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The notions we acquire of contrivance and design arise from comparing our observations on the works of other beings with the intentions of which we are conscious in our own undertakings.
We take the highest and best of human faculties and exalting them in our imagination to an unlimited extent endeavour to attain an imperfect conception of that Infinite Power which created every thing around us.
In pursuing this course it is evident that we are liable to impress upon the notion of Deity thus shadowed out many traces of those imperfections in our own limited faculties which are best known to those who have most deeply cultivated them.
It is also evident that all those discoveries which arm human reason with new power and all additions to our acquaintance with the material world must from time to time render revision of that notion necessary.
The present seems to befit occasion for such revision.
Many excellent and religious persons not deeply versed in what they mistakenly call human knowledge but which is in truth the interpretation of those laws that God himself has impressed on his creation have endeavour ed to discover proofs of design in multitude of apparent adaptations of means to ends and have represented the Deity as perpetually interfering to alter for time the laws he had previously ordained thus by implication denying to him the possession of that foresight which is the highest attribute of omnipotence.
Minds of this order insensible of the existence of that combining and general using faculty which gives to human intellect its greatest development and tied down by the trammel of their peculiar pursuits have in their mistaken zeal not perceived their own un fitness for the mighty task and have ventured to represent the Creator of the universe as fettered by the same infirmities as those by which their own limited faculties are subjugated.
To causes of this kind must in some measure be attributed an opinion which has been industriously spread that minds highly imbued with mathematical knowledge are disqualified by the possession of that knowledge and by the habits of mind produced during its acquisition from rightly appreciating the works of the Creator.
At periods and in countries in which the knowledge of the priests exceeded that of the people science has always been held up by the former class as an object of regard and its crafty possessor have too frequently defiled its purity by employing their knowledge for the delusion of the people.
On the other hand at times and in countries in which the knowledge of the people has advanced beyond that of the priesthood the ministers of the temple have too often been afraid of the advance of knowledge and have threatened with the displeasure of the Almighty those engaged in employing the faculties he has bestowed on the study of the works he has created.
At the present period when knowledge is so universally spread that neither class is far in advance of the other when every subject is submitted to unbounded discussion when it is at length fully acknowledged that truth alone can stand un shaken by perennial attacks and that error though for centuries triumphant must fall at last and leave behind no ashes from which it may revive the authority of names has but little weight facts and arguments are the basis of creeds and convictions so arrived at are the more deeply seated and the more enduring because they are not the wild fancies of passion or of impulse but the deliberate results of reason and reflection.
It is condition of our race that we must ever wade through error in our advance towards truth and it may even be said that in many cases we exhaust almost every variety of error before we attain the desired goal.
But those truths once reached by such course are always most highly valued and when in addition to this they have been exposed to every variety of attack which splendid talents quickened into energy by the keen perception of personal interests can suggest when they have revived undying from un merited neglect when the anathema of spiritual and the arm of secular power have been found as impotent in suppressing as arguments were in refuting them then they are indeed irresistible.
Thus tried and thus triumphant in the fiercest warfare of intellectual strife even the temporary interests and furious passions which urge on the contest contribute in no small measure to establish their value and thus to render these truths the permanent heritage of our race.
Viewed in this light the propagation of an error although it may be unfavourable or fatal to the temporary interest of an individual can never be long injurious to the cause of truth.
It may at particular period retard its progress for while but it repays the transitory injury by benefit as permanent as the duration of the truth to which it was opposed.
These reflections are offered for the purpose of proving that the toleration of the fullest discussion is most advantageous to truth.
They are not offered as the apology for error and whilst it is admitted that every person who wilfully puts forward arguments the soundness of which he doubts incurs deep responsibility it is some satisfaction to reflect that the delay likely to be thus occasioned to the great cause can be but small and that those who in sincerity of heart maintain arguments which more advanced state of knowledge shall prove to be erroneous may yet ultimately contribute by their very publication to the speedier establishment of truth.
The estimate we form of the intellectual capacity of our race is founded on an examination of those productions which have resulted from the softest flights of individual genius or from the accumulated labours of generations of men by whose long continued exertions body of science has been raised up surpassing in its extent the creative powers of any individual and demanding for its development length of time to which no single life extends.
The estimate we form of the Creator of the visible world rests ultimately on the same foundation.
Conscious that we each of us employ in our own productions means intended to accomplish the objects at which we aim and tracing throughout the actions and inventions of our fellow creatures the same intention judging also of their capacity by the fit selection they make of the means by which they work we are irresistibly led when we contemplate the natural world to attempt to trace each existing fact presented to our senses to some pre contrived arrangement itself perhaps the consequence of yet more general law and where the most powerful aids by which we can assist our limited faculties fail in enabling us to detect such conned ions we still and not the less believe that more extended inquiry or higher powers would enable us to discover them.
The greater the number of consequences resulting from any law and the more they are foreseen the greater the knowledge and intelligence we ascribe to the being by which it was ordained.
In the earlier stages of our knowledge we behold multitude of distinct laws all harmonizing to produce results which we deem beneficial to our own species as science advances many of these minor laws are found to merge into some more general principles and with its higher progress these secondary principles appear in their turn the mere consequences of some still more general law.
Such has been the case in two of the most curious and most elaborately cultivated branches of human knowledge the sciences of astronomy and optics.
All analogy leads us to infer and new discoveries continually direct our expectation to the idea that the most extensive laws to which we have hitherto attained converge to some few simple and general principles by which the whole of the material universe is sustained and from which its infinitely varied phenomena emerge as the necessary consequences.
To illustrate the distinction between system to which the restoring hand of its count river is applied either frequently or at distant intervals and one which had received at its first formation the impress of the will of its author foreseeing the varied but yet necessary laws of its action throughout the whole of its existence we must have recourse to some machine the produce of human skill.
But far as all such engines must ever be placed at an immeasurable interval below the simplest of Natures works yet from the vastness of those cycles which even human contrivance in some cases unfolds to our view we may perhaps be enabled to form faint estimate of the magnitude of that lowest step in the chain of reasoning which leads us up to Natures God.
The illustration which shall here employ will be derived from the results afforded by the Calculating Engine and this am the more disposed to use because my own views respecting the extent of the laws of Nature were greatly enlarged by considering it and also because it incidentally presents matter for reflection on the subject of inductive reasoning.
Nor will any difficulty arise from the complexity of that engine no knowledge of its mechanism nor any acquaintance with mathematical science are necessary for comprehending the illustration it being sufficient merely to conceive that computations of great complexity can be effected by mechanical means.
Let the reader imagine that such an engine has been adjusted that it is moved by weight and that he sits down before it and observes wheel which moves through small angle round its axis at short intervals presenting to his eye successively series of numbers engraved on its divided circumference.
Let the figures thus seen be the series of natural numbers 1 2 3 4 5 i.
each of which exceeds its immediate antecedent by unity.
Now reader let me ask how long you will have counted before you are firmly convinced that the engine supposing its adjustments to remain unaltered will continue whilst its motion is maintained to produce the same series of natural numbers Some minds perhaps are so constituted that after passing the first hundred terms they will be satisfied that they are acquainted with the law.
After seeing five hundred terms few will doubt and after the fifty thousandth term the propensity to believe that the succeeding term will be fifty thousand and one will be almost irresistible.
That term will be fifty thousand and one the same regular succession will continue the five millionth and the fifty millionth term will still appear in their expected order and one unbroken chain of natural numbers will pass before your eyes from one up to one hundred million.
True to the vast induction which has thus been made the next succeeding term will be one hundred million and one but after that the next number presented by the rim of the wheel instead of being one hundred million and two is one hundred million ten thousand and two.
The whole series from the commencement being thus 135 9 9 000 000 regularly as far as 000 001.
010.
002 the law changes.
0.
003.
0.
004.
.
005.
1.
006.
210.
007.
0.
008.
0.
009.
0.
010.
5.
011 The law which seemed at first to govern this series fails at the hundred million and second term.
That term is larger than we expected by 10 000.
The next term is larger than was anticipated by 000 and the excess of each term above what we had expected forms the following table 10 000 000 00 000 000 1 000 being in fact the series of triangular numbers each multiplied by 10 000.
The numbers 1 3 6 10 15 21 See.
are formed by adding the successive terms of the series of natural numbers thus 1 1.
23.
236.
10 i.
They are called triangular numbers because number of points corresponding to any term can always be placed in the form of triangle for instance 10 If we still continue to observe the numbers presented by the wheel we shall find that for hundred or even for thousand terms they continue to follow the new law relating to the triangular numbers but after watching them for terms we find that this law fails in the case of the term.
If we continue to observe we shall discover another law then coming into action which also is dependent but in different manner on triangular numbers.
This will continue through about 14 terms when new law is again introduced which extends over about terms and this too like all its predecessors fails and gives place to other laws which appear at different intervals.
Now it must be remarked that the law that each number presented by the Engine is greater by unity than the preceding number which law the observer had deduced from an induction of hundred million instances was not the true law that regulated its action and that the occurrence of the number 010 002 at the 000 002 i term was as necessary consequence of the original adjustment and might have been as fully fore known at the commencement as was the regular succession of any one of the intermediate numbers to its immediate antecedent.
The same remark applies to the next apparent deviation from the new law which was founded on an induction of terms and to all the succeeding laws with this limitation only that whilst their consecutive introduction at various definite intervals is necessary consequence of the mechanical structure of the engine our knowledge of analysis does not yet enable us to predict the periods at which the more distant laws will be introduced.
Such are some of the facts which by certain adjustment of the Calculating Engine would be presented to the observer.
Now let him imagine another engine offering to the eye precisely the same figures in the same order of succession but let it be necessary for the maker of that other engine previously to each apparent change in the law to make some new adjustment in the structure of the engine itself in order to accomplish the ends proposed.
The first engine must be susceptible of having embodied in its mechanical structure that more general law of which all the observed laws were but isolated portions a law so complicated that analysis itself in its present state can scarcely grasp the whole question.
The second engine might be of far simpler contrivance it must be capable of receiving the laws impressed upon it from without but is incapable by its own intrinsic structure of changing at definite periods and in unlimited succession those laws by which it acts.
Which of these two engines would in the readers opinion give the higher proof of skill in the count river He cannot for moment hesitate in pronouncing that that for which after its original adjustment no None once is required displays far greater ingenuity than that which demands at every change in its law the direct intervention of its count river.
The engine we have been considering is but very small portion about fifteen figures of much larger one which was preparing and is partly executed it was intended when completed that it should have presented at once to the eye about one hundred and thirty figures.
In that more extended form which recent None have enabled me to give to machinery constructed for the purpose of making calculations it will be possible by certain adjustments to set the engine so that it shall produce the series of natural numbers in regular order from unity up to number expressed by more than thousand places res.
At the end of that term another and different law shall regulate the succeeding terms this law shall continue in operation perhaps for number of terms expressed perhaps by unity followed by thousand zeros or Iq joo oat which period third law shall be introduced and like its predecessors govern the figures produced by the engine during third of those enormous periods.
This change of laws might continue without limit each individual law being destined to govern for millions of ages the calculations of the engine and then give way to its successor to pursue like career.
Thus series of laws each simple in itself successively spring into existence at distances almost too great for human conception.
The full expression of that wider law which comprehends within it this unlimited sequence of minor consequences may indeed be beyond the utmost reach of mathematical analysis It lies been supposed that ten turns of the handle of the calculating engine might be made in minute or about five hundred and twenty six millions in century.
As in this case each turn would make calculation after the lapse of million of centuries only the fifteenth place res would have been reached.
but of one remarkable fact however we are certain that the mechanism brought into action for the purpose of changing the nature of the calculation from the production of the merest elementary operations into those highly complicated ones of which we speak is itself of the simplest kind.
In contemplating the operations of laws so uniform during such immense periods and then changing so completely their apparent nature whilst the alterations are in fact only the necessary consequences of some far higher law we can scarcely avoid remarking the analogy which they bear to several of the phenomena of nature.
The laws of animal life which regulate the caterpillar seem totally distinct from those which in the subsequent stage of its existence govern the butterfly.
The difference is still more remarkable in the transformations undergone by that class of animals which spend the first portion of their life beneath the surface of the waters and the latter part as inhabitants of air.
It is true that the periods during which these laws continue to act are not to our senses enormous like the mechanical ones above mentioned but it cannot be doubted that immeasurably more complex as they are they were equally fore known by their Author and that the first creation of the egg of the moth or the libel hula involved within its contrivance as necessary consequence the whole of the subsequent transformations of every individual of their respective races.
In turning our views from these simple results of the juxtaposition of few wheels it is impossible not to perceive the parallel reasoning which may be applied to the mighty and far more complex phenomena of nature.
To call into existence all the variety of vegetable forms as they become fitted to exist by the successive adaptations of their parent earth is undoubtedly high exertion of creative power.
When rich vegetation has covered the globe to create animals adapted to that clothing which deriving nourishment from its luxuriant shall gladden the face of nature is not only high but benevolent exertion of creative power.
To change from time to time after lengthened periods the races which exist as altered physical circumstances may render their abode more or less congenial to their habits by allowing the natural extinction of some races and supplying by new creation others more fitted to occupy the place previously abandoned is still but the exercise of the same benevolent power.
To cause an alteration in those physical circumstances to add to the comforts of the newly created animals all these acts imply power of the same order perpetual and benevolent superintendent to take advantage of altered circumstances for the purpose of producing additional happiness.
But to have foreseen at the creation of matter and of mind that period would arrive when matter assuming its prearranged combinations would become susceptible of the support of vegetable forms that these should in due time themselves supply the i abu um of animal existence that successive races of giant forms or of micro so pic beings should at appointed periods necessarily rise into existence and as inevitably yield to decay and that decay and death the lot of each individual existence should also act with equal power on the races which they constitute that the extinction of every race should be as certain as the death of each individual and the advent of new genera be as inevitable as the destruction of their predecessors to have foreseen all these changes and to have provided by one comprehensive law for all that should ever occur either to the races themselves to the individuals of which they are composed or to the globe which they inhabit manifests degree of power and of knowledge of far higher order.
The vast cycles in the geological changes that have taken place in the earths surface of which we have ample evidence offer another analogy in nature to those mechanical changes of law from which we have endeavour ed to extract unit sufficiently large to serve as an imperfect measure for some of the simplest works of the Creator.
The gradual advance of Geology during the last twenty years to the dignity of science has arisen from the laborious and extensive collection of facts and from the enlightened spirit in which the induction founded on those facts have been deduced and discussed.
To those who are unacquainted with this science or indeed to any person not deeply versed in the history of this and kindred subjects it is impossible to convey just impression of the nature of that evidence by which multitude of its conclusions are supported evidence in many cases so irresistible that the records of the past ages to which it refers are traced in language more imperishable than that of the historian of any human transactions the relics of those beings entombed in the strata which myriads of centuries have heaped upon their graves giving present evidence of their past existence with which no human testimony can compete.
It is found that each additional step in the grouping together of the facts of geology confirms the view that the changes of our planet since it has been the abode of man is but as page in the massive volumes of its history every leaf of which written in the same character conveys to the de cypher er the idea of succession of the same causes acting with varying intensity through unequal but enormous periods each period apparently distinguished by the coming in or going out of new subsidiary laws yet all submitted to some still higher condition which has stamped the mark of unity on the series and points to the conclusion that the minutest changes.
as well as those transitions apparently the most abrupt have been throughout all time the necessary the inevitable consequences of some more comprehensive law impressed on matter at the dawn of its existence.
TO 8 HOW THAT THE D OCT NES DO NOT LEAD TO FATALISM.
If all the combinations and modifications of matter can be supposed to be traced up to one general and comprehensive law from which every visible form both in the organic and inorganic world flows as the necessary consequence of the first impression of that law upon matter it might seem to follow that Fate or Necessity governs all things and that the world around us may not be the result of contriving mind working for benevolent purpose.
Such possibly may be the first impression of this view of the subject but it is an erroneous view one of those perhaps through which it is necessary to pass in order to arrive at truth.
Let us in order to obtain more correct views upon this point briefly review the labour which the human race has expended in attaining the limited knowledge we possess.
For about six thousand years man has claimed the earth as his heritage and asserted his dominion over all other beings ended with life yet during large portion of that period how small comparatively has been his mental improvement Until the invention of printing the mass of mankind were in many respects almost the creatures of instinct.
It is true the knowledge possessed by each generation instead of being the gift of Nature was derived from the instruction of their predecessors but how little were those lessons improved by repeated communication Transmitted most frequently by unenlightened instructors they might lose but could rarely gain in value.
Before the invention of printing accidental position determined the opinions and the knowledge of the great mass of mankind.
Oral information being almost the only kind accessible each man shared the opinions of his kindred and neighbours and truth which is ever most quickly and most surely elicited by discussion lost all those advantages which diversity of opinion always produces for it.
The minds of individual men however powerful could address themselves only to very small portion of their fellow men their influence was limited by space and restricted by time their highest powers were not stimulated into action by the knowledge that their reasoning i could have effect where their voices were unheard by the conviction that the truths which they arrived at and the discoveries they made would extend beyond their country and survive their age.
But since the invention of printing how different has been the position of mankind the nature of the instruction no longer depends entirely on the knowledge of the personal instructor.
The village schoolmaster communicates to his pupils the power of using an instrument by which not merely the best of their living countrymen but the greatest and wisest men of all countries and all times may become their instructors.
Even the elementary writings through which this art is taught give to the pupil not the sentiments of the teacher but those which the public opinion of his countrymen esteems most fit for the beginner in knowledge.
Thus the united opinions of multitudes of human minds are brought to bear even upon seemingly unimportant points.
If such is the effect of the invention of printing upon ordinary minds its influence over those more highly endowed is far greater.
To them the discussion of the conflicting opinions of different countries and distant ages and the establishment of new truths present field of boundless and exalted ambition.
Advancing beyond the knowledge of their neighbours and countrymen they may be exposed to those prejudices which result from opinions long stationary but encouraged by the approbation of the greatest of other nations and the more enlightened of their own knowing that time alone is wanting to complete the triumph of truth they may accelerate the approaching dawn of that day which shall pour flood of light over the darkened intellects of their thankless countrymen content themselves to exchange the hatred they experience from the honest and the dishonest intolerance of their contemporaries for that higher homage a like independent of space and of time which their memory will for ever receive from the good and the gifted of all countries and all after ages.
Until printing was very generally spread civilisation scarcely advanced by slow and languid steps since this art has become cheap its advances have been unparalleled and its rate of progress vastly accelerated.
It has been stated that the civilisation of the Western World has resulted from its being the seat of the Christian religion but however much the mild tenor of its doctrines is calculated to assist in producing such an effect that religion cannot but be injured by an unfounded statement.
It is to the easy and cheap methods of communicating thought from man to man which enable country to sift as it were its whole people and to produce in its science its literature and its arts not the brightest efforts of limited class but the highest exertions of the most powerful minds among whole community it is this which has given birth to the wide spreading civilisation of the present day and which promises maturity yet more prolific.
Whoever is acquainted with the present state of science and the mechanical arts and looks back over the inventions and civilisation which the fourteen centuries subsequent to the introduction of Christianity have produced and compares them with the advances made during the succeeding four centuries following the invention of printing will have no doubt as to the effective cause.
It is during these last three or four centuries that man considered as species has commenced the development of his intellectual faculties that he has emerged from position in which he was almost the creature of instinct to state in which every step in advance facilitates the progress of his successors.
During the first period arts were discovered by individuals and lost to the race in the latter the diffusion of thought has enabled the reasoning of one class to unite with the observations of another and the most advanced point of one generation to become the starting post of the next.
It is during this portion of our history that man has become acquainted with his real position in the universe that he has measured the distance from that which is to us the great fountain of light and heat that he has traced the orbits of earths sister spheres and calculated the paths of all their dependent worlds that he has arrived at the knowledge of law which appears to govern all matter and whose remotest consequences if first traced by his telescope are found to have been written in his theory or if first predicted by his theory are verified by his observations.
Simple as the law of gravity now appears and beautifully in accordance with all the observations of past and of present times consider what it has cost of intellectual study.
Copernicus Galileo Kepler Euler Lagrange Laplace all the great names which have exalted the character of man by carrying out trains of reasoning unparalleled in every other science these and host of others each of whom might have been the Newton of another field have all labour ed to work out the consequences which resulted from that single law which he discovered.
All that the human mind has produced the brightest in genius the most persevering in application has been lavished on the details of the law of gravity.
Had that law been other than it is had it been for example the inverse cube of the distance it would still have required an equal expense of genius and of labour to have worked out its details.
But between the laws represented by the inverse square and the inverse cube of the distance there are None an infinite number of other laws each of which might have been the basis of system requiring the most extensive knowledge to trace out its consequences.
Again between every law which can be expressed by whole numbers whether it be direct or inverse an infinity of others can still be None.
All these might be combined by two by three or in any other groups and new systems might be imagined submitted to such combinations.
Thus another infinity of laws of far higher order in fact of an infinitely higher order might again be added to the list.
And this might still be increased by all the other combinations of which such laws admit besides that by addition to which we have already alluded thus forming an infinity itself of so high an order that it is difficult to conceive.
Man has as yet no proof of the impossibility of the existence of any of these laws.
Each might for any reason we can assign be the basis of creation different from our own.
It is at this point that skill and knowledge Even beyond this every law so imagined might be interrupted by any None function and thus be made to agree for any period with laws of simpler form and yet deviate in one single or in certain limited number of cases and then agree with it for ever.
re enter the argument and banish for ever the dominion of chance.
The Being who called into existence this creation of which we are parts must have chosen the present form the present laws in preference to the infinitely infinite variety which he might have willed into existence.
He must have known and foreseen all even the remotest consequences of every one of those laws to have penetrated but little way into one of which has exhausted the intellect of our whole species.
If such is the view we must take of the knowledge of the Creator when contemplating the laws of inanimate matter laws into whose consequences it has cost us such accumulated labour to penetrate what language can we speak when we consider that the laws which connect matter with animal life may be as infinitely varied as those which regulate material existence The little we know might perhaps lead us to infer far more unlimited field of choice.
The chemist has reduced all the materials of the earth with which we are acquainted to about fifty simple bodies but the zoologist can make no such reductions in his science.
He claims for one scarcely noticed class that of intestinal parasites about thirty thousand species and not to mention the larger classes of animals who shall number the species of in fu sorta in living waters still less those which are extinct and whose scarcely visible relics are contained within the earth in almost mountain masses.
In absolute ignorance of any even the smallest link of those chains which bind life to matter or that still more miraculous one which connects mind with both we can pursue Professor Ehrenberg of Berlin has discovered that the triple employed in that city for polishing metals which is dug up at Bil in in Bohemia consists almost entirely of the None remains of in fu sorta of species so minute that about 000 millions of them weigh 220 grains and occupy the space of cubic inch.
The reader will find translation of the highly interesting papers of Professor Ehrenberg in the third number of the Scientific Memoirs published by Mr.
our path only by the feeble light of analogy and humbly hope that the Being whose power and benevolence are unbounded may enable us in some further stage of our existence to read another page in the history of his mighty works.
Enough however and more than enough may be gathered even from our imperfect acquaintance with matter and some few of its laws to prove the unbounded knowledge which must have preceded their organization.
IN THE FIT CHAPT E OF GENESIS.
strange and singular argument has frequently been brought against the truth of the facts presented to us by Geology facts which every instructed person may confirm by the evidence of his senses.
It has been asserted that they cannot be true because if admitted they lead inevitably to the conclusion that the earth has existed for an enormous period extending perhaps over millions of years whereas it was supposed from the history of the creation as delivered by Moses that the earth was first created about six thousand years ago.
different interpretation has been lately put upon that passage of the sacred writings and according to the highest authorities of the present time it was not the intention of the writer of the book of Genesis to assign this date to the creation of our globe but only to that of its most favoured inhabitants.
Now it is obvious that additional observations and another advance in science may at no distant period render necessary another interpretation of the Mosaic narrative and this again at more remote time may be superseded by one more in accordance with the existing knowledge of that day.
And thus the authority of Scripture will be gradually undermined by the weak though well intention ed efforts of its friends in its support.
For it is clear that when work translated by persons most highly instructed in its language and seeking.
in plainness and sincerity to understand its true meaning admits of such discordant interpretations it can have little authority as history of the past or guide to the future.
It is time therefore to examine this question by another light and to point out to those who support what is called the literal interpretation of Scripture the precipice to which their doctrines if true would inevitably lead and to show not by the glimmering of elaborate criticism but by the plainest principles of common sense that there exists no such fatal collision between the words of Scripture and the facts of nature.
And first let us examine what must of necessity be the conclusion of any candid mind from the mass of evidence presented to it.
Looking solely at the facts in which all capable of investigation agree facts which it is needless to recite they having been so fully and ably stated in the works of Mr.
Lyell and Dr.
Buckland we there see and with no theoretical eye the remains of animated beings more and more differing from existing races as we descend in the series of strata.
Not merely are the petrified bones preserved displaying marks of the insertion of every muscle necessary for the movement of the living animal but in some cases we discover even the secretions of their organs prepared either for nourishment or for defence.
Almost every stratum we pause to examine affords indubitably evidence of having at some former period existed for ages at the bottom of some lake or estuary some inland sea or some extensive ocean teeming with animal existence or of having been the surface of country covered with vegetation which perished and was renewed at distant and successive periods.
Those however who without the knowledge which enables them to form an opinion on the subject feel any latent wish that this evidence should be overthrown would do well to remember that geology also furnishes strong evidence in favour of the much more direct statement of Moses as to the recent creation of man.
And although we must ever feel certain degree of caution in admitting negative evidence as conclusive yet in the present instance the fact that the multitude of fossil bones which have been discovered and which when examined by persons duly qualified for the task have been uniformly pronounced to be those of various tribes of animals and not those of the human race undoubtedly affords strong corroborative evidence in confirmation of the Mosaic account In truth the mass of evidence which combines to prove the great antiquity of the earth itself is so irresistible and so un shaken by any opposing facts that none but those who are a like incapable of observing the facts and of appreciating the reasoning can for moment conceive the present state of its surface to have been the result of only six thousand years of existence.
What then have those accomplished who have restricted the Mosaic account of the creation to that diminutive period which is as it were but span in the duration of the earths existence and who have im prudently rejected the testimony of the senses when opposed to their None criticisms Undoubtedly if they have succeeded in convincing either themselves or others that one side of the question must be given up as untenable those who are so convinced are bound to reject that which rests on testimony not that which is supported by still existing facts.
The very argument which Protestants have opposed to the doctrine of None would if The historian of the Decline of the man Empire carried the argument yet further still remember he remarks my solitary transport at the discovery of philosophical argument against None that the text of Scripture which seems to their view of the case were correct be equally irresistible against the book of Genesis.
But let us consider what would be the conclusion of every reasonable being in parallel case.
Let us imagine manuscript written three thousand years ago and professing to be revelation from the Deity in which it was stated that the colour of the paper of the very book now in the readers hands is black and that the colour of the ink in the characters which he is now reading is white with that reasonable doubt of his own individual faculties which would become the inquire into the truth of statement said to be derived from so high an origin he would ask of all those around him whether to their senses the paper appeared to be black and the ink to be while.
If he found the senses of other individuals agree with his own then he would un doubt indicate the real presence is attested only by single sense our sight while the real presence itself is disproved by three of our senses the sight the taste.
i.
i.
ed ly pronounce the alleged revelation forgery and those who pronounced it to be either deceived or deceivers.
He would rightly impute the attempted deceit to moral turpitude to gross ignorance or to interested motives in the supporters of it but he certainly would not commit the impiety of supposing the Deity to have wrought miraculous change upon the senses of our whole species and then to demand their belief in fact directly opposed to those senses thus throwing doubt upon every conclusion of reason in regard to external objects and amongst others upon the very evidence by which the authenticity of that questionable manuscript was itself supported and even upon the fact of its existence when before their eyes.
Thus then had those who attempt to show that the account of the creation in the book of Genesis is contradicted by the discoveries of modern science succeeded they would have destroyed the testimony of Moses they would have un canonized one portion of Scripture and by implication have thrown doubt on the remainder.
But minds which thus failed to trace out the necessary consequences of their own argument were not likely to have laid very secure foundations for the basis on which it rested and shall presently prove that the contradiction they have imagined can have no real existence and that whilst the testimony of Moses remains un impeached we may also be permitted to confide in the testimony of our senses.
Before entering on the main argument of the last Chapter it may be remarked that the plainest and most natural view of the language employed by the sacred historian is that his expressions ought to be received by us in the sense in which they were understood by the people to whom he addressed himself.
If when speaking of the creation instead of using the terms light and water he had spoken of the former as wave and of the latter as the union of two invisible airs he would assuredly have been perfectly unintelligible to his countrymen at the distance of above three thousand years his writings would just have begun to be comprehended and possibly three thousand years hence those views may be as inexplicable to the then existing state of human knowledge as they would have been when the first er of Genesis was written.
Those however who attempt to disprove the facts presented by observation by placing them in opposition to revelation have mistaken the very groundwork of the question.
The revelation of Moses itself rests and must necessarily rest on testimony.
Moses the author of the oldest of the sacred books lived about fifteen hundred years before the Christian era or about three thousand three hundred years ago.
The oldest manuscripts of the Pentateuch at present known appear to have been written about years ago.
These were copied from Mr.
Home others of older date and those again might probably if their history were known be traced up through few transcripts to the original author but no part of this history is revelation it is testimony.
Although the matter edition of the Hebrew Bible waa about 6.
In that work Mr.
Horne gives an account of ten of the most ancient of these MS S.
four of which contain the first er of Genesis via.
i No.
4.
Codex Cae send e in the Mal at cut a Library at Bologna written about the end of the eleventh century.
No.
6.
Codex Mc dial an ennis written towards the close of the twelfth century.
The beginning of the book of Genesis and the end of Leviticus and Deuteronomy have been written by later hand.
No.
8.
Codex Paris in a is about the commencement of the twelfth century.
No.
10.
Codex Paris in a is written at the beginning of the twelfth century.
In the same work is an account of six of the most ancient of four hundred and seventy nine MS S.
collated by M.
De ssi.
Two of these contain the first er of Genesis and the date of both is about the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century.
Of the Manuscripts of the Samaritan versions of the Pentateuch cited in the same work one is the Codex 1 in the Ambrosia i Library at Milan which in the opinion of Dr.
Ken nicht i is certainly not later than the tenth century.
which the book contains was revealed to Moses the fact that what we now receive as revelation is the same with that originally communicated revelation is entirely dependent on testimony.
Admitting however the full weight of that evidence above mentioned corroborated as it is by the Samaritan version nay even supposing that we now possessed the identical autograph of the book of Genesis by the hand of its author most important question remains What means do we possess of translating it In similar cases we avail ourselves of the works of the immediate predecessors and of the contemporaries of the writer but here we are acquainted with no work of any predecessor with no writing of any contemporary nor do we possess the works of any writers in the same language even during several succeeding centuries if we except some few of the sacred books.
How then is it possible to satisfy our minds of the minute shades of meaning of words perhaps employed popularly or if they were employed in stricter and more philosophical sense where are the contemporary philosophical writings from which their accurate interpretation may be gained The extreme difficulty of such an inquiry will be made apparent by imagining parallel case.
Let us suppose all writings in the English and indeed in all other languages previous to the time of Shakespeare to have been destroyed let us imagine one manuscript of his plays to remain but not vestige of the works of any of his contemporaries and further suppose the whole of the succeeding works of English literature to be annihilated nearly up to the present time.
Under such circumstances what would be our knowledge of Shakespeare We should undoubtedly understand the general tenor and the plots of his plays.
We should read the language of all his characters and viewing it generally we might even be said to understand it.
But how many words connected with the customs habits and manners of the time must under such circumstances necessarily remain unknown to us Still further if any question arose requiring for its solution knowledge of the minute shades of meaning of words now long obsolete or of terms supposed to be used in strict or philosophical sense how completely unsatisfactory must our conclusions remain Such conceive to be the view which common sense bids us take of the interpretation of the book of Genesis.
The language of the Hebrews in times long subsequent to the date of that book may not have so far changed as to prevent us from understanding generally the history it narrates but there appears to be no reasonable ground for venturing to pronounce with confidence on the minute shades of meaning of allied words and on such foundations to support an argument opposed to the evidence of our senses.
should have hesitated in offering these remarks respecting the right interpretation of the Mosaic account of the creation had my argument depended on any acquaintance with the language in which the sacred volume is written or on any refinements of criticism had possessed that knowledge but in estimating its validity or in supplying more cogent argument in treat the reader to consider well the difficulties which it is necessary to meet 1 it.
The Church of England if we may judge by the writings of those placed in authority has hitherto considered it to have been expressly stated in the book of Genesis that the earth was created about six thousand years ago.
2 i ly.
Those observers and philosophers who have spent their lives in the study of Geology have arrived at the conclusion that there exists irresistible evidence that the date of the earths first formation is far anterior to the epoch supposed to be assigned to it by Moses and it is now admitted by all competent persons that the formation even of those strata which are nearest the surface must have occupied vast periods probably millions of years in arriving at their present state.
3 i ly.
Many of the most distinguished members of the Church of England now distinctly and formally admit the fact of such lengthened existence of the earth we inhabit.
It is so stated in the eighth Bridgewater Treatise work written by the Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford himself holding an office of dignity in that Church and expressly appointed to write upon that subject by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London.
4 the ly.
The Professor of Hebrew at the same University has proposed new interpretation of those passages in the Book of Genesis which were hitherto supposed to be adverse to the now admitted facts.
Such being the present state of the case it surely becomes duty to require very high degree of evidence before we again claim authority for the opinion that the book of Genesis contains such precise account of the work of the creation that we may venture to appeal to it as refutation of observed facts.
The history of the past errors of our parent Church supplies us with lesson of caution which ought not to be lost by its reformed successors.
The fact that the venerable Galileo was compelled publicly to deny on i ended knee truth of which he had the most convincing demonstration remains as beacon to all after time and ought not to be without its influence on the inquiring minds of the present day.
If the explanation offered by the Professor of Hebrew be admitted those who adhere to it must still have some misgivings as to the probability that new discoveries in nature may give continual occasion for amended translations of various texts whereas should the view which has been advocated in this er be found correct instead of fearing that the future progress of science may raise additional difficulties in the way of revealed religion we are at once relieved from all doubt on that subject.
.
The wish universally felt and expressed in every variety of form to remain in the memory of our fellow creatures after our passage from the present scene has rightly been added as an intimation of the desire of immortality and has sometimes been explained as being founded on an instinctive belief that we are destined to be immortal by the Creator.
The hope of remaining embalmed in the fond recollection of those we held most dear in life and even of being remembered by our more immediate descendants has something in it nearly connected with self but the wish for more extended reputation the desire that our name should pass in after times from mouth to mouth cherished and admired by those whose applause is won by no personal recollections or the still more fervent aspirations that we may stamp indelibly on the age we live in some mark of our individual existence which shall form an epoch in the history of man these hopes these longings receive no interpretation from the all dominant principle of self unless indeed we suppose the sentient principle of our nature not merely to exist but also to be conscious of and gratified by the earthly immortality it had achieved.
Yet the more distant and the higher the objects we pursue the less is it possible to suppose the mind so occupied on earth can in another stage of its existence derive pleasure from such perceptions.
To support this opinion it is only necessary to examine the of mind in the various classes of the aspirant after fame.
Through every form of society and through every rank of each may be traced this universal passion.
Examine the most highly civilized inhabitants of earth search through it for the most cultivated and refined in taste for the most sagacious in penetrating the passions of mankind the most skilful in wielding them or the most powerful in intellectual might.
Taste feeling passion ambition genius severed or combined equally yield obedience to its i way and present under different appearances the effects of its all controlling power.
Look at the highest productions of the poet or the novelist.
By connecting his story with the scenery the traditions or the history of his country he may ensure for it local interest domestic and transitory popularity but it is that deeper penetration into the secrets of the human heart which enables him to select from amongst the same materials those feelings that are common to the race which have as occasion called them forth appeared and will continue to reappear as long as the same affections and passions shall continue to animate and agitate our frames.
From the examination of these its highest forms we may gather some common principles and be enabled to perceive that the love of fame is far different from that passion for vulgar applause with which it is too frequently confounded.
We may learn that the higher the intellectual powers devoted to the task the more remote the period for which ambition delights to raise its far distant altar.
.
Time and change are great only with reference to the faculties of the beings which note them.
The insect of an hour fluttering during its transient existence in an atmosphere of perfume would attribute unchanging duration to the beautiful flowers of the list us whose petals cover the dewy grass but few hours after it has received the lifeless body of the gnat.
These flowers could they reflect might contrast their transitory lives with the prolonged existence of their greener neighbours.
The leaves themselves counting their brief span by the lapse of few moons might regard as almost indefinitely extended the duration of the common parent of both leaf and flower.
The lives of individual trees are lost in the continued destruction and renovation which take place in forest masses.
Forests themselves starved by the exhaustion of the soil or consumed by fire succeed each other in slow graduation.
forest of oaks waves its luxuriant branches over spot which has been fertilized by the ashes of forest of pines.
These periods again merge into other and still longer cycles during which the latest of thousand forests sinks beneath the waves from the gradual subsidence of its parent earth or in which extensive foundations by accumulating the silt of centuries gradually convert the living trunks into their stony resemblances.
Stratum upon stratum subsides in comminuted particles and is accumulated in the depths of ocean whence they again arise consolidated by pressure and by heat to form the continents and mountains of new creation.
Such in endless succession is the history of the changes of the globe we dwell upon and human observation aided by human reason has as yet discovered few signs of beginning no symptom of an end.
Yet in that more extended view which recognises our planet as one amongst the attendants of central luminary that sun itself the soul as it were of vegetable and animal existence but an insignificant individual among its con gene is of the milky way when we remember that that cloud of light gleaming with its myriad systems is but an isolated nebula amongst countless host of rivals which the starry firmament surrounding us on all sides presents in every varied form some as un condensed masses of attenuated light some as having in obedience to attractive forces assumed spherical figure others as if farther advanced in the history of their fate enclosing denser central nucleus surrounded by more diluted light spreading into such vast space that the whole of our own nebula would be lost in it others there are in which the apparently unformed and irregular mass of nebulous light is just curdling as it were into separate systems whilst many present cong eric i of distinct points of light each perhaps the splendid luminary of creation more glorious than our own when the birth the progress and the history of None systems are considered we require some other unit of time than even that comprehensive one which astronomy has unfolded to our view.
Minute and almost infinitesimal as is the time which comprises the history of our race compared with that which records the history of our system the space even of this latter period forms too limited standard where with to measure the foot marks of eternity.
FM ON T The object of the present er is to show that it is more consistent with the attributes of the Deity to look upon miracles not as deviations from the laws assigned by the Almighty for the government of matter and of mind but as the exact fulfilment of much more extensive laws than those we suppose to exist.
In fact if we were ended with acute senses and higher reasoning faculties they are the very points we should seek to observe as the tests of any hypothesis we had been led to frame concerning the nature of those laws.
Even with our present imperfect faculties we frequently arrive at the highest confirmation of our views of the laws of nature by tracing their action under singular circumstances.
The mode by which propose to arrive at these conclusions is by again appealing to the judgment which each individual will himself form when examining that piece of mere human mechanism to which the argument so frequently compels me to advert.
If he agrees with me that the second of the two views presented to him exhibits higher degree of knowledge and higher exertion of power than the first he must inevitably conclude that the view here suggested of the nature of miracles assigns far higher degree of knowledge and power to the Deity.
Let the reader suppose himself placed before the calculating engine and let him again observe and ascertain by lengthened induction the nature of the law it is computing.
Let him imagine that he has seen the changes wrought on its face during the lapse of thousands of years and that without one solitary exception he has found the engine register the series of square numbers.
Suppose now the maker of that machine to say to the observer will by moving certain mechanism which is invisible to you cause the engine to make one cube number instead of square and then to revert to its former course of square numbers the observer would be inclined to attribute to him degree of power but little superior to that which was necessary to form the original engine.
But let the same observer after the same lapse of time the same amount of uninterrupted experience of the uniformity of the law of square numbers hear the maker of the engine say to him The next number which shall appear on those wheels and which you expect to find square number shall not be so.
When the machine was originally ordered to make these calculations impressed on it law which should coincide with that of square numbers in every case except the one which is now about to appear after which no future exception can ever occur but the varying law of the squares shall be pursued until the machine itself perishes from decay.
Undoubtedly the observer would ascribe greater degree of power to the artist who had thus willed that event which he foretells at the distance of ages before its arrival.
If the count river of the engine then explain to him that by the very structure of it he has power to order any number of such apparent deviations from its laws to occur at any future periods however remote and that each of these may be of different kind and if he also in form him that he gave it that structure in order to meet events which he foresaw must happen at those respective periods there can be no doubt that the observer would ascribe to the inventor far higher knowledge than if when those events several occurred he were to intervene and temporarily to alter the calculations of the machine.
If besides this the count river were so far to explain the structure of the engine that the observer could himself by some simple process such as the mere moving of bolt call into action those apparent deviations whenever certain combinations were presented to his eye if he were thus to impart power of predicting such excepted cases dependent on the will though in other respects beyond the limits of the observers power and knowledge such structure would be admitted as evidence of still more skilful contrivance.
The engine which in former er introduced to the reader possesses these powers.
It may be set so as to obey any given law and at any periods however remote to make one or more seeming exceptions to that law.
It is however to be observed that the apparent law which the spectator arrived at by an almost unlimited induction is not the full expression of the law by which the machine acts and that the excepted case is as absolutely and irresistibly the necessary consequence of its primitive adjustment as is any individual calculation amongst the countless multitude which it may previously have produced.
When the construction of that engine was first attempted did not seek to give to it the power of making calculations so far beyond the reach of mathematical analysis as these appear to ben or can now foresee probable period at which they may become practically available to human purposes.
had determined to invest the invention with degree of generally which should include wide range of mathematical power and was well aware that the mechanical generalizations had organised contained within them much more than had leisure to study and some things which will probably remain unproductive to far distant day.
Amongst those combinations which was None induced to examine observed the powers have now recorded and the reflections they produced in my own mind impelled me to pursue them for time.
If the reader agrees with me in opinion that these speculations lead to more exalted view of the great Author of the universe than any we have hitherto possessed he must also have arrived at the conclusion that the study of the most abstract branch of practical mechanics combined with that of the most None portions of mathematical science has no tendency to incapacitate the human mind from the perception of the evidences of natural religion and that even those very sources themselves may furnish arguments which open views of the grandeur of creation perhaps more extensive than any which the sciences of observation or of physics have yet supplied.
It may not perhaps be without its use to suggest another illustration derived from the same quarter respecting the nature of miracles.
It is known that mathematical laws are sometimes expressed by curves.
represents re entering curve of four dimensions whose law of formation is given in the note.
slight change in the nature of the constants makes it assume the form 2 which is still continuous curve but further change of the constants causes it to have two oval quite disconnected from the larger portion and as the constants again alter these oval are reduced to points.
The equation y axA i end xe expresses several figures of an oval form according to the nature of the roots of the equation axA i end i o.
If its two lesser roots become imaginary the curves figures I 2 3 are produced.
2 In all four cases every point in each branch of the curve obeys the same general law.
The points and Q though strictly invisible to the eye are yet detected by mathematical analysis and fulfil as precisely the original equation as any of the infinite number of other points which constitute the rest of the curve.
These points might be situated on the curve itself and they are well known to mathematicians.
It is to these singular points which really fulfil the law of the curve but which present to those who judge of them only by the organ of sight an apparent discontinuing that wish to call the attention as offering an illustration of the doctrine here explained respecting miracles.
It has been remarked in the beginning of the present er that it is to the singular points to those points of such infinitely rare occurrence in curve that we frequently have recourse as the test of our theories for explaining the phenomena of nature.
The existence of conical refraction in certain crystals under peculiar circumstances was predicted by W.
Hamilton and from an analytical investigation into the nature of the curve surface which represents the form of the None wave within the crystal he ascertained that it had four co noid i cups at each of which there were consequently an infinite number of tangent planes.
The course of the refracted ray being determined by the tangent plane to the wave surface it followed that single ray within the crystal transmitted in the direction of the line joining two opposite cups corresponded to an infinite number of refracted rays without constituting refracted cone.
second case of conical refraction predicted by William Hamilton depended on another mathematical fact namely that the wave surface is touched in an infinite number of points constituting small circle of contact by single plane parallel to one of the circular sections of the surface of elasticity.
Professor Lloyd undertook to make the very delicate experiments required for this most interesting investigation.
Of its great importance he was fully aware for he remarks Here then are two singular and unexpected consequences of the und ul a tory theory not only unsupported by any facts hitherto observed but even opposed to all the analogies derived from experience.
If confirmed by experiment they would furnish new and almost convincing proofs of that theory and if disproved on the other hand it is evident that the theory must be abandoned or modified.
On examining the first of these cases experimentally the fact of conical refraction was fully established.
But new result now presented itself the rays of light thus conical ly refracted were found to be polarized and it was observed that the angle between the planes of polarization of any two rays of the cone was half the angle between the planes containing the rays themselves and the axis.
This new law thus approximately obtained by experiment led the observer back to the theory and on further examination he detected in that theory the very law he had just discovered by observation.
The second case of conical refraction required experiments of still more delicate nature.
They were however made and succeeded equally.
The conical ly refracted ray was found to be polarised according to the law which in this instance analysis had predicted and to complete the triumph of this union of theory and experiment the measures in both cases when made under proper circumstances accorded with the theoretical conclusions.
within such limits as might be fairly attributed to the unavoidable errors of observation.
It is worthy of remark that at first two facts presented themselves which seemed to be at variance with the theory.
In the first place the emergent rays formed solid cone instead of conical surface and in the second place the calculated angle suspended by the sides of the cone was only one half the observed angle.
Both the facts were shown to depend upon the size of the aperture through which the light was admitted and to arise from the rays which were inclined at small angles to the single theoretical direction.
When the aperture was diminished so as to be very small the case calculated by William Hamilton then the cone of light became truly conical surface and the observed angle was the same as the calculated one.
Those who are acquainted with the history of astronomy cannot fail to recall parallel discrepancy between observation and calculation iu the theory of gravity.
It appeared to result from that law that the motion of the moons apogee was only one half of what observation proved it to be and it is singular that Euler DAlembert and Clair aut arrived by different methods at the same erroneous result and the truth of the great law of gravity appeared for time to be doubtful.
Clair aut however having assumed that the law of gravity contained term sensible only at small distances such as that of the moon re calculated the question and finding it necessary in consequence of the existence of this term to push his approximation further than he had done arrived at the conclusion that the co efficient of the new term vanished and also that when the approximation were sufficiently pursued the simple law of the inverse square of the distance accounted for the whole of the motions which observations had discovered.
The principle of the equality of action and reaction when traced through all its consequences opens views which will appear to many persons most unexpected.
The pulsating of the air once set in motion by the human voice cease not to exist with the sounds to which they gave rise.
Strong and audible as they may be in the immediate neighbourhood of the speaker and at the immediate moment of utterance their quickly attenuated force soon becomes inaudible to human ears.
The motions they have impressed on the particles of one portion of our atmosphere are communicated to constantly increasing numbers but the total quantity of motion measured in the same direction receives no addition.
Each atom loses as much as it gives and regains again from other atoms portion of those motions which they in turn give up.
The waves of air thus raised None the earth and oceans surface and in less than twenty hours every atom of its atmosphere takes up the altered movement due to that infinitesimal portion of the primitive motion which has been conveyed to it through countless channels and which must continue to influence its path throughout its future existence.
La cour be dec rite par une simple molecule i air ou va i curs est re glee dune mani ere a uss i certain que les orbit is planet a arc sil ny de i if le fence entre elle i que But these aerial pulses unseen by the keenest eye unheard by the cutest ear un perceived by human senses are yet demonstrated to exist by human reason and in some few and limited instances by calling to our aid the most refined and comprehensive instrument of human thought their courses are traced and their intensifies are measured.
If man enjoyed larger command over mathematical analysis his knowledge of these motions would be more extensive but being possessed of unbounded knowledge of that science could trace every the minutest consequence of that primary impulse.
Such being however far exalted above our race would still be immeasurably below even our conception of infinite intelligence.
But supposing the original conditions of each atom of the earths atmosphere as well as all the extraneous causes acting on it to be cell guy met notre ignorance.
Ill given and supposing also the interference of no new causes such being would be able clearly to trace its future but inevitable path and he would distinctly foresee and might absolutely predict for any even the remotest period of time the circumstances and future history of every particle of that atmosphere.
Let us imagine being invested with such knowledge to examine at distant epoch the coincidence of the facts with those which his profound analysis had enabled him to predict.
If any the slightest deviation existed he would immediately read in its existence the action of new cause and through the aid of the same analysis tracing this disc or dance back to its source he would become aware of the time of its commencement and the point of space at which it originated.
Thus considered what strange chaos is this wide atmosphere we breathe Every in the Appendix.
atom impressed with good and with ill retains at once the motions which philosophers and sages have imparted to it mixed and combined in ten thousand ways with all that is worthless and base.
The air itself is one vast library on whose pages are for ever written all that man has ever said or woman whispered.
There in their table but unerring characters mixed with the earliest as well as with the latest sighs of mortality stand for ever recorded vows un redeemed promises unfulfilled perpetuating in the united movements of each particle the testimony of mans change ful will.
But if the air we breathe is the never failing historian of the sentiments we have uttered earth air and ocean are the eternal witnesses of the acts we have done.
The same principle of the equality of action and reaction applies to them whatever movement is communicated to any of their particles is transmitted to all around it the share of each being diminished by their number and depending jointly on the number and position of those acted upon by the original source of disturbance.
The waves of air although in many instances perceptible to the organs of hearing are only rendered visible to the eye by peculiar contrivance but those of water offer to the sense of sight the most beautiful illustration of transmitted motion.
Every one who has thrown pebble into the still waters of sheltered pool has seen the circles it has raised gradually expanding in size and as uniformly diminishing in distinct ness.
He may have observed the reflection of those waves from the edges of the pool.
He may have noticed also the perfect distinct ness with which two three or more series of waves each pursues its own un impeded course when diverging from two three or more centres of disturbance.
He may have seen that in such cases the particles of water where the waves intersect each other partake of the movements due to each series.
motion impressed by natural causes or by human agency is ever obliterated.
The ripple on the oceans surface caused by gentle breeze or the still water which marks the more immediate track of ponderous vessel gliding with scarcely expanded sails over its bosom are equally indelible.
The momentary waves raised by the passing breeze apparently born but to die on the spot which saw their birth leave behind them an endless progeny which reviving with diminished energy in other seas visiting thousand shores reflected from each and perhaps again partially concentrated will pursue their ceaseless course till ocean be itself annihilated.
The track of every canoe of every vessel which has yet disturbed the surface of the ocean whether impelled by manual force or elemental power remains for ever registered in the future movement of all succeeding particles which may occupy its place.
The furrow which it left is indeed instantly filled up by the closing waters but they draw after them other and larger portions of the surrounding element and these again once moved communicate motion to others in endless succession.
The solid substance of the globe itself whether we regard the minutest movement of the soft clay which receives its impression from the foot of animals or the concussion arising from the fall of mountains rent by earthquakes equally communicates and retains through all its countless atoms their apportioned shares of the motions so impressed.
Whilst the atmosphere we breathe is the ever living witness of the sentiments we have uttered the waters and the more solid materials of the globe bear equally enduring testimony of the acts we have committed.
If the Almighty stamped on the brow of the earliest murderer the indelible and visible 2 mark of his guilt he has also established laws by which every succeeding criminal is not less irrevocably chained to the testimony of his crime for every atom of his mortal frame through whatever changes its severed particles may migrate will still retain adhering to it through every combination some movement derived from that very muscular effort by which the crime itself was perpetrated.
The soul of the negro whose fettered body surviving the living char nel house of his infected prison was thrown into the sea to lighten the ship that his Christian master might escape the limited justice at length assigned by civilized man to crimes whose profit had long gilded their atrocity will need at the last great day of human account no living witness of his earthly agony.
When The following extract is from report by Captain Hayes to the Admiralty of representation made to him respecting one of these vessels in 18.
The master having large cargo of these human beings man and all his race shall have disappeared from the face of our planet ask every particle chained together with more humanity than his fellows permitted some of them to come on deck but still chained together for the benefit of the air when they immediately commenced jumping overboard hand in hand and drown ing in couples and continued the person relating the circumstance without any cause whatever.
Now these people were just brought from situation between decks and to which they knew they must return where the scalding perspiration was running from one to the other covered also with their own filth and where it is no uncommon occurrence for women to be bringing forth children and men dying at their side with full in their view living and dead bodies chained together and the living in addition to all their other torments labour ing under the most fishing thirst being in very few instances allowed more than pint of water day and let it not be forgotten that these unfortunate people had just been tom from their country their families their all Men dragged from their wives women from their husbands and children girls from their mothers and boys from their fathers and yet in this mans eye for heart and soul he could have had none there was no cause whatever for jumping overboard and drowning.
This in truth is rough picture but it is not highly coloured.
The men are chained in pairs and as proof they are intended so to remain to the end of the voyage their fetters arc not locked but rive lac i by the blacksmith and as deaths are frequently occurring living men of air still floating over the people i earth and it will record the cruel mandate of the tyrant.
Interrogate every wave which breaks un impeded on ten thousand desolate shores and it will give evidence of the last gurgle of the waters which closed over the head of his are often for length of time confined to dead bodies the living man cannot be released till the blacksmith has performed the operation of cutting the clench of the rivet with his chisel and have now an officer on board the Dryad who on examining one of these slave vessels found not only living mat chained to dead bodies but the latter in putrid state.
And we have now case reported here which if true is too horrible and disgusting to be described.
1 1 as quoted in the Quarterly view Dec.
18.
When the ink was scarcely dry on the paper on which the remarks in the text suggested by former description of the atrocities of the slave trade was written the following paragraph caught my attention Slave Tr add.
is Majesty i ship Thalia Captain Wau i hope has captured on the coast of Africa two slave vessels one the F el ici li slaves the other the A deli a with slaves.
It appears the latter vessel had been chased by the boats of one of our i ruiz ers and to avoid being come up with she threw overboard upwards of of the poor wretches who were on board besides almost all her heavy stores.
Hc stern May 18.
Il i dying victim confront the murderer with every corporeal atom of his immolate slave and in its still quivering movements he will read the prophets denunciation of the prophet kin i.
home i argument ON home i argument against miracles.
Few arguments have excited greater attention and produced more attempts at refutation than the celebrated one of David respecting miracles and it might be added that more sophistry has been advanced against it than its author employed in the whole of his writings.
It must be admitted that in the argument as originally developed by its author there exists some confusion between personal experience and that which is derived from testimony and that there are several other points open to criticism and objection but the main argument divested of its less important adjunct never has and never will be refuted.
Dr.
Johnson seems to have been of this opinion as the following extract from his life by Boswell proves Talking of Dr.
Johnson i unwillingness to believe extraordinary things.
ventured to say i argument against mira clues That it is more probable witnesses should lie or be mistaken taking the proposition simply by miracles alone but as connected with prophecies and with the doctrines in wrought.
contends that miracle is violation of the laws of nature and as firm and unalterable experience has established these laws the proof against miracle from the very nature of the fact is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.
vol.
iii.
i.
1.
home i argument The plain consequence is and it is general maxim worthy of our attention that no testimony is sufficient to establish miracle unless the testimony be of such kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish and even in that case there is mutual destruction of arguments and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force which remains after deducting the inferior.
The word miraculous employed in this passage is evidently equivalent to improbable although the improbability is of very high degree.
The condition therefore which it is asserted by the argument of must be fulfilled with regard to the testimony is that the improbability of its falsehood must be greater than the improbability of the occurrence of the fact.
This is condition which when the terms in which it is expressed are understood immediately commands our assent.
ii.
i.
subsequent stage of the reasoning that the fallacy is introduced.
asserts that this condition cannot be fulfilled by the evidence of any number of witnesses because our experience of the truth of human testimony is not uniform and without any exceptions whereas our experience of the course of nature or our experience against miracles is uniform and uninterrupted.
The only sound way of trying the validity of this assertion is to measure the numerical value of the two probabilities one of which it is admitted must be greater than the other and to ascertain whether by making any hypothesis respecting the veracity of each witness it is possible to fulfil that condition by any finite number of such witnesses.
appears to have been but very slightly acquainted with the doctrine of probabilities and indeed at the period when he wrote the details by which the conclusions 1 home i argument he had arrived at could be proved or refuted were yet to be examined and arranged.
It is however remarkable that the opinion he maintained respecting our knowledge of causation is one which eminently brings the whole question within the province of the calculus of probabilities.
In fact its solution can only be completely understood by those who are acquainted with that most difficult branch of science.
By those who are not so prepared certain calculations which will be found more fully developed in the Note E must be taken for granted and all that can be attempted will be to convey to them general outline of the nature of the principles on which these enquiries depend.
miracle is according to an event which has never happened within the experience of the whole human race.
Now the improbability of the future happening of such an occurrence may be calculated according to two different views.
We may conceive an urn containing only black and white balls from which black balls have been successively drawn and replaced one by one and we may calculate the probability of the appearance of white ball at the next drawing.
This would be analogous to the case of one human being raised from the dead after instances to the contrary.
Looking in another point of view at miracle we may imagine an urn to contain very large number of tickets on each of which is written one of the series of natural numbers.
These being thoroughly mixed together single ticket is drawn the prediction of the particular number inscribed on the ticket about to be drawn may be assimilated to the occurrence of miracle.
According to either of these views the probability of the occurrence of such an event by mere accident may be calculated.
Now the reply to i argument is this Admit 1 HUME S ting at once the essential point via.
that the improbability of the concurrence of the witnesses in falsehood must be greater than the improbability of the miracle it may be denied that this does not take place.
has asserted that in order to prove miracle certain improbability must be greater than another and he has also asserted that this never can take place.
Now as each improbability can be truly measured by number the only way to refutes argument is by examining the magnitude of these numbers.
This examination depends on known and admitted principles for which the reader who is prepared by previous study may refer to the work of Laplace Th kyrie An all ti que des Pro bail it i Poisson cher che i sur la Probability des Jug em ents 18 or he may consult the article Probabilities by Mr.
De Morgan in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana in which he will find this subject examined.
One of the most important principles on which the question rests is the concurrence of the testimony of independent witnesses.
This principle has been stated by Campbell and has been employed and also by Dr.
Chalmers.
i It requires however to be combined with another principle in order to obtain the numerical values of the quantities spoken of in the argument.
The following example may be sufficient for popular illustration.
Let us suppose that there are witnesses who will speak the truth and who are not themselves deceived in ninety nine cases out of hundred.
Now let us examine what is the probability of the falsehood of statement about to be made by two such persons absolutely unknown to and unconnected with each other.
Since the order in which independent wit D.
D.
i.
18.
Evidence of Christi a i elation vol.
i.
i.
1.
1.
home i argument ness es give their testimony does not affect their credit we may suppose that in given number of statements both witnesses tell the truth in the ninety nine first cases and the falsehood in the hundredth.
Then the first time the second witness testifies he will agree with the testimony of the first witness A in the ninety nine first cases and differ from him in the hundredth.
Similarly in the second testimony of B he will again agree within ninety nine cases and differ in the hundredth and so on for ninety nine times so that after has testified hundred and ninety nine times we shall have cases in which both agree cases in which they differ being wrong.
Now in the hundredth case in which testifies he is wrong and if we combine this with the testimony of A we have ninety nine cases in which will be right and wrong and one case only in which both and will agree in error.
The whole number of cases which amounts to ten thousand may be thus divided cases in which and agree in truth X cases in which is true and false 1 cases in which is true and false 1 i 1 case in which both and agree in falsehood.
10 000 cases.
As there is only one case in ten thousand in which two such independent witnesses can agree in error the probability of their future testimony being false is or The reader will already perceive how great reliance is due to the future concerning testimony of two independent witnesses of tolerably good character and understanding.
It appears that previously to the testimony the chance of one such witness being in error is i that of two concerning in the same error is and if the same reasoning be applied to three independent witnesses it will be home i argument found that the probability of their agreeing in error is or that the odds are 9 9 to against the agreement.
Pursuing the same reasoning the probability of the falsehood of fact which six such independent witnesses attest is previously to the testimony J L or it is in round numbers 1 000 000 000 000 to against the falsehood of their testimony.
The improbability of the miracle of dead man being restored is on the principles stated by or it is 200 000 000 000 to against its occurrence.
It follows then that the chances of accidental or other independent concurrence ot only six such independent witnesses is already jive times as great as the improbability against the miracle of dead mans being restored to life deduced from i method of estimating its probability solely from experience.
This illustration shows the te great accumulation of probability arising from the concurrence of independent witnesses we must however combine this principle with another before we can arrive at the real numerical value of the probabilities referred to in the argument.
The calculation of the numerical values of these probabilities have given in Note E.
From this it results that provided we assume that independent witnesses can be found of whose testimony it can be stated that it is more probable that it is true than that it is false we can always assign number of witnesses which will according to i argument prove the truth of miracle.
IN QUI IN QUI Those who have too hastily lent the credit of their authority to support the prejudice that the pursuit of mathematical investigations renders the mind un apt for the perception of the truths of religion must now be compelled to admit that they have endeavour ed to discredit science which alone can furnish an exact refutation of one of the most celebrated arguments against revelation.
Those on the other hand who without the knowledge which qualifies men to form opinions on such subjects have intruded their dogmatic on the world though they may fail to learn the lessons of caution and modesty may yet be disposed to abstain from scattering their misdirected darts lest they should injure one of the best allies of the faith which they profess.
Whilst those who in humble diffidence of their own powers rely on the opinions of others and are believers from feeling rather than from reason may learn from experience what they might fail to ascertain by inquiry that no truth in any department of knowledge can ever be in contradiction to any other truth and they may after many such instances perceive that it is no narrow evidence which has convinced the most enlightened men that unlimited discussion is the fatal enemy of error the most certain supporter of truth.
In the course of this inquiry the gradually decreasing value of human testimony when transmitted from witness to witness has been alluded to and its bearing on the future IN QU i reception of revelation must have been foreseen by some and may when pointed out be feared by others of my readers.
It may be apprehended that after thousands of years the long transmitted testimony of revealed truth may not have sufficient force to convince the inquires of that distant time.
That such cause is in constant action must be fully admitted for every statement from man to his fellow man is liable to error from two sources.
The witness may be deceived or he may himself be deceiver and however extensive his knowledge or however high his general character for veracity whilst the possibility of failure in either direction remains repeated transmission through series of such witnesses will ultimately reduce to insignificance any statement in itself highly improbable.
To suppose human beings in cap ab able of being deceived and incapable of deception is to assign to them attributes which we know they do not possess and which we can scarcely as pig i to i pons i ble and created beings.
Let us examine then what reply reason and science can make to such forebodings.
If transmitted revelation contain within its pages prophecy of events dark and unintelligible in itself and therefore unfit to cause its own fulfilment and if from time to time facts occur explaining instantly by no circuitous or lengthened process but clearly and explicitly the mystic words if the explanation of that which till then was dark and mysterious even to the learned and reflecting flashes with spontaneous conviction on the minds of multitudes who now discover for the first time the events to have been clearly predicted then revelation however faint from the lapse of time revives with renewed energy and claims its reception with force almost equal to that which it demanded from those to whom it was originally delivered.
If on the other hand an inspired writer had given an account of former state of our planet different wholly from its present con go IN QUI i it ion yet so distinct and minute that if there were placed before us map of the islands continents and rivers with the plants and the animals of that ancient world we should instantly recognise the coincidence with the prophets description and if it were impossible from the state of knowledge when the revelation was delivered that the writer could have been acquainted even with the relics of that former world he so well described then it must be admitted that we should have strong and irresistible evidence of his veracity.
Let us suppose an inspired writer to describe former constitution of our globe in which vast continent occupied the position now filled by the Pacific Ocean that great river with three outlets poured its waters towards the south that these streams and their banks were people i with animals differing as much from all then known races as the plesiosaur and the pterodactyl do from those we i oh now inhabit our globe and that he had described ot with anatomical precision but in popular language the number of bones in the several parts of their frames their habits and food as well as the plants which flourished on the banks of those rivers.
Thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of years hence we may conceive an island rising from the same ocean and the geologists of that distant era tracing in its then elevated strata by their fossil shells of mingled fresh water and marine origin the estuaries of the streams from which the strata were deposited discovering by the depth of their branches and their magnitude that the river must have been formed from the drainage of some great continent and finally that aided by the comparative anatomist and botanists of that day they should reconstruct from the fossil bones embedded in the strata the very animals and plants described by the prophet and ascertain even their habits and their food.
If similar discoveries and reconstructions of an ir pals previously unknown have been made in our own IN QUI times almost in the infancy of these sciences what advances may we not expect with the progress of time What has been stated by way of illustration as resulting from some branches of natural science is equally applicable under different circumstances to many others.
Nor does this view present any thing irreconcilable with the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator.
In the early stages of the world before man had acquired knowledge to read the book of nature ever open to his view direct revelation might be as necessary for his belief in Deity as for his moral government and this might from time to time be repeated.
When civilization and science had fixed their abode amongst mankind and when observations and reason had enabled man to penetrate some little way into the mysteries of nature his conviction of the existence of first great cause would gradually acquire additional strength from the use of his own faculties.
and when accumulating proofs had firmly established this great step the recurrence of revelation might be less necessary for his welfare.
The ancient revelation would however necessarily lose portion of its weight from its continued transmission and thus by slow but inevitable steps tend in the lapse of ages to extinction.
It is possible however that that very revelation may contain within its pages the verification of its own truth and that the advancement of man in the know ledge of the structure of the works of his Creator might furnish continually increasing proofs of its authenticity and that thus by the due employment of our faculties we might not merely redeem revelation from the ravages of time but give to it degree of force strengthening with every accession to our knowledge and ultimately forcing our understandings to assent to it even with conviction great as that which had compelled 1 C.
the be la if of those to whom it was originally delivered.
It is not for the finite faculties of man to pronounce what has been the course chosen for his happiness by an all wise Creator but it may be permitted to him to meet the difficulty which necessarily arises from the fallible and fading nature of human testimony by pointing out one possible course in which by the exertion of the highest faculties with which we have been blessed we may make nearer approach to the knowledge of the will of our Creator.
Some of the readers of the former edition of this work whilst they have admitted the exalted view of the Creator which arises from considering his will as the development of laws of unbounded generally have expressed regret that those views appeared to them in some measure to imply that we are less immediately the objects of his protecting care that he seems thus less constantly and less directly our watchful Guardian and Protector.
This difficulty ultimately resolves itself into that of the reconciling foreknowledge with freefall.
Without however entering at present on that None discussion there are some reflections which may at least afford partial reply to the objection stated above.
In reverting to the first origin of our knowledge of the motives and feelings of those around us we must necessarily look into our own hearts.
When we exercise that feeling which is called kindness or benevolence we are conscious that we make some exertion or some sacrifice to add to the happiness of another person without ourselves expecting to derive any advantage in return.
When we observe other persons making similar exertions or sacrifices and when we can discover no possibility of their deriving advantage from them except that interior feeling of happiness which always arises from the exercise of such good offices we conclude that they are activated by the same feeling of kindness or benevolence.
In the first case we are conscious of the existence of that feeling within our own bosoms in the second we infer that it exists in others from the similarity of human actions under the same apparent circumstances.
The reasoning which leads us to ascribe the attribute of benevolence to the Creator is of precisely the same kind although the infinity of this as of his other attributes can bear no comparison to the finite extent of those of other beings.
Since however it is by such reasoning only that we attain the knowledge of them so if there arise question about the comparative amount of any of those attributes when exerted in one way rather than in another we must apply to such cases the same reasoning.
The inference from which the objection has arisen is that the superintendent of.
Providence is remote not immediate the answer that shall endeavour to make to it is that NATH HE OF the value of benevolence is not diminished by the distance of time at which its exertion arises.
In order to examine this question of immediate or remote superintendent let us imagine case occurring amongst our fellow creatures and let us endeavour to ascertain the conclusion we should form with regard to it.
Let us suppose the wealthy resident near small village returning from the neighbouring town to have observed from distance that the bridge across rapid stream has been carried away by flood and that the blind postman who makes his daily journey along the causeway to the neighbouring town unconscious of what has happened is just approaching the torrent.
Setting spurs to his horse he dashes forward and clearing the broken bridge has just time to a light and catch the postman on the verge of destruction.
Such conduct is an example of kindness or benevolence and would receive the praise it justly merits.
Let us now suppose another village another stream and another postman starting like the former one at an early hour before the villagers are abroad.
We will imagine too the wealthy resident near this other village to have been out on the preceding day amongst the distant mountains from which the torrent which passes the village is fed and that observing the quantity of rain which has fallen in those parts he foresees that the resulting flood will in all probability destroy the bridge across that stream and knowing from his experience that several hours must lapse before the rain which falls in the mountains produces its full effect on the stream in his neighbourhood he sends off one of his attendants in time to reach the broken bridge just before the moment when the stream would be crossed by the unsuspecting traveller who is thus saved from death.
Undoubtedly this is benevolence.
And although we may not infer that the benevolence in the latter was greater than in the former case yet it cannot for moment be maintained to be less.
In fact the first case was one of benevolence excited by feeling in the second it was benevolence called forth by reflection and aided and reduced to action by reasoning founded upon knowledge.
The sportsman in the mountains who thus reasoned would not have been less active had he been on the spot at the dangerous moment.
But he who by his personal exertion preserved the blind man although of an equally benevolent heart might not have possessed the knowledge available for the safety of the postman had he been at distance from the spot on which his effort was successful.
Two inferences are connected with this imagined case.
1 it That the benevolence which organizes beforehand contrivance for the advantage or security of its objects is at least as high as that which acts from the impulse of immediate feeling.
2 i That the benevolence which is guided by knowledge even though as feeling it may not be superior in intensity is often of far more value to those who are its subjects.
Such are the decisions we should arrive at respecting human feelings and human knowledge and applying the same principles instead of looking with any feelings of doubt or apprehension at the distance of time at which it may have pleased the Creator to have organized our protection from danger we ought when once convinced of his benevolence to discover 21 ON in that very distance proof of his higher knowledge and higher power and with every addition to those attributes to feel ourselves under still more potent and un in term it ted None.
A PO 1 PO FA VO U OF THE OCC U N CE OF MIC LES.
In the present er it is proposed to prove that It is more probable that any law at the knowledge of which we have arrived by observation shall be subject to one of those violations which according to i definition constitutes miracle than that it should not be so subjected.
To show this we may be allowed again to revert to the Calculating Engine and to assume that it is possible to set the 1 PO machine so that it shall calculate any algebraic law whatsoever and also possible so to arrange it that at any periods however remote the first law shall be interrupted for one or more times and be superseded by any other law after which the original law shall again be produced and no other deviation shall ever take place.
Now as all laws which appear to us regular and uniform in their course and to be subject to no exception can be calculated by the engine and as each of these laws may also be calculated by the same machine subject to any assigned interruption at distinct and definite periods each simple law may be interrupted at any point by the temporary action of portion of any one of all the other simple laws it follows that the class of laws subject to interruption is far more extensive than that of laws which are uninterrupted.
It is in fact infinitely more numerous.
Therefore the probability of any law with which we have become acquainted by observation being part of much more extensive law and of its having to use mathematical language singular points or None functions contained within it is very large.
Perhaps it may be objected that the laws calculated by such an engine as have referred to are not laws of nature and that any deviation from laws produced by human mechanism does not come within i definition of miracles.
To this it may be answered that law of nature has been defined by to rest upon experience or repeated observation just as the truth of testimony does.
Now the law produced by the engine may be arrived at by precisely the same means namely repeated observation.
It may however be desirable to explain further the nature of the evidence on which the fact that the engine possesses those powers rests.
1 PO When the Calculating Engine has been set to compute the successive terms of any given law which the observer is told will have an apparent exception at for example the ten million and twenty third term the observer is directed to note down the commencement of its computations and by comparing these results with his own independent calculations of the same law he may verify the accuracy of the engine as far as he chooses.
It may then be demonstrated to him by the very structure of the machine that if its motion were continued it would necessarily at the end of very long time arrive at the ten millionth term of the law assigned to it and that by an equal necessity it would have passed through all the intermediate terms.
The inquire is now desired to turn on the wheels with his own hand until they are precisely in the same situation as they would have been had the engine itself gone on continuously to the ten millionth term.
The machine is again put in motion This can be done in few minutes.
and the observer again finds that each successive term it calculates fulfils the original law.
But after passing twenty two terms he now observes one term which does not fulfil the original law but which does coincide with the predicted exception.
The continued movement now again produces terms according with the first law and the observer may continue to verify them as long as he wishes.
It may then be demonstrated to him by the very structure of the machine that if its motion were continued it would be impossible that any other deviation from the apparent law could ever occur at any future time.
Such is the evidence to the observer and if the superintendent of the engine were at his request to make it calculate great variety of different laws each interrupted by special and remote exceptions he would have ample ground to believe in the assertion of its director that he could so arrange the engine that any 1 PO law however complicated might be calculated to any assigned extent and then there should arise one apparent exception after which the original law should continue uninterrupted for ever.
Let us now consider the miracle alluded to by the restoration of dead man to life.
According to the definition of that author our belief that such fact is contrary to the laws of nature arises from our uniform experience against it.
Our personal experience is small we must therefore have recourse to testimony and from that we learn that the dead are never restored to life and consequently we have the uniform experience of all mankind since the creation against one assigned instance of dead man being so restored.
Let us now find the numerical amount of this evidence.
Assuming the origin of the human race to have been about six thousand years ago and taking thirty years as the duration of generation we have 00 200 generations.
And allowing that the average population of the earth has been thousand millions we find that there have been bom and have died since the creation 2001 000 000 000 200 000 000 000 individuals.
Such then according to are the odds against the truth of the miracle that is to say it is found from experience that it is about two hundred thousand millions to one against dead man having been restored to life.
Let us now compare this with parallel case in the calculations of the engine let us suppose the number above stated to be hundred million times as great or that the truth of the miracles is opposed by number of instances expressed by twenty places res.
PO The engine may be set to count the natural numbers 1 2 3 4 i.
and it shall continue to fulfil that law not merely for the number of times just mentioned for that number is quite insignificant among the vast periods it involves but the natural numbers shall follow in continual succession until they have reached an amount which requires for its expression above hundred million places res.
If every letter in the volume now before the readers eyes were changed into figure and if all the figures contained in thousand such volumes were arranged in order the whole together would yet fall far short of the vast induction the observer would then have had in favour of the truth of the law of natural numbers.
The widest range of all the cycles of astronomy and geology combined sink into insignificance before such period.
Yet shall the engine true to the prediction of its director after the lapse of myriads of ages fulfil its task and give that one the first and only exception to that time sanctioned law.
What would have been the chances against the appearance of the excepted case immediately prior to its occurrence It would have had according to the evidence of all experience against it with force myriads of times more strong than that against any miracle.
Now let the reader who has fully entered into the nature of the argument ask himself this question Does he believe that such an engine has really been contrived and what reasonable grounds has he for that belief The testimony of any single witness is small against such odds besides the witness may deceive himself.
Whether he speaks truly will be estimated by his moral character whether he deceives himself will be estimated by his intellectual character.
The probability that such an engine has been contrived will however receive great addition when it is remarked that mathematical and especially geometrical evidence is of all others that in 1 PO which the fewest mistakes arise and in which they are most readily discovered and when it is added that the fact of the invention of such an engine rests on precisely the same species of evidence as the propositions of Euclid and may be deduced from the drawings with all the force of demonstration.
Whether such an engine could be actually made in the present state of mechanical art is question of quite different order it must rest upon the opinions of those who have had extensive experience in that art.
The author has not the slightest hesitation in stating his opinion to be that it is fully within those limits.
This however is question foreign to the nature of the argument which might have been stated in more abstract manner without any reference to such an engine.
As however the argument really arose from that machine and as visible forms make much deeper impression on the mind than any abstract reasoning i it has been stated in conjunction with that subject.
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Who has not felt the painful memory of departed folly who has not at times found crowding on his recollection thoughts feelings scenes by all perhaps but himself forgotten which force themselves involuntarily on his attention Who has not reproached himself with the bitterest regret at the follies he has thought or said or acted Time brings no allegation to these periods of morbid memory the weaknesses of our mouthful days as well as those of later life come equally 1 unburden and un arranged to mock our attention and claim their condemnation from our severe judgment.
It is remarkable that those whom the world least accuses accuse themselves the most and that foolish speech which at the time of its utterance was unobserved as such by all who heard it shall yet remain fixed in the memory of him who pronounced it with tenacity which he vainly seeks to communicate to more agreeable subjects of reflection.
It is also remarkable that whilst our own foibles or our imagined exposure of them to others furnish the most frequent subject of almost nightly regret yet we rarely call to recollection our acts of consideration for the feelings of others or those of kindness and benevolence.
These are not the familiar friends of our memory ready at all times to enter the domicile of mind its welcome but unburden guests.
When they appear they are usually summoned at the command of reason to meet some expected ingratitude or when the mind retires within its council chamber to nerve itself for the endurance or the resistance of injustice.
If such be the pain the penalty of thoughtless folly who shall describe the punishment of real guilt Make but the offender better and he is already severely punished.
Memory that treacherous friend but faithful monitor recalls the existence of the past to mind now imbued with finer feelings with sterner notions of justice than when it enacted the deeds thus punished by their recollection.
If additional knowledge be given to us the consequences of many of our actions appear in very altered light.
We become acquainted with many evils they have produced which although quite unintentional on our part are yet subjects of painful regret.
But this unveiling regret is mixed with another feeling far more distressing.
We reproach ourselves with not having sufficiently employed the faculties we possessed in acquiring that knowledge which if we had attained it would have prevented us from committing acts we now discover to have been injurious to those we best loved.
On the other hand the good which such increased knowledge enables us to discover that we have unintentionally done fails to produce the satisfaction always arising from virtuous motive and it is accompanied by the regret that by sufficient cultivation of our faculties we might have enjoyed still higher gratification by more efficient service to our fellow creatures.
Thus on which so ever side we look at the question knowledge alone is advantageous to virtue and if additional knowledge alone were given in future life it would cause the best of us to regret the errors of the present.
Let us now consider the consequences of higher tone of moral feeling of perception of excel len die i of character in others hitherto unappreciated.
Without the torment arising from additional knowledge we may in such circumstances perceive that the pain we have inflicted for imagined offences was quite beyond their real deserts and may feel that the justice we have done to others has been quite disproportion ed to the sacrifices they have made to serve us.
If without any addition to our intellectual faculties increased perfection were given to our bodily senses the same result would ensue.
W ol last on has shown that there are sounds of such nature that they can be heard by some individuals but are inaudible to others a circumstance which may arise either from the in capacity of the parts of the ear to vibrate in the same time as those producing the sound or from the force of the sounding body being insufficient to communicate motion through the 21 air to those portions of the ear whose movement is required to produce the sensation of hearing.
If we imagine the soul in an after stage of our existence to be connected with bodily organ of hearing so sensitive as to vibrate with motions of the air even of infinitesimal force and if it be still within the precincts of its ancient abode all the accumulated words pronounced from the creation of mankind will fall at once upon that ear.
Imagine in addition power of directing the attention of that organ entirely to any one class of those vibrations then will the apparent confusion vanish at once and the punished offender may hear still vibrating on his ear the very words uttered perhaps thousands of centuries before which at once caused and registered his own condemnation.
It seems then that either with improved faculties or with increased knowledge we could scarcely look back with any satisfaction on our past lives that to the major part of our race oblivion would be the greatest boon.
But if in future state we could turn from the contemplation of our own imperfections and with increased powers apply our minds to the discovery of natures laws and to the invention of new methods by which our faculties might be aided in that research pleasure the most un allowed would await us at every stage of our progress.
Un clogged by the dull corporeal load of matter which tyrannies even over our most intellectual moments and chains the ardent spirit to its unkind red clay we should advance in the pursuit stimulated instead of wearied by our past exertions and encountering each new difficulty in the inquiry with the accumulated power derived from the experience of the past and the irresistible energy resulting from the confidence of ultimate success.
Whether then we regard our future prospects as connected with a far higher cuteness of our present senses or as purified by more 1 exalted moral feelings or as guided by intellectual power surpassing all we contemplate upon earth we equally arrive at the conclusion that the mere employment of such enlarged faculties in surveying our past existence will be an ample punishment for all our errors whilst on the other hand if that Being who assigned to us those faculties should turn their application from the survey of the past to the inquiry into the present and to the search into the future the most enduring happiness would arise from the most inexhaustible source.
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The great question of the incompatibility of one of the attributes of the Creator that of fore knowledge with the existence of the free exercise of their will in the beings he has created has long baffled human comprehension nor is it the object of this er to enter upon that difficult question.
As however some of the properties of the Calculating Engine seem although but very remotely to bear on similar question with respect to finite beings it may perhaps not be entirely useless to state them.
1 It has already been observed that it is possible so to adjust the engine that it shall change the law it is calculating into another law at any distant period which may be assigned.
Now by similar adjustment this change may be made to take place at time not foreseen by the person employing the engine.
For example when calculating table of squares it may be made to change into table of cubes the first time the square number ends in the figures an event which only occurs at the 9 the calculation and whether that fact is known to the person who adjusts the machine or not is immaterial to the result.
But the very condition on which the change depends maybe impossible.
Thus the change of the law from that of squares to that of cubes may be made to take place the first time the square number ends in 7.
But it is known that no square number can end in 7 consequently the event on the happening of which the change is determined can itself never take place.
Yet the engine retains impressed on it law which would be called into action if the event on which it depends could occur in the course of the law it is calculating.
Nay further if the observer of the engine is informed that at certain times he can move the last figure the engine has calculated and change it into any other in consequence of which it becomes possible that some future term may end in then after he has so changed the last figure whenever that terminal figure arrives all future numbers calculated by the machine will follow the law of the cubes.
1 These contingent changes may be limited to single exceptions and the arrival of such an exception may be made contingent on change which is only possible at certain rare periods.
For example the engine may be set to calculate square numbers and after certain number of calculations ten million and fifty three for instance it shall be possible to add unity to wheel in another part of the engine which in every other case is immovable.
This fact being communicated to the observer he may either make that addition or refrain from it if he refrain the law of the squares will continue for ever if he make the addition one single cube will be substituted for that square number which ought to occur ten million and five terms beyond the point at which he made the addition and after that no future addition will ever become possible and no deviation from the law of the squares ever can occur.
1 a der have now fulfilled the task undertook.
Labour ing under that imputed mental in capacity which the science cultivate has been stated to produce have brought from the recesses of that science the reasoning i and illustrations by which have endeavour ed faintly to embody the human conception of the Almighty mind.
It is for you to determine whether the trains of thought have excited have lowered or exalted your previous notions of the power and the knowledge of the Creator.
That prejudice which have endeavour ed to expose is not merely speculative opinion it is practical evil and those whose writings have been supposed to give support to it will am sure feel grieved when they learn that it is used by the ignorant and the designing for the injury of the virtuous and the instructed that it is employed as firebrand to disturb the relations of social life.
They will also if the arguments have used have the same effect on their minds which they have had upon my own lament still more deeply that they should have contributed in any degree to throw discredit on that species of knowledge which is now found to supply some of the strongest arguments in favour of religion.
will however hope that the opinions have compared are not shared or even countenance by the higher authorities of our Protestant Church and cannot better conclude this Fragment than by recalling to the reader the words of one whose power of reasoning and whose love of truth add dignity to the high station he so deservedly fills Lastly As we must not dare to withhold or disguise revealed religious truth so we must dread the progress of no other truth.
We must not imitate the bigoted man is to who imprisoned Galileo and step forward Bible in hand like the profane Israelites carrying the Ark of God into the field of battle to check the inquiries of the Geologist the Astronomer or the Political economist from an apprehension that the cause of religion can be endangered by them.
Any theory on whatever subject that is really sound can never be inimical to religion founded on truth and any that is unsound may be refuted by arguments drawn from observation and experiment without calling in the aid of revelation.
If we give way to dread of danger from the incubation of any scriptural.
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