Again:- in polar climates nearly the sole food afforded man is the oil
of abundant seals and whales. Now whether is oil at hand because
imperatively demanded? or whether is it the only thing demanded
because the only thing fo be obtained? It is impossible to say:- there
is an absolute reciprocity of adaptation for which we seek in vain
among the works of man.
"The Bridgewater tractists may have avoided this point, on account
of its apparent tendency to overthrow the idea of cause in general-
consequently of a First Cause-of God. But it is more probable that
they have failed to perceive what no one preceding them has, to my
knowledge, perceived.
"The pleasure which we derive from any exertion of human
ingenuity, is in the direct ratio of the approach to this species of
reciprocity between cause and effect. In the construction of plot, for
example, in fictitious literature, we should aim at so arranging the
points, or incidents, that we cannot distinctly see, in respect to any
one of them, whether that one depends from any one other or upholds
it. In this sense, of course, perfection of plot is unattainable in
fact- because Man is the constructor. The plots of God are perfect.
The Universe is a plot of God."
The pleasure derived from the contemplation of the unity resulting
from plot is far more intense than is ordinarily supposed, and, as
in Nature we meet with no such combination of incident, appertains
to a very lofty region of the ideal.
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