"It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of Philosophy may incline the mind of Man to Atheism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to Religion: for in the entrance of. Philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion of the highest Cause; but when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependence of causes and the works of Providence; then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of Nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair." Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Book I. "Deus sine dominio, providentiâ, et causis finalibus nihil aliud est quam fatum et natura. A cæcâ necessitate metaphysicâ, quæ eadem est et semper et ubique, nulla oritur variatio. Tota rerum conditarum pro locis ac temporibus diversitas, ab ideis et voluntate entis necessario existentis solummodo oriri potuit."-Sir Isaac Newton, Scholium at close of Principia. "Tax not my sloth that I Fold my arms beside the brook ; "There was never mystery But 'tis figured in the flowers; Was never secret history But birds tell it in the bowers." Emerson's Poems.-The Apology. SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER II. This Chapter enters upon an examination of the kind of reasoning involved in the Argument from Design, and an inquiry into its special force. These investigations are accompanied by illustrative examples of Analogy in different shapes. The most powerful objections against this argument, and the various modes of stating it, are then described and criticised. A re-statement of the whole line of thought is followed by the outline of a proposed method for the constructive science of Natural Theology. The Chapter closes with a corollary on Efficient and Final Causes. Analysis-Argument from Design-Its Popular Form, and the Popular Objections raised against it-Art and Nature dissimilar-Organic and Inorganic Worlds, their Unlikeness and their Likenesses-Difference between Similitude and Analogy, whether the latter be Illustrative or Illative, and easiest ways of stating both Analogies. Scientific Difficulties-Charge of proving too much-Anthropomorphism and Dualism-Physical and Moral Antithesis-Was Paley to blame for introducing these Questions ?-Answer to the charge of proving too much-On how many points need Analogy rest ?—Examples. Charge of proving too little-Design assumes Designer as a Foregone Conclusion-Process observed is test of Designer in Art, but fails in Nature-Criticism on these Objections. Baden Powell compared with Paley-Wide Views and Inductions-Argument analysed into Gradations of Proof, Order, and Intelligence-Means, Ends, and Foresight-Physical and Moral Causation-Argument analysed into various Lines of Proof-Their Separate and Consilient Force. Value of Powell's views on Causation-Objections against some peculiarities of his language-Natural Theology and Natural Religion distinguished-Professor Newman-Use of Words on subject of Design. Statement of the Constructive Method now to be employed-Corollary on Efficient and Final Causes. Additional Notes and Illustrations :- A. On the abstract reasonings involved in Natural Theology. C.-Hume on the analogies of Art and Nature. D.-The Pantheistic consequences charged upon Physical Speculation. CHAPTER II. PHILOSOPHY OF DESIGN. THE argument from Design in Nature has been made familiar to most readers in Natural Theology by Paley's well-known book. It is probable that no argument has ever been more praised, and at the same time more strongly controverted. Our business lies, of course, with the controversy; and we must say a few words on our present mode of dealing with it. Nothing could be more useless than to repeat illustrative examples of Design already thrice told by an endless variety of treatises. Of so wide a subject everything may be quoted as an illustration, from a pebble to a world, if only the principle illustrated—the pivot on which the argument turns— be understood and admitted. In modern times, this turningpoint is precisely the centre of the dispute. Untrained minds misapprehend the meaning of the word Design, and are further still from apprehending the real force of argument from analogy. And when these subjects come to be discussed by skilled writers, various questions are always raised which generally issue in irreconcilable differences of opinion. Our plan here will be to take the argument in its bestknown shape, and examine it from the points of view occupied by several classes of objectors, beginning, as is reasonable, with the most popular difficulties and misapprehensions. It does not seem necessary to load the page with references to controversialists of the ordinary sort, particularly as we endeavour to look at the whole question through their eyes. Respecting the more philosophic questions it is necessary to observe, that the Evolution-theory will not form a topic of the present chapter. It is excluded for two reasons. One, that we are now trying to put a value on the argument from Design per se, and not to compare it with rival theories. The other reason springs from the subject of Evolution itself-it is too extensive to be thus briefly treated-and the sum of this Essay must be taken together as furnishing a counter statement to the manner in which it has been employed by certain of its ardent advocates.* We hope for a further advantage from the method proposed. The cause of truth ought to gain from being looked at on more than one side; and, whatever be the worth and true effect of reasoning from Design, we may expect by this method to display it adequately. The word itself, like all figurative terms-or words used in a secondary sense-is by no means free from ambiguity. It has, in common parlance, several shades of signification. Design being the centre of Paley's argument, and containing the one idea which gives force to all the rest: his first object was to fix the sense in which he employed it. He did so by using an illustration. To explain by comparison is always a popular resource, some serious drawbacks notwithstanding. Almost every one prefers that an author should use a sparkling similitude which tells a great deal, rather than write what looks like a grammar and dictionary of his science. Analysis and induction require thought on the part of him who employs them -thought also on the part of a reader determined to understand what he reads. Paley saw all this thoroughly, and at the beginning of his book employed the now celebrated comparison taken from a watchmaker and a watch. His judgment received support from the popularity he enjoyed, and from the way in which everybody borrowed his illustration.† * See more particularly Chapter V., "Production and its Law." + Most literary people are aware that it was borrowed by Paley himself. A reference very accessible to ordinary readers may be made to Knight's English Cyclopædia, Article Nieuwentyt. "A work," says the |