There is another sufficiently obvious fact, which renders the hypothesis
that the course of sentient nature is dictated by malevolence quite
untenable. A vast multitude of pleasures, and these among the purest and
the best, are superfluities, bits of good which are to all appearance
unnecessary as inducements to live, and are, so to speak, thrown into
the bargain of life. To those who experience them, few delights can be
more entrancing than such as are afforded by natural beauty, or by the
arts, and especially by music; but they are products of, rather than
factors in, evolution, and it is probable that they are known, in any
considerable degree, to but a very small proportion of mankind.