PROOFS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AUTHORITIES, 



ETC. 



THE scientific facts on which this work is founded, and many of 

 the ideas and phrases of the author, having been for controversial 

 purposes contradicted and misrepresented, he has been induced to 

 set all these matters in a clear light by quotations from the writings 

 of reputable naturalists and others, so that they may no longer be 

 the subject of doubt among unlearned readers. It is scarcely neces- 

 sary to say that the number of authorities could easily have been 

 extended ; but the author has been content to limit himself to pro- 

 nouncements which chance to be given forth in brief forms and 

 popularly intelligible language. He has also been induced to enter 

 into a discussion of the arguments of some of his more noted oppo- 

 nents, with a view to expose the singularly hollow and fallacious 

 grounds on which these are based. 



1. NATURAL LAW. 



On the subject of natural law, the following extracts will probably 

 lielp to dispel certain prejudices which have been formed with regard 

 to the conclusions aimed at in the present work : 



" The order we see, not only implies intelligence in its first con- 

 ception, but power by its continued existence ; or, in other words, 

 it is the same being who enacts and executes the law." Dugald 

 Stewart. 



" There is a mistake concerning the idea which the term law ex- 

 presses in physics, wherever such an idea is made to take the place 

 of power, and still more of an intelligent power, and as such to be 

 assigned for the cause of anything, or of any property of anything, 



that exists A law presupposes an agent, for it is only the 



mode according to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power, for 

 it is the order according to which that power acts. Without this 



U 



