An Essay on the Origin of Evil, Volume 1

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F. Stephens, 1732 - 630 pages
 

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Page 157 - There is scarce a single humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glasses do not discover myriads of living creatures.
Page 142 - Infinite goodness is of so communicative a nature, that it seems to delight in the conferring of existence upon every degree of perceptive being. As this is a speculation, which I have often pursued with great pleasure to myself, I shall enlarge farther upon it, by considering that part of the scale of beings which comes within our knowledge.
Page 143 - If the scale of being rises by such a regular progress so high as man, we may, by a parity of reason, suppose that it still proceeds gradually through those beings which are of a superior nature to him ; since there is an infinitely greater space and room for different degrees of perfection between the Supreme Being and man, than between man and the most despicable insect.
Page 143 - ... in his creation every degree of life, every capacity of being. The whole...
Page xxxii - ... whenever this end is not perceived, they are to be accounted for from the association of ideas and may properly enough be called habits.
Page 157 - On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we see the seas, lakes, and rivers, teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures.
Page xxxix - Behaviour, as far as it may be a means of the Happiness of Mankind, should be such. Here then we are got one Step farther, or to a new Criterion: not to a new Criterion of Virtue immediately, but to a Criterion of the will of God. For it is an Answer to the Enquiry, How shall I know what the Will of God in this particular is? Thus the Will of God is the immediate Criterion of Virtue, and the Happiness of Mankind the Criterion of the Will of God; and therefore the Happiness of Mankind may be said...
Page 158 - Existence is a blessing to those beings only which are endowed with perception; and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any further than as it is subservient to beings which are conscious of their existence.
Page xxxvii - Obligation is the necessity of doing or omitting any action in order to be happy: ie, when there is such a relation between an agent and an action that the agent cannot be happy without doing or omitting that action, then the agent is said to be obliged to do or omit that action.
Page xlviii - Now from the various combinations of this which we call merit, 472 and its contrary, arise all those various approbations and aversions; all those likings and dislikings which we call moral. As therefore from considering those beings which are the involuntary means of our happiness or misery, there were produced in us the passions or affections of love, hatred...

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