348
AN ESSAY ON THE
CHAP. XVIII.
The constant pressure of distress on man, from the principle of population, seems to direct our hopes to the future.—State of trial inconsistent with our ideas of the foreknowledge of God.—The world, probably, a mighty process for awakening matter into mind.—Theory of the formation of mind.—Excitements from the wants of the body.—Excitements from the operation of general laws.—Excitements from the difficulties of life arising from the principle of population.
The view of human life, which results from the contemplation of the constant pressure of distress on man from the difficulty of subsistence, by shewing the little expectation that he can reasonably entertain of perfectibility on earth, seems strongly to point his hopes to the future. And the temptations to which he must necessarily be exposed, from the operation of those laws of nature which we have been ex-
amining,
