Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon].

  • Robert Chambers
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in each case he demands a sphere of appropriate conditions in order to be happy. By virtue of his superior organization, his enjoyments are much higher and more varied than those of any of the lower animals ; but the very complexity of circum- stances affecting him renders it at the same time unavoidable, that his nature should be often in- harmoniously placed and disagreeably affected, and that he should therefore be unhappy. Still, un- happiness amongst mankind is the exception from the rule of their condition, and an exception which is capable of almost infinite diminution, by virtue of the improving reason of man, and the expe- rience which he acquires in working out the problems of society. To secure the immediate means of happiness, it would seem to be necessary for men first to study with all care the constitution of nature; and, secondly, to accommodate themselves to that con- stitution, so as to obtain all the realizable advan- tages from acting conformably to it, and to avoid all likely evils from disregarding it. It will be of no use to sit down and expect that things are to operate of their own accord, or through the direc- tion of a partial deity, for our benefit; equally so were it to expose ourselves to palpable dangers,
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