil calls upon us to exercise this temerity and
+commit this indiscretion.&#8212;Chap. iv. s. <SPAN CLASS=smallcaps>i</SPAN>, div.
+7.
+He then goes into more detail as to particular
+cases of natural evil; but all are handled in the
+same way. Thus death is explained by saying
+that the bodies of animals are a kind of vessels
+which contain fluids in motion, and being broken,
+the fluids are spilt and the motions cease; &#8220;because
+by the native imperfection of matter it is
+capable of dissolution, and the spilling and stagnation
+must necessarily follow, and with it animal
+life must cease.&#8221;&#8212;Chap. iv. s. 3. Disease is dealt
+with in like manner. &#8220;It could not be avoided
+unless animals had been made of a quite different
+frame and constitution.&#8221;&#8212;Chap. iv. s. 7. The
+whole reasoning is summed up in the concluding
+section of this part, where the author somewhat
+<!-- Page 89 -->
+triumphantly says, &#8220;The difficult question then,
+whence comes evil? is not unanswerable. For it
+arises from the very nature and constitution of
+created beings, and could not be avoided without
+a contradiction.&#8221;&#8212;Chap. iv. s. 9. To this the
+commentary of Bishop Law adds (Note 4<SPAN CLASS=smallcaps>i</SPAN>), &#8220;that
+natural evil has been shown to be, in every case,
+unavoidable, without introducing into the system
+a greater evil.&#8221;
+
+<P>It is certain that many persons, led away by the
+authority of a great name, have been accustomed
+to regard this work as a text-book, and have appealed
+to Archbishop King and his learned commentator
+as having solved the question. So many
+men have referred to the <i>Principia</i> as showing the
+motions of the heavenly bodies, who never read, or
+indeed could read, a page of that immortal work.
+But no man ever did open it who could read it and
+find himself disappointed in any one particular;
+the whole demonstration is perfect; not a link is
+wanting; nothing is assumed. How different the
+case here! We open the work of the prelate and
+find it from the first to last a chain of gratuitous
+assumptions, and, of the main point, nothing
+whatever is either proved or explained. Evil
+arises, he says, from the nature of matter. Who
+doubts it? But is not the whole question why
+matter was created with such properties as of
+necessity to produce evil? It was impossible, says
+<!-- Page 90 -->
+he, to avoid it consistently with the laws of motion
+and matter. Unquestionably; but the whole dispute
+is upon those laws. If indeed the laws of
+nature, the existing constitution of the material
+world, were assumed as necessary, and as binding
+upon the Deity, how is it possible that any question
+ever could have been raised? The Deity
+having the power to make those laws, to endow
+matter with that constitution, and having also the
+power to make different laws and to give matter
+another constitution, the whole question is, how
+his choosing to create the present existing order of
+things&#8212;the laws and the constitution which we
+find to prevail&#8212;can be reconciled with perfect
+goodness. The whole argument of the Archbishop
+assumes that matter and its laws are independent
+of the Deity; and the only conclusion to which
+the inquiry leads us is that the Creator has made
+a world with as little of evil in it as the nature of
+things,&#8212;that is, as the laws of nature and matter&#8212;allowed
+him; which is nonsense, if those laws
+were made by him, and leaves the question where
+it was, or rather solves it by giving up the omnipotence
+of the Creator, if these laws were binding
+upon him.
+
+<P>It must be added, however, that Dr. King and
+Dr. Law are not singular in pursuing this most
+inconclusive course of reasoning.
+
+<P>Thus Dr. J. Clarke, in his treatise on natural
+<!-- Page 91 -->
+evil, quoted by Bishop Law (Note 32), shows how
+mischiefs arise from the laws of matter; and says
+this could not be avoided &#8220;without altering those
+primary laws, i. e., making it something else than
+what it is, or changing it into another form; the
+result of which would only be to render it liable
+to evils of another kind against which the same
+objections would equally lie.&#8221; So Dr. J. Burnett,
+in his discourses on evil, at the Boyle Lecture
+(vol. ii. P. 201), conceives that he explains death
+by saying that the materials of which the body is
+composed &#8220;cannot last beyond seventy years, or
+thereabouts, and it was originally intended that
+we should die at that age.&#8221; Pain, too, he imagines
+is accounted for by observing that we are endowed
+with feelings, and that if we could not feel pain, so
+neither could we pleasure (p. 202). Again, he
+says that there are certain qualities which &#8220;in the
+nature of things matter is incapable of&#8221; (p. 207).
+And as if he really felt the pressure of this difficulty,
+be at length comes to this conclusion, that
+life is a free gift, which we had no right to exact,
+and which the Deity lay under no necessity to
+grant, and therefore we must take it with the conditions
+annexed (p. 210); which is undeniably
+true, but is excluding the discussion and not answering
+the question proposed. Nor must it be
+forgotten that some reasoners deal strangely with
+the facts. Thus Derham, in his <i>Physico-Theology</i>,
+<!-- Page 92 -->
+explaining the use of poison in snakes, first desires
+us to bear in mind that many venomous ones
+are of use medicinally in stubborn diseases, which
+is not true, and if it were, would prove nothing,
+unless the venom, not the flesh, were proved to be
+medicinal; and then says, they are &#8220;scourges
+upon ungrateful and sinful men;&#8221; adding the
+truly astounding absurdity, &#8220;that the nations
+which know not God are the most annoyed with
+noxious reptiles and other pernicious creatures.&#8221;
+(Book ix. c. <SPAN CLASS=smallcaps>i</SPAN>); which if it were true would raise
+a double difficulty, by showing that one people was
+scourged because another had neglected to preach
+the gospel among them. Dr. J. Burnett, too, accounts
+for animals being suffered to be killed as
+food for man, by affirming that they thereby gain
+all the care which man is thus led to bestow upon
+them, and so are, on the whole, the better for
+being eaten. (Boyle Lecture, II. 207). But the
+most singular error has perhaps been fallen into
+by Dr. Sherlock, and the most, unhappy&#8212;which
+yet Bishop Law has cited as a sufficient answer to
+the objection respecting death: &#8220;It is a great instrument
+of government, and makes men afraid of
+committing such villanies as the laws of their
+country have made capital.&#8221; (Note 34). So that
+the greatest error in the criminal legislation of all
+countries forms part of the divine providence, and
+man has at length discovered, by the light of reason,
+<!-- Page 93 -->
+the folly and the wickedness of using an instrument
+expressly created by divine Omniscience
+to be abused!
+
+<P>The remaining portion of King's work, filling
+the second volume of Bishop Law's edition, is devoted
+to the explanation of Moral Evil; and here
+the gratuitous assumption of the &#8220;nature of
+things,&#8221; and the &#8220;laws of nature,&#8221; more or less
+pervade the whole as in the former parts of the
+Inquiry.
+
+<P>The fundamental position of the whole is, that
+man having been endowed with free will, his
+happiness consists in making due elections, or in
+the right exercise of that free will. Five causes
+are then given of undue elections, in which of
+course his misery consists as far as that depends
+on himself; these causes are error, negligence,
+over-indulgence of free choice, obstinacy or bad
+habit, and the importunity of natural appetites;
+which last, it must in passing be remarked, belongs
+to the head of physical evil, and cannot be
+assumed in this discussion without begging the
+question. The great difficulty is then stated and
+grappled with, namely, how to reconcile these
+undue elections with divine goodness. The objector
+states that free will might exist without the
+power of making undue elections, he being suffered
+to range, as it were, only among lawful objects of
+choice. But the answer to this seems sound, that
+<!-- Page 94 -->
+such a will would only be free in name; it would
+be free to choose among certain things, but would
+not be free-will. The objector again urges, that
+either the choice is free and may fall upon evil
+objects, against the goodness of God, or it is so
+restrained as only to fall on good objects. Against
+freedom of the will King's solution is, that more
+evil would result from preventing these undue
+elections than from suffering them, and so the
+Deity has only done the best he could in the circumstances;
+a solution obviously liable to the
+same objection as that respecting Natural Evil.
+There are three ways, says the Archbishop, in
+which undue elections might have been prevented;
+not creating a free agent&#8212;constant interference
+with his free-will&#8212;removing him to another state
+where he would not be tempted to go astray in his
+choice. A fourth mode may, however, be
+suggested&#8212;creating a free-agent without any inclination
+to evil, or any temptation from external
+objects. When our author disposes of the second
+method, by stating that it assumes a constant
+miracle, as great in the moral as altering the
+course of the planets hourly would be in the material
+universe, nothing can be more sound or
+more satisfactory. But when he argues that our
+whole happiness consists in a consciousness of
+freedom of election, and that we should never
+know happiness were we restrained in any particular,
+<!-- Page 95 -->
+it seems wholly inconceivable how he should
+have omitted to consider the prodigious comfort of
+a state in which we should be guaranteed against
+any error or impropriety of choice; a state in
+which we should both be unable to go astray and
+always feel conscious of that security. He, however,
+begs the question most manifestly in dealing
+with the two other methods stated, by which undue
+elections might have been precluded. &#8220;You
+would have freedom,&#8221; says he, &#8220;without any inclination
+to sin; but it may justly be doubted if
+this is possible <i>in the present state of things</i>,&#8221; (chap.
+v. s. 5, sub. 2); and again, in answering the
+question why God did not remove us into another state
+where no temptation could seduce us, he says: &#8220;It
+is plain that <i>in the present state of things</i> it is impossible
+for men to live without natural evils or
+the danger of sinning.&#8221; (<i>Ib</i>.) Now the whole
+question arises upon the constitution of the present
+state of things. If that is allowed to be inevitable,
+or is taken as a datum in the discussion, there
+ceases to be any question at all.
+
+<P>The doctrine of a chain of being is enlarged
+upon, and with much felicity of illustration. But
+it only wraps up the difficulty in other words,
+without solving it. For then the question becomes
+this&#8212;Why did the Deity create such a chain as
+could not be filled up without misery? It is, indeed,
+merely restating the fact of evil existing;
+<!-- Page 96 -->
+for whether we say there is suffering among sentient
+beings&#8212;or the universe consists of beings
+more or less happy, more or less miserable&#8212;or
+there exists a chain of beings varying in perfection
+and in felicity&#8212;it is manifestly all one proposition.
+The remark of Bayle upon this view of
+the subject is really not at all unsound, and is
+eminently ingenious: &#8220;Would you defend a king
+who should confine all his subjects of a certain
+age in dungeons, upon the ground that if he did
+not, many of the cells he had built must remain
+empty?&#8221; The answer of Bishop Law to this remark
+is by no means satisfactory. He says it
+assumes that more misery than happiness exists.
+Now, in this view of the question, the balance is
+quite immaterial. The existence of any evil at all
+raises the question as much as the preponderance
+of evil over good, because the question conceives a
+perfectly good Being, and asks how such a Being
+can have permitted any evil at all. Upon this
+part of the subject both King and Law have fallen
+into an error which recent discoveries place in a
+singularly clear light. They say that the argument
+they are dealing with would lead to leaving
+the earth to the brutes without human inhabitants.
+But the recent discoveries in Fossil Osteology
+have proved that the earth, for ages before the last
+5,000 or 6,000 years, was left to the lower animals;
+nay, that in a still earlier period of its existence
+<!-- Page 97 -->
+no animal life at all was maintained upon its surface.
+So that, in fact, the foundation is removed
+of the <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> attempted by the
+learned prelates.
+
+<P>A singular argument is used towards the latter
+end of the inquiry. When the Deity, it is said,
+resolved to create other beings, He must of necessity
+tolerate imperfect natures in his handiwork,
+just as he must the equality of a circle's radii
+when he drew a circle. Who does not perceive
+the difference? The meaning of the word circle
+is that the radii are all equal; this equality is a
+necessary truth. But it is not shown that men
+could not exist without the imperfections they
+labor under. Yet this is the argument suggested
+by these authors while complaining (chap. v. s.
+5, sub. 7, div. 7), that Lactantius had not sufficiently
+answered the Epicurean dilemma; it is
+the substitute propounded to supply that father's
+deficiency.&#8212;&#8220;When, therefore,&#8221; says the Archbishop,
+&#8220;matter, motion and free-will are constituted,
+the Deity must necessarily permit corruption
+of things and the abuse of liberty, or something
+worse, for these cannot be separated without a
+contradiction, and God is no more important, because
+he cannot separate equality of radii from a
+circle.&#8221;&#8212;Chap. v. s. 5, subs. 7. If he could not
+have created evil, he would not have been omnipotent;
+if he would not, he must let his power lie
+<!-- Page 98 -->
+idle; and rejecting evil have rejected all the good.
+&#8220;Thus,&#8221; exclaims the author with triumph and
+self-complacency, &#8220;then vanishes this Herculean
+argument which induced the Epicureans to discard
+the good Deity, and the Manicheans to substitute
+an evil one.&#8221; (<i>Ib.</i> subs. 7, <i>sub. fine.</i>) Nor is
+the explanation rendered more satisfactory, or indeed
+more intelligible, by the concluding passage
+of all, in which we are told that &#8220;from a conflict
+of two properties, namely, omnipotence and goodness,
+evils necessarily arise. These attributes
+amicably conspire together, and yet restrain and
+limit each other.&#8221; It might have been expected
+from hence that no evil at all should be found to
+exist. &#8220;There is a kind of struggle and opposition
+between them, whereof the evils in nature
+bear the shadow and resemblance. Here, then,
+and no where else, mar we find the primary and
+most certain rise and origin of evils.&#8221;
+
+<P>Such is this celebrated work; and it may safely
+be affirmed that a more complete failure to overcome
+a great and admitted difficulty&#8212;a more unsatisfactory
+solution of an important question&#8212;is
+not to be found in the whole history of metaphysical science.
+
+<P>Among the authors who have treated of this
+subject, a high place is justly given to Archdeacon
+Bulguy, whose work on <i>Divine Benevolence</i> is always
+referred to by Dr. Paley with great commendation.
+<!-- Page 99 -->
+But certain it is that this learned and
+pious writer either had never formed to himself a
+very precise notion of the real question under discussion,
+namely, the compatibility of the appearances
+which we see and which we consider as evil,
+with a Being infinitely powerful as well as good;
+or he had in his mind some opinions respecting
+the divine nature, opinions of a limitary kind,
+which he does not state distinctly, although he
+constantly suffers them to influence his seasonings.
+Hence, whenever he comes close to the
+real difficulty he appears to beg the question. A
+very few instances of what really pervades the
+whole work will suffice to show how unsatisfactory
+its general scope is, although it contains, like the
+treatise of Dr. King and Dr. Law's Commentary,
+many valuable observations on the details of the
+subject.
+
+<P>And first we may perceive that what he terms a
+&#8220;<i>previous remark,</i>&#8221; and desires the reader &#8220;to
+carry along through the whole proof of divine
+benevolence,&#8221; really contains a statement that <i>the
+difficulty is to be evaded and not met.</i> &#8220;An intention
+of producing good,&#8221; says he, &#8220;will be sufficiently
+apparent in any particular instance if the
+thing considered can neither be changed nor taken
+away without loss or harm, <i>all other things continuing
+the same.</i> Should you suppose <i>various</i>
+things in the system changed <i>at once</i>, you can
+<!-- Page 100 -->
+neither judge of the possibility nor the consequences
+of the changes, having no degree of experience
+to direct you.&#8221; Now assuredly this
+postulate makes the whole question as easy a one
+as ever metaphysician or naturalist had to solve.
+For it is no longer&#8212;Why did a powerful and benevolent
+Being create a world in which there is
+evil&#8212;but only&#8212;The world being given, how far
+are its different arrangements consistent with one
+another? According to this, the earthquake at
+Lisbon, Voltaire's favorite instance, destroyed
+thousands of persons, because it is in the nature
+of things that subterraneous vapors should explode,
+and that when houses fall on human beings
+they should be killed. Then if Dr. Balguy goes
+to his other argument, on which be often dwells,
+that if this nature were altered, we cannot possibly
+tell whether worse might not ensue; this, too, is
+assuming a limited power in the Deity, contrary
+to the hypothesis. It may most justly be said,
+that if there be any one supposition necessarily
+excluded from the whole argument, it is the fundamental
+supposition of the &#8220;previous remark,&#8221;
+namely, &#8220;all other things continuing the same.&#8221;
+
+<P>But see how this assumption pervades and paralyzes
+the whole argument, rendering it utterly
+inconclusive. The author is to answer an objection
+derived from the constitution of our appetites
+for food, and his reply is, that &#8220;we cannot tell
+<!-- Page 101 -->
+how far it was <i>possible</i> for the stomachs and palates
+of animals to be differently formed, unless by
+some remedy worse than the disease.&#8221; Again,
+upon the question of pain: &#8220;How do we know
+that it was <i>possible</i> for the uneasy sensation to be
+confined to particular cases?&#8221; So we meet the
+same fallacy under another form, as evil being the
+result of &#8220;general principles.&#8221; But no one has
+ever pushed this so far as Dr. Balguy, for he says,
+&#8220;that in a government so conducted, many events
+are likely to happen contrary to the intention of
+its author.&#8221; He now calls in the aid of chance, or
+accident.&#8212;&#8220;It is probable,&#8221; he says, &#8220;that God
+should be good, for evil is more likely to be <i>accidental</i>
+than appears from experience in the conduct
+of men.&#8221; Indeed, his fundamental position
+of the Deity's benevolence is rested upon this
+foundation, that &#8220;pleasures only were intended,
+and that the pains are accidental consequences,
+although the means of producing pleasures.&#8221; The
+same recourse to accident is repeatedly had.
+Thus, &#8220;the events to which we are exposed in
+this imperfect state appear to be the <i>accidental</i>, not
+natural, effects of our frame and condition.&#8221; Now
+can any one thing be more manifest than that the
+very first notion of a wise and powerful Being excludes
+all such assumptions as things happening
+contrary to His intention; and that when we use
+the word chance or accident, which only means
+<!-- Page 102 -->
+our human ignorance of causes, we at once give
+up the whole question, as if we said, &#8220;It is a subject
+about which we know nothing.&#8221; So again as
+to power. &#8220;A good design is more <i>difficult</i> to be
+executed, and therefore more likely to be executed
+<i>imperfectly</i>, than an evil one, that is, with a mixture
+of effects foreign to the design and opposite
+to it.&#8221; This at once assumes the Deity to be
+powerless. But a general statement is afterwards
+made more distinctly to the same effect. &#8220;Most
+sure it is that he can do all things possible. But
+are we in any degree competent judges of the
+bounds of possibility?&#8221; So again under another
+form nature is introduced as something different
+from its author, and offering limits to his power.
+&#8220;It is plainly not the method of nature to obtain
+her ends instantaneously.&#8221; Passing over such
+propositions as that &#8220;<i>useless</i> evil is a thing never
+seen,&#8221; (when the whole question is why the same
+ends were not attained without evil), and a variety
+of other subordinate assumptions contrary to the
+hypothesis, we may rest with this general statement,
+which almost every page of Dr. Balguy's
+book bears out, that the question which be has set
+himself to solve is anything rather than the real
+one touching the Origin of Evil; and that this
+attempt at a solution is as ineffectual as any of
+those which we have been considering.
+
+<P>Is, then, the question wholly incapable of solution,
+<!-- Page 103 -->
+which all these learned and ingenious men
+have so entirely failed in solving? Must the
+difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and only
+be approached to discover that it is insuperable?
+<i>Must the subject, of all others the most interesting
+for us to know well, be to us always as a sealed
+book, of which we can never know anything?</i> From
+the nature of the thing&#8212;from the question relating
+to the operation of a power which, to our
+limited faculties, must ever be incomprehensible&#8212;there
+seems too much reason for believing that
+nothing precise or satisfactory ever will be attained
+by human reason regarding this great
+argument; and that the bounds which limit our
+views will only be passed when we have quitted
+the encumbrances of our mortal state, and are permitted
+to survey those regions beyond the sphere
+of our present circumscribed existence. The
+other branch of Natural Theology, that which investigates
+the evidences of Intelligence and Design,
+and leads us to a clear apprehension of the
+Deity's power and wisdom, is as satisfactorily
+cultivated as any other department of science,
+rests upon the same species of proof, and affords
+results as precise as they are sublime. This
+branch will never be distinctly known, and will
+always so disappoint the inquirer as to render the
+lights of Revelation peculiarly acceptable, although
+even those lights leave much of it still
+<!-- Page 104 -->
+involved in darkness&#8212;still mysterious and obscure.<A NAME="S2"
+HREF="#R2"><FONT SIZE=-1><SUP>2</SUP></FONT></A>
+
+<P>Yet let us endeavor to suggest some possible
+explication, while we admit that nothing certain,
+nothing entirely satisfactory can be reached. The
+failure of the great writers whose works we have
+been contemplating may well teach us humility,
+make us distrust ourselves, and moderate within
+us any sanguine hopes of success. But they
+should not make us wholly despair of at least
+showing in what direction the solution of the difficulty
+is to be sought, and whereabouts it will
+probably be found situated, when our feeble reason
+shall be strengthened and expanded. For one
+cause of their discomfiture certainly has been their
+aiming too high, attempting a complete solution
+of a problem which only admitted of approximation,
+and discussion of limits.
+
+<P>It is admitted on all hands that the demonstration
+is complete which shows the existence of intelligence
+and design in the universe. The
+structure of the eye and ear in exact confirmity to
+the laws of optics and acoustics, shows as clearly
+as any experiment can show anything, that the
+source, cause or origin is common both to the
+<!-- Page 105 -->
+properties of light and the formation of the lenses
+and retina in the eye&#8212;both to the properties of
+sound and the tympanum, malleus, incus and
+stapes of the ear. No doubt whatever can exist
+upon the subject, any more than, if we saw a particular
+order issued to a body of men to perform
+certain uncommon evolutions, and afterwards saw
+the same body performing those same evolutions,
+we could doubt their having received the order.
+A designing and intelligent and skillful author of
+these admirably adapted works is equally a clear
+inference from the same facts. We can no more
+doubt it than we can question, when we see a mill
+grinding corn into flour, that the machinery was
+made by some one who designed by means of it to
+prepare the materials of bread. The same conclusions
+are drawn in a vast variety of other instances,
+both with respect to the parts of human and other
+bodies, and with respect to most of the other arrangements
+of nature. Similar conclusions are
+also drawn from our consciousness, and the knowledge
+which it gives us of the structure of the
+mind.<A NAME="S3" HREF="#R3"><FONT SIZE=-1><SUP>3</SUP></FONT></A>
+Thus we find that attention quickens
+<!-- Page 106 -->
+memory and enables us to recollect; and that
+habit renders all exertions and all acquisitions
+easy, beside having the effect of alleviating pain.
+
+<P>But when we carry our survey into other parts,
+whether of the natural or moral system, we cannot
+discover any design at all. We frequently perceive
+structures the use of which we know nothing
+about; parts of the animal frame that apparently
+have no functions to perform&#8212;nay, that are the
+source of pain without yielding any perceptible
+advantage; arrangements and movements of bodies
+which are of one particular kind, and yet we are
+quite at a loss to discern any reason why they
+might not have been of many other descriptions;
+operations of nature that seem to serve no purpose
+whatever; and other operations and other arrangements,
+chosen equally without any beneficial view,
+and yet which often give rise to much apparent
+confusion and mischief. Now, the question is,
+<i>first</i>, whether in any one of these cases of arrangement
+and structures with no visible object at all,
+we can for a moment suppose that there really is
+no object answered, or only conceive that we have
+been unable to discover it? <i>Secondly</i>, whether in
+the cases where mischief sometimes is perceived,
+and no other purpose appears to be effected, we do
+not almost as uniformly lay the blame on our own
+ignorance, and conclude, not that the arrangement
+was made without any design, and that mischief
+<!-- Page 107 -->
+arises without any contriver, but that if we knew
+the whole case we should find a design and contrivance,
+and also that the apparent mischief would
+sink into the general good? It is not necessary
+to admit, for our present purpose, this latter proposition,
+though it brings us closer to the matter in
+hand; it is sufficient for the present to admit, what
+no one doubts, that when a part of the body, for
+instance, is discovered, to which, like the spleen,
+we cannot assign any function in the animal system,
+we never think of concluding that it is made
+for no use, but only that we have as yet not been
+able to discover its use.
+
+<P>Now, let us ask, why do we, without any hesitation
+whatever, or any exception whatever, always
+and immediately arrive at this conclusion
+respecting intelligence and design? Nothing
+could be more unphilosophical, nay, more groundless,
+than such a process of reasoning, if we had
+only been able to trace design in one or two instances;
+for instance, if we found only the eye to
+show proofs of contrivance, it would be wholly
+gratuitous, when we saw the ear, to assume that it
+was adapted to the nature of sound, and still more
+so, if, on examination, we perceived it bore no
+perceptible relation to the laws of acoustics. The
+proof of contrivance in one particular is nothing
+like a proof, nay, does not even furnish the least
+presumption of contrivance in other particulars;
+<!-- Page 108 -->
+because, <i>a priori</i>, it is just as easy to suppose one
+part of nature to be designed for a purpose, and
+another part, nay, all other parts, to be formed at
+random and without any contrivance, as to suppose
+that the formation of the whole is governed
+by design. Why, then, do we, invariably and
+undoubtedly, adopt the course of reasoning which
+has been mentioned, and never for a moment suspect
+anything to be formed without some reason&#8212;some
+rational purpose? The only ground of this
+belief is, that we have been able distinctly to trace
+design in so vast a majority of cases as leaves us
+no power of doubting that, if our faculties had
+been sufficiently powerful, or our, investigation
+sufficiently diligent, we should also have been able
+to trace it in those comparatively few instances respecting
+which we still are in the dark.
+
+<P>It may be worth while to give a few instances of
+the ignorance in which we once were of design in
+some important arrangements of nature, and of the
+knowledge which we now possess to show the purpose
+of their formation. Before Sir Isaac Newton's
+optical discoveries, we could not tell why the
+structure of the eye was so complex, and why
+several lenses and humors were required to form a
+picture of objects upon the retina. Indeed, until
+Dolland's subsequent discovery of the achromatic
+effect of combining various glasses, and Mr. Blair's
+still more recent experiments on the powers of
+<!-- Page 109 -->
+different refracting media, we were not able distinctly
+to perceive the operation and use of the
+complicacy in the structure of the eye. We now
+well understand its nature, and are able to comprehend
+how that which had at one time, nay, for
+ages, seemed to be an unnecessary complexity;
+forms the most perfect of all optical instruments,
+and according to the most certain laws of refraction
+and of dispersion.
+
+<P>So, too, we had observed for some centuries the
+forms of the orbits in which the heavenly bodies
+move, and we had found these to be ellipses with
+a very small eccentricity. But why this was the
+form of those orbits no one could even conjecture.
+If any person, the most deeply skilled in mathematical
+science, and the most internally convinced
+of the universal prevalence of design and contrivance
+in the structure of the universe, had been
+asked what reason there was for the planets moving
+in ellipses so, nearly approaching to circles, he
+could not have given any good reason, at least beyond
+a guess. The force of gravitation, even
+admitting that to be, as it were, a condition of the
+creation of matter, would have made those bodies
+revolve in ellipses of any degree of eccentricity
+just as well, provided the angle and the force of
+projection had been varied. Then, why was this
+form rather, than any other chosen? No one
+knew; yet no one doubted that there was ample
+<!-- Page 110 -->
+reason for it. Accordingly the sublime discoveries
+of Lagrange and La Place have shown us that this
+small eccentricity is one material element in the
+formula by which it is shown that all the irregularities
+of the system are periodical, and that the
+deviation never can exceed a certain amount on
+either hand.
+
+<P>But, again, while we are ignorant of this, perhaps
+the most sublime truth in all science, we
+were always arguing as if the system had an imperfection,
+as if the disturbing forces of the different
+planets and the sun, acting on one another,
+constantly changed the orbits of each planet, and
+must, in a course of ages, work the destruction of
+the whole planetary arrangement which we had
+contemplated with so great admiration and with
+awe. It was deemed enough if we could show
+that this derangement must be extremely slow,
+and that, therefore, the system might last for many
+more ages without requiring any interposition of
+omnipotent skill to preserve it by rectifying its
+motions. Thus one of the most celebrated writers
+above cited argues that, &#8220;from the nature of gravitation
+and the concentricity of the orbits, the irregularities
+produced are so slowly operated in
+contracting, dilating and inclining those orbits,
+that the system may go on for many thousand
+years before any extraordinary interference becomes
+necessary in order to correct it.&#8221; And Dr.
+<!-- Page 111 -->
+Burnett adds, that &#8220;those small irregularities cast
+no discredit on the good contrivance of the whole.&#8221;
+Nothing, however, could cast greater discredit if it
+were as he supposed, and as all men previous to
+the late discoveries supposed; it was only, they
+rather think, a &#8220;small irregularity,&#8221; which was
+every hour tending to the destruction of the whole
+system, and which must have deranged or confounded
+its whole structure long before it destroyed
+it. Yet now we see that the wisdom, to
+which a thousand years are as one day, not satisfied
+with constructing a fabric which might last
+for &#8220;many thousand years without His interference,&#8221;
+has so formed it that it may thus endure
+forever.
+
+<P>Now if such be the grounds of our belief in the
+universal prevalence of Design, and such the different
+lights which at different periods of our
+progress in science we possess upon this branch
+of the divine government; if we undoubtingly believe
+that contrivance is universal only because
+we can trace and comprehend it in a great majority
+of instances, and if the number of exceptions to
+the rule is occasionally diminished as our knowledge
+of the particulars is from time to time extended&#8212;may
+we not apply the same principle to
+the apprehension of Benevolent purpose, and infer
+from the number of instances in which we plainly
+perceive a good intention, that if we were better
+<!-- Page 112 -->
+acquainted with those cases in which a contrary
+intention is now apparent, we should there, too,
+find the generally pervading character of Benevolence
+to prevail? Not only is this the manner in
+which we reason respecting the Design of the Creator
+from examining his works; it is the manner
+in which we treat the conduct of our fellow-creatures.
+A man of the most extensive benevolence
+and strictest integrity in his general deportment
+has done something equivocal; nay, something
+apparently harsh and cruel; we are slow to condemn
+him; we give him credit for acting with a
+good motive and for a righteous purpose; we rest
+satisfied that &#8220;if we only knew everything he
+would come out blameless.&#8221; This arises from a
+just and a sound view of human character, and its
+general consistency with itself. The same reasoning
+may surely be applied with all humility and
+reverence, to the works and the intentions of the
+great Being who has implanted in our minds the
+principles which lead to that just and sound view
+of the deeds and motives of men.
+
+<P>But let the argument be rested upon our course
+of reasoning respecting divine contrivance. The
+existence of Evil is in no case more apparent than
+the existence of Disorder seems to be in many
+things. To go no further than the last example
+which has been given&#8212;the mathematician could
+perceive the derangement in the planetary orbits,
+<!-- Page 113 -->
+could demonstrate that it must ensue from the
+mutual action of the heavenly bodies on each
+other, could calculate its progress with the utmost
+exactness, could tell with all nicety how much it
+would alter the forms of the orbits in a given time,
+could foresee the time when the whole system
+must be irretrievably destroyed by its operation as
+a mathematical certainty. Nothing, that we call
+evil can be much more certainly perceived than
+this derangement, of itself an evil, certainly a
+great imperfection, if the system was observed by
+the mind of man as we regard human works. Yet
+we now find, from well considering some things
+which had escaped attention, that the system is
+absolutely free from derangement; that all the
+disturbances counterbalance each other; and that
+the orbits never can either be flattened or bulged
+out beyond a definite or very inconsiderable quantity.
+Can any one doubt that there is also a reason
+for even the small and limited, this regular and
+temporary derangement? Why it exists at all, or
+in any the least degree, we as yet know not. But
+who will presume to doubt that it has a reason
+which would at once satisfy our minds were it
+known to us? Nay, who will affirm that the discovery
+of it may not yet be in reserve for some
+later and happier age? Then are we not entitled
+to apply the same reasoning to what at present
+appears Evil in a system of which, after all we
+<!-- Page 114 -->
+know of it, so much still remains concealed from
+our view?
+
+<P>The mere act of creation in a Being of wisdom
+so admirable and power so vast, seems to make it
+extremely probable that perfect goodness accompanies
+the exertion of his perfect skill. There is
+something so repugnant to all our feelings, but
+also to all the conceptions of our reason, in the
+supposition of such a Being desiring the misery,
+for its own sake, of the Beings whom he voluntarily
+called into existence and endowed with a
+sentient nature, that the mind naturally and irresistibly
+recoils from such a thought. But this is
+not all. If the nature of that great Being were
+evil, his power being unbounded, there would be
+some proportion between the amounts of ills and
+the monuments of that power. Yet we are struck
+dumb with the immensity of His works to which
+no imperfection can be ascribed, and in which no
+evil can be traced, while the amount of mischief
+that we see might sink into a most insignificant
+space; and is such as a being of inconsiderable
+power and very limited skill could easily have accomplished.
+This is not the same consideration
+with the balance of good against evil; and inquirers
+do not seem to have sufficiently attended
+to it. The argument, however, deserves much attention,
+for it is purely and strictly inductive.
+The divine nature is shown to be clothed with prodigious
+<!-- Page 115 -->
+power and incomparable wisdom and skill,&#8212;power
+and skill so vast and so exceeding our
+comprehension that we ordinarily term them infinite,
+and are only inclined to conceive the possibility
+of limiting, by the course of the argument
+upon evil, one alternative of which is assumed to
+raise an exception. But admitting on account of
+the question under discussion, that we have only
+a right to say that power and skill are prodigiously
+great, though possibly not boundless, they are
+plainly shown in the phenomena of the universe
+to be the attributes of a Being, who, if evil-disposed,
+could have made the monuments of Ill upon
+a scale resembling those of Power and Skill; so
+that if those things which seem to us evil be really
+the result of a mischievous design in such a Being,
+we cannot comprehend why they are upon so entirely
+different a scale. This is a strong presumption
+from the facts that we are wrong in imputing
+those appearances to such a disposition. If so,
+what seems evil must needs be capable of some
+other explanation consistent with divine goodness&#8212;that
+is to say, would not prove to be evil at all
+if we knew the whole of those facts.
+
+<P>But it is necessary to proceed a step further,
+especially with a view to the fundamental position
+now contended for, the extending to the question
+of Benevolence the same principles which we apply
+to that of Intelligence. The evil which exists,
+<!-- Page 116 -->
+or that which we suppose to be evil, not only is of
+a kind and a magnitude requiring inconceivably
+less power and less skill than the admitted good
+of the creation&#8212;it also bears a very small proportion
+in amount; quite as small a proportion as the
+cases of unknown or undiscoverable design bear to
+those of acknowledged and proved contrivance.
+Generally speaking, the preservation and the
+happiness of sensitive creatures appears to be the
+great object of creative exertion and conservative
+providence. The expanding of our faculties, both
+bodily and mentally, is accompanied with pleasure;
+the exercise of those powers is almost always attended
+with gratification; all labor so acts as to
+make rest peculiarly delicious; much of labor is
+enjoyment; the gratification of those appetites by
+which both the individual is preserved and the
+race is continued, is highly pleasurable to all animals;
+and it must be observed that instead of
+being attracted by grateful sensations to do anything
+requisite for our good or even our existence,
+we might have been just as certainly urged by
+the feeling of pain, or the dread of it, which is a
+kind of suffering in itself. Nature, then, resembles
+the law-giver who, to make his subjects obey,
+should prefer holding out rewards for compliance
+with his commands rather than denounce punishments
+for disobedience. But nature is yet more
+kind; she is gratuitously kind; she not only prefers
+<!-- Page 117 -->
+inducement to threat or compulsion, but she
+adds more gratification than was necessary to make
+us obey her calls. How well might all creation
+have existed and been continued, though the air
+had not been balmy in spring, or the shade and
+the spring refreshing in summer; had the earth
+not been enamelled with flowers; and the air
+scented with perfumes! How needless for the
+propagation of plants was it that the seed should
+be enveloped in fruits the most savory to our
+palate, and if those fruits serve some other purpose,
+how foreign to that purpose was the formation
+of our nerves so framed as to be soothed or
+excited by their flavor! We here perceive design,
+because we trace adaptation. But we at the same
+time perceive benevolent design, because we perceive
+gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment bestowed.
+Thus, too, see the care with which animals
+of all kinds are tended from their birth. The
+mother's instinct is not more certainly the means
+of securing and providing for her young, than her
+gratification in the act of maternal care is great
+and is also needless for making her perform that
+duty. The grove is not made vocal during pairing
+and incubation, in order to secure the laying or
+the hatching of eggs; for if it were as still as the
+grave, or were filled with the most discordant
+croaking, the process would be as well performed.
+So, too, mark the care with which injuries are
+<!-- Page 118 -->
+remedied by what has been correctly called the <i>vis
+medicatrix</i>. Is a muscle injured?&#8212;Suppuration
+takes place, the process of granulation succeeds,
+and new flesh is formed to supply the gap, or if
+that is less wide, a more simple healing process
+knits together the severed parts. Is a bone injured?&#8212;A
+process commences by which an extraordinary
+secretion of bony matter takes place,
+and the void is supplied. Nay, the irreparable injury
+of a joint gives rise to the formation of a new
+hinge, by which the same functions may be not
+inconveniently, though less perfectly, performed.
+Thus, too, recovery of vigor after sickness is provided
+for by increased appetite; but there is here
+superadded, generally, a feeling of comfort and
+lightness, an enjoyment of existence so delightful,
+that it is a common remark how nearly this compensates
+the sufferings of the illness. In the
+economy of the mind it is the same thing. All
+our exertions are stimulated by curiosity, and the
+gratification is extreme of satisfying it. But it
+might have been otherwise ordered, and some
+painful feeling might have been made the only
+stimulant to the acquisition of knowledge. So,
+the charm of novelty is proverbial; but it might
+have been the unceasing cause of the most painful
+alarms. Habit renders every thing easy; but the
+repetition might have only increased the annoyance.
+The loss of one organ makes the others
+<!-- Page 119 -->
+more acute. But the partial injury might have
+caused, as it were, a general paralysis. 'Tis thus
+that Paley is well justified in exclaiming, &#8220;It is a
+happy world after all!&#8221; The pains and the sufferings,
+bodily and mental, to which we are exposed,
+if they do not sink into nothing, at least retreat
+within comparatively narrow bounds; the ills are
+hardly seen when we survey the great and splendid
+picture of worldly enjoyment or ease.
+
+<P>But the existence of considerable misery is undeniable:
+and the question is, of course, confined
+to that. Its exaggeration, in the ordinary estimate
+both of the vulgar and of skeptical reasoners, is
+equally certain. Paley, Bishop Sumner, as well
+as Derham, King, Ray and others of the older
+writers, have made many judicious and generally
+correct observations upon its amount, and they, as
+well as some of the able and learned authors of
+the <i>Bridgwater Treatises</i>, have done much in establishing
+deductions necessary to be made, in
+order that we may arrive at the true amount.
+That many things, apparently unmixed evils,
+when examined more narrowly, prove to be partially
+beneficial, is the fair result of their well-meant
+labors; and this, although anything rather
+than a proof that there is no evil at all, yet is valuable
+as still further proving the analogy between
+this branch of the argument and that upon design;
+and in giving hopes that all may possibly
+<!-- Page 120 -->
+be found hereafter to be good, as everything will
+assuredly be found to be contrived with an intelligent
+and useful purpose. It may be right to add
+a remark or two upon some evils, and those of the
+greatest magnitude in the common estimate of
+human happiness, with a view of further illustrating
+this part of the subject.
+
+<P>Mere imperfection must altogether be deducted
+from the account. It never can be contended that
+any evil nature can be ascribed to the first cause,
+merely for not having endowed sentient creatures
+with greater power or wisdom, for not having increased
+and multiplied the sources of enjoyment,
+or for not having made those pleasures which we
+have more exquisitely grateful. No one can be so
+foolish as to argue that the Deity is either limited
+in power, or deficient in goodness, because he has
+chosen to create some beings of a less perfect order
+than others. The mere negation in the creating
+of some, indeed of many, nay, of any conceivable
+number of desirable attributes, is therefore no
+proper evidence of evil design or of limited power
+in the Creator&#8212;it is no proof of the existence of
+evil properly so called. But does not this also
+erase death from the catalogue of ills? It might
+well please the Deity to create a mortal being
+which, consisting of soul and body, was only to
+live upon this earth for a limited number of years.
+If, when that time has expired, this being is removed
+<!-- Page 121 -->
+to another and a superior state of existence,
+no evil whatever accrues to it from the change;
+and all views of the government of this world lead
+to the important and consolitary conclusion, that
+such is the design of the Creator; that he cannot
+have bestowed on us minds capable of such expansion
+and culture only to be extinguished when
+they have reached their highest pitch of improvement;
+or if this be considered as begging the
+question by assuming benevolent design, we cannot
+easily conceive that while the mind's force is
+so little affected by the body's decay, the destruction
+or dissolution of the latter should be the extinction
+of the former. But that death operates as
+an evil of the very highest kind in two ways is
+obvious; the dread of it often embitters life, and
+the death of friends brings to the mind by far its
+most painful infliction; certainly the greatest suffering
+it can undergo without any criminal consciousness
+of its own.
+
+<P>For this evil, then&#8212;this grievous and admitted
+evil&#8212;how shall we account? But first let us
+consider whether it be not unavoidable; not merely
+under the present dispensation, and in the existing
+state of things; for that is wholly irrelevant
+to the question which is raised upon the fitness of
+this very state of things; but whether it be not a
+necessary evil. That man might have been
+created immortal is not denied; but if it were the
+<!-- Page 122 -->
+will of the Deity to form a limited being and to
+place him upon the earth for only a certain period
+of time, his death was the necessary consequence
+of this determination. Then as to the pain which
+one person's removal inflicts upon surviving parties,
+this seems the equally necessary consequence
+of their having affections. For if any being feels
+love towards another, this implies his desire that
+the intercourse with that other should continue;
+or what is the same thing, the repugnance and
+aversion to its ceasing; that is, he must suffer affliction
+for that removal of the beloved object. To
+create sentient beings devoid of all feelings of affection
+was no doubt possible to Omnipotence;
+but to endow those beings with such feelings as
+would give the constant gratification derived from
+the benevolent affections, and yet to make them
+wholly indifferent to the loss of the objects of those
+affections, was not possible even for Omnipotence;
+because it was a contradiction in terms, equivalent
+to making a thing both exist and not exist at one
+and the same time. Would there have been any
+considerable happiness in a life stripped of these
+kindly affections? We cannot affirm that there
+would not, because we are ignorant what other enjoyments
+might have been substituted for the indulgence
+of them. But neither can we affirm that
+any such substitution could have been found; and
+it lies upon those who deny the necessary connection
+<!-- Page 123 -->
+between the human mind, or any sentient
+being's mind, and grief for the loss of friends, to
+show that there are other enjoyments which could
+furnish an equivalent to the gratification derived
+from the benevolent feelings. The question then
+reduces itself to this: Wherefore did a being, who
+could have made sentient beings immortal, choose
+to make them mortal? or, Wherefore has he
+placed man upon the earth for a time only? or,
+Wherefore has he set bounds to the powers and
+capacities which he has been pleased to bestow
+upon his creatures? And this is a question which
+we certainly never shall be able to solve; but a
+question extremely different from the one more
+usually put&#8212;How happens it that a good being
+has made a world full of misery and death?
+
+<P>In the necessary ignorance wherein we are of
+the whole designs of the Deity, we cannot wonder
+if some things, nay, if many things, are to our
+faculties inscrutable. But we assuredly have no
+right to say that those difficulties which try and
+vex us are incapable of a solution, any more than
+we have to say, that those cases in which as yet
+we can see no trace of design, are not equally the
+result of intelligence, and equally conducive to a
+fixed and useful purpose with those in which we
+have been able to perceive the whole, or nearly
+the whole scheme. Great as have been our
+achievements in physical astronomy, we are as yet
+<!-- Page 124 -->
+wholly unable to understand why a power pervades
+the system acting inversely as the squares of the
+distance from the point to which it attracts, rather
+than a power acting according to any other law;
+and why it has been the pleasure of the almighty
+Architect of that universe, that the orbits of the
+planets should be nearly circular instead of approaching
+to, or being exactly the same with many
+other trajectories of a nearly similar form, though
+of other properties; nay, instead of being curves
+of a wholly different class and shape. Yet we
+never doubt that there was a reason for this choice;
+nay, we fancy it possible that even on earth we
+may hereafter understand it more clearly than we
+now do: and never question that in another state
+of being we may be permitted to enjoy the contemplation
+of it. Why should we doubt that, at
+least in that higher state, we may also be enabled
+to perceive such an arrangement as shall make
+evil wholly disappear from our present system, by
+showing that it was necessary and inevitable, even
+in the works of the Deity; or, which is the same
+thing, that its existence conduces to such a degree
+of perfection and happiness upon, the whole, as
+could not, even by Omnipotence, be attained without
+it; or, which is the same thing, that the whole
+creation as it exists, taking both worlds together, is
+perfect, and incapable of being in any particular
+changed without being made worse and less perfect?
+<!-- Page 125 -->
+Taking both worlds together&#8212;For certainly
+were our views limited to the present sublunary
+state, we may well affirm that no solution whatever
+could even be imagined of the difficulty&#8212;if
+we are never again to live; if those we here loved
+are forever lost to us; if our faculties can receive
+no further expansion; if our mental powers are
+only trained and improved to be extinguished at
+their acme&#8212;then indeed are we reduced to the
+melancholy and gloomy dilemma of the Epicureans;
+and evil is confessed to checker, nay,
+almost to cloud over our whole lot, without the
+possibility of comprehending why, or of reconciling
+its existence with the supposition of a providence
+at once powerful and good. But this inference is
+also an additional argument for a future state,
+when we couple it with these other conclusions
+respecting the economy of the world to which we
+are led by wholly different routes, when we investigate
+the phenomena around us and within us.
+
+<P>Suppose, for example, it should be found that
+there are certain purposes which can in no way
+whatever&#8212;no conceivable way&#8212;be answered except
+by placing man in a state of trial or probation;
+suppose the essential nature of mind shall
+be found to be such that it could not in any way
+whatever exist so as to be capable of the greatest
+purity and improvement&#8212;in other words, the
+highest perfection&#8212;without having undergone a
+<!-- Page 126 -->
+probation; or suppose it should be found impossible
+to communicate certain enjoyments to rational
+and sentient beings without having previously
+subjected them to certain trials and certain sufferings&#8212;as,
+for instance, the pleasures derived from
+a consciousness of perfect security, the certainty
+that we can suffer and perish no more&#8212;this
+surely is a possible supposition. Now, to continue
+the last example&#8212;Whatever pleasure there is in
+the contrast between ease and previous vexation
+or pain, whatever enjoyment we derive from the
+feeling of absolute security after the vexation and
+uncertainty of a precarious state, implies a previous
+suffering&#8212;a previous state of precarious
+enjoyment; and not only implies it but necessarily
+implies it, so that the power of Omnipotence itself
+could not convey to us the enjoyment without
+having given us the previous suffering. Then is
+it not possible that the object of an all powerful
+and perfectly benevolent being should be to create
+like beings, to whom as entire happiness, as complete
+and perfect enjoyment, should be given as
+any created beings&#8212;that is, any being, except the
+Creator himself&#8212;can by possibility enjoy? This
+is certainly not only a very possible supposition,
+but it appears to be quite consistent with, if it be
+not a necessary consequence of, his being perfectly
+good as well as powerful and wise. Now we have
+shown, therefore, that such being supposed the
+<!-- Page 127 -->
+design of Providence, even Omnipotence itself
+could not accomplish this design, as far as one
+great and important class of enjoyments is concerned,
+without the previous existence of some
+pain, some misery. Whatever gratification arises
+from relief&#8212;from contrast&#8212;from security succeeding
+anxiety&#8212;from restoration of lost affections&#8212;from
+renewing severed connections&#8212;and
+many others of a like kind, could not by any possibility
+be enjoyed unless the correlative suffering
+had first been undergone. Nor will the argument
+be at all impeached by observing, that one Being
+may be made to feel the pleasure of ease and security
+by seeing others subjected to suffering and
+distress; for that assumes the infliction of misery
+on those others; it is &#8220;<i>alterius</i> spectare laborem&#8221;
+that we are supposing to be sweet; and this is still
+partial evil.
+
+<P>As the whole argument respecting evil must,
+from the nature of the question, resolve itself into
+either a proof of some absolute or mathematical
+necessity not to be removed by infinite power, or
+the showing that some such proof may be possible
+although we have not yet discovered it, an illustration
+may naturally be expected to be attainable
+from mathematical considerations. Thus, we have
+already adverted to the law of periodical irregularities
+in the solar system. Any one before it
+was discovered seemed entitled to expatiate upon
+<!-- Page 128 -->
+the operation of the disturbing forces arising from
+mutual attraction, and to charge the system arranged
+upon the principle of universal gravitation
+with want of skill, nay, with leading to inevitable
+mischief&#8212;mischief or evil of so prodigious an extent
+as to exceed incalculably all the instances of
+evil and of suffering which we see around us in
+this single planet. Nevertheless, what then appeared
+so clearly to be a defect and an evil, is now
+well known to be the very absolute perfection of
+the whole heavenly architecture.
+
+<P>Again, we may derive a similar illustration from
+a much more limited instance, but one immediately
+connected with strict mathematical reasoning,
+and founded altogether in the nature of necessary
+truth. The problem has been solved by mathematicians,
+Sir Isaac Newton having first investigated
+it, of finding the form of a symmetrical
+solid, or solid of revolution, which in moving
+through a fluid shall experience the least possible
+resistance. The figure bears a striking resemblance
+to that of a fish. Now suppose a fish were
+formed exactly in this shape, and that some animal
+endowed with reason were placed upon a portion
+of its surface, and able to trace its form for only a
+limited extent, say at the narrow part, where the
+broad portion or end of the moving body were opposed,
+or seemed as if it were opposed, to the surrounding
+fluid when the fish moved&#8212;the reasoner
+<!-- Page 129 -->
+would at once conclude that the contrivance of the
+fish's form was very inconvenient, and that nothing
+could be much worse adapted for expeditious
+or easy movement through the waters.
+
+<P>Yet it is certain that upon being afterwards permitted
+to view THE WHOLE body of the fish, what
+had seemed a defect and an evil, not only would
+appear plainly to be none at all, but it would appear
+manifest that this seeming evil or defect was
+a part of the most perfect and excellent structure
+which it was possible even for Omnipotence and
+Omniscience to have adopted, and that no other
+conceivable arrangement could by possibility have
+produced so much advantage, or tended so much
+to fulfill the design in view. Previous to being
+enlightened by such an enlarged view of the whole
+facts, it would thus be a rash and unphilosophical
+thing in the reasoner whose existence we are supposing
+to pronounce an unfavorable opinion. Still
+more unwise would it be if numerous other observations
+had evinced traces of skill and goodness in
+the fish's structure. The true and the safe conclusion
+would be to suspend an opinion which
+could only be unsatisfactorily formed upon imperfect
+data; and to rest in the humble hope and belief
+that one day all would appear for the best.
+<BR><BR>
+<CENTER>THE END.</CENTER>
+<BR><BR>
+<HR>
+<A NAME="R1" HREF="#S1">[1]</A>
+The &#8220;light of revelation,&#8221; as well as the &#8220;light of the
+Christian
+religion,&#8221; has not dispelled the darkness of ignorance. The torch of
+reason is a surer guide.&#8212;<i>Pub.</i>
+<BR><BR>
+<A NAME="R2" HREF="#S2">[2]</A>
+The human race has from time immemorial been afflicted with
+so-called revelations, all claiming inspiration, all conflicting, and all
+being equally &#8220;mysterious and obscure.&#8221; The wars arising among
+these sectarians have retarded civilization, and deluged the earth in
+blood. The revelations of science, founded upon reason and demonstration,
+have proved the only safe and beneficent guide.&#8212;<i>Pub.</i>
+<BR><BR>
+<A NAME="R3" HREF="#S3">[3]</A>
+While it is true that the argument of Design, here given, places
+the subject one step in advance, it is still unsatisfactory, because it
+fails to explain to us who designed the designer, and the mystery
+of creation still remains unsolved.
+<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?&#8221;
+is the
+pertinent question which Bishop Watson, in his <i>Apology for the
+Bible</i>, asked, and vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas
+Paine.&#8212;<i>Pub.</i>
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<BR>
+<PRE>
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FALLEN STAR ***
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