<*  The  peculiar  fatisfadtion  with  which  3
ehriilian  flouts  his  eyes  on  the  world,  will
not,  perhaps,  be  thought  a  proper  article  in
this  account ;   though,  whether  thefe  hopes
be  well  or  ill  founded,  they  are  actually  en
joyed  by  great  numbers  of  the  human  race  ;
and,  together  with  every  thing  elfe  that  ac
tually  takes  place,  mull  have  been  intended
for  us   in   this  life.     However,  I  am  well
fatisfied  that  a   properly   natural  death,  or
death   occafioned   by   the    mere  exhaufting
(as  we  may  term  it)  of  the  vital  powers,  in
a  fufticient  length  of  time,  provided  no  fu-
perftitious   fears   accompany  it,  is  not  at
tended  with  averfion  or  pain.
^    Perhaps  no  part  of  the  general  fyftem  will
appear  at  firft  light  more  liable  to  objection
than   this   circumftance  of  death,   and   the
train  of  difeafes  that  lead  to  it.     But  by  this
means  room  is   made  for  ^jiiccefjlon  of  crea
tures,  of  each  fpecies,  fo  that  t\\zfum  of  hap-
fincfs  is,   upon  the  whole,  greater.     With

refpect


90  LETTERS     TO    A

refpect  to  man,  unlefs  the  whole  plan  of  his
constitution,  and  all  the  laws  of  his  nature,
were  changed,  it  is  unfpeakably  more  delir-
able  that  there  fhould  be  a  fucceffion,  than
that  the  fame  individuals  fhould  continue  on
the  ilage  always.  For  a  new  generation
learns  wifdom  from  the  follies  of  the  old,
which  would  only  have  grown  more  invete
rate  every  year.  Thus  the  whole  fpecies
advances  more  quickly  to  maturity  ;  and  to
the  JpecieS)  the  obftinacy,  and  other  infir
mities  of  old  age,  will  probably  be  ever
unknown.
