'242 OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE DEITY. 



continually producing similar appearances ; yet, rejecting" 

 this cause, the sufficiency of which we know, and the ac- 

 tion of which is constantly before our eyes, we are invited 

 to resort to suppositions, destitute of a single fact for their 

 support, and confirmed by no analogy with which we are 

 acquainted. Were it necessary to inquire into the motives 

 of men's opinions, I mean their motives separate from their 

 arguments, I should almost suspect, that, because the proof 

 of a Deity drav/n from the constitution of nature is not only 

 popular but vulgar, (which may arise from the cogency of 

 the proof, and be indeed its highest recommendation,) 

 and because it is a species almost of puerility to take up 

 with it ; for these reasons, minds, which are habitually in 

 search of invention and originality, feel a resistless inclina- 

 tion to strike off into other solutions and other expositions. 

 The truth is, that many minds are not so indisposed to any 

 thing which can be offered to them, as they are to the 

 flatness of being content with common reasons ; and what 

 is most to be lamented, minds conscious of superiority are 

 the most liable to this repugnancy. 



The " suppositions" here alluded to, all agree in one 

 character. They all endeavour to dispense wi+h the ne- 

 cessity in nature of a particular, personal intelligence ; that 

 is to say, with the exertion of an intending, contriving 

 mindj in the structure and formation of the organized con- 

 stitutions which the world contains. They would resolve 

 all productions into unconscious energies, of a like kind, in. 

 that respect, with attraction, m-agnetism, electricity, &c. 

 without any thing further. 



In this the old system of atheism and the new agree. 

 And I much doubt, whether the new schemes have advanc- 

 43d any thing upon the old, or done more than changed the 

 terms of the nomenclature. For instance, I could never 

 .see the difference between the antiquated system of atoms, 

 and Buffon's organic molecules. This philosopher having 

 made a planet by knockmg off from the sun a piece of melt- 

 ed glass, in consequence of the stroke of a comet ; and hav- 

 ing set it in motion, by the same stroke, both round its own 

 axis and the sun, finds his next difficulty to be, how to 

 bring plants and animals upon it. In order to solve this 

 difficulty, we are to suppose the universe replenished with 

 particles, endowed with life, but without organization or 

 senses of their own ; and endowed also with a tendency to 

 marshal themselves into organized forms. The concourse 

 c>f these particles, by virtue of this tendency^ but without 



