C> STATE OF THE ARGUJIENT, 



VI. Sixthly, he would be surprised to hear, that the 

 mechanism of the watch was no proof of contrivance, only 

 a motive to induce the mind to think so. 



VII. And not less surprised to be informed, that tli( 

 watch in his hand was nothing more than the result of the. 

 laws 0^ metallic nature. It is a perversion of language to 

 assign any law, as the efficient, operative cause of any thing. 

 A law presupposes an agent; for it is only the mode, ac- 

 cording to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power ; 

 for it is the order, according to which that power acts. 

 Without this agent, without this power, which are both dis- 

 tinct from itself, the laiv does aothing, is nothing. The 

 expression, '' the law of metallic nature," may sound strange^ 

 and harsh to a philosophic ear, but it seems quite as justi- 

 fiable as some others which are more familiar to him ; such 

 as *' the law of vegetable nature" — " the law of animal na- 



^ture,'"' or indeed as " the law of nature" in general, when 

 assigned as the cause of phenomena, in exclusion of agen- 

 cy and power ; or when it is substituted into the place of 

 these. 



VIII. Neither, lastly, would our observer be driven out 

 of his conclusion, or from his confidence in its truth, by 

 being told that he knew nothing at all about the matter. 

 He knows enough for his argument. He knows the utility 

 of the end : he knows the subserviency and adaptation of the 

 means to the end. These points being known, his igno- 

 rance of other points, his doubts concerning other points,, 

 affects not the certainty of his reasoning. The conscious- 

 ness of knowing little, need not beget a distrust of that 

 which he does know. 



CHAPTER II. 



STATE OF THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 



Suppose, in the next place, that the person who found 

 the watch, should, after some time, discover, that, in ad- 

 dition to all the properties which he had hitherto observed 

 in it, it possessed the unexpected property of producing, 

 in the course of its movement, another watch like itself 

 (the thing is conceivable;) that it contained within it a 

 mechanism, a system of parts, a mould for instance, or a 

 complex adjustment of lathes, files, and other tools, evident - 



