Page:OptimismBlood.djvu/90

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SECTION XV.

EACH FOR ALL.

If then, up to this time, we have learned that the imperfection and confinement of the human soul are necessary to the harmonious government of the universe; and that expansion is necessary to any finite happiness, in any grade of our existence,—we are now prepared to say that we shall be contented with God's method in us, providing we shall hereafter find that this finitude is so operated as to give us the greatest amount of pleasure and progress of which we shall conclude this first grade of man capable. Some pain being necessary, do we receive it in the best time and method.

When we undertake to pass upon the propriety of God's dealings with us, we must still bear in mind a former position: that each of us, as finite beings, cannot comprise any perfect system as individuals ; we are but imperfect parts of one entire perfect system. If, therefore, an individual find himself wanting in any special merit, or sacrificing any special good, he will attribute the fact to the necessity of finite imperfection; at the same time he may be grateful, if what he lacks is by that lack made the peculiar comfort of another man, and if what he sacrifices does some other being good;—for hereby he may discover that nothing is absolutely evil, nor made nor done in vain, but that some other man's evil is his peculiar good. He will observe how, in business, the wants of one

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