a medium of proof, it employs the
very thing in dispute, namely, that God is infinitely perfect. Hence this
is a _petitio principii_, a begging of the question. If this were all that
M. Leibnitz had to offer, he might as well have believed, and remained
silent.

But this was not all. He endeavours to show, that the world is absolutely
perfect, without inferring its perfection from the assumed infinite
perfection of its Author. At first view, this does not appear to be so;
for the sin and misery which overflow this lower part of the world seem to
detract from the perfection and beauty of the whole. Not so, says
Leibnitz: "there are some disorders in the parts, which marvellously
heighten the beauty of the whole; as certain discords, skilfully employed,
render the harmony more exquisite."(222) Considered as an argument, this
is likewise quite unsatisfactory. It is, in fact, merely the light of the
imagination, playing over the bosom of the cloud; not the concentrated
blaze of the intelligence, dispelling its gloom. And besides, this analogy
proceeds on a false principle; inasmuch as it supposes that God has
himself introduced sin into the world, with a view to its happy effects.
We could sooner believe, indeed, that the principle of evil had introduced
harmony into the world in order to heighten the frightful effects of its
discord, than that the principle of all good had produced the frightful
discord of the world, in order to enhance the effects of its harmony. But
we shall let all such fine sayings pass. Perhaps they were intended as the
ornaments of faith, rather than as the radiant armour and the invincible
weapons of reason.

Though Leibnitz frequently insists, that "the permission of evil tends to
the good of the universe,"(223) he does not always seem to mean that evil
would be better than holiness in its stead; but that the permission of sin
is not so great an inconvenience as would be its universal prevention. "We
ought to say," says he, "that God permits sin, because otherwise he would
himself do a worse action (_une action pire_) than all the sin of his
creatures."(224) But what is this worse, this more unreasonable action of
which God would be guilty, if he should prevent all sin? One bad feature
thereof would be, according to Leibnitz, that it would interfere with the
freedom of the will. In his "Abrege de la Controverse," he says: "We have
added, after many good authors, that it is in conformity with the g