36 



CHAP, ill, 



The Universal Scheme considered in Connection with tlkt 

 foregoing Principles. 



1. NATURE and education have produced in man * 

 restless and enterprising spirit. He is delighted with the know- 

 ledge he possesses ; and acquiring by this a glimmering of some of 

 a more exquisite kind which is further in the back ground, with- 

 out perhaps sufficiently examining how far he is qualified to attain 

 his desires, he adventures to push boldly on, and had rather sub- 

 stitute fictions for truths than consent to have the scope of his infor- 

 mation abridged. In no instance has this spirit of speculative 

 cnterprize prompted a bolder research than that in which it has aspired 

 to the discovery of the origin of the world in which we are placed, 

 and of the primitive condition of things. It cannot be disputed but a 

 more perfect information on this matter would be highly gratifying 

 to us: in some respects such an information must also be acknow-* 

 ledged to be of the very highest importance. But we have supposed 

 that the limitation of our faculties excludes us from this rich pos- 

 session; animated, however, by the hope of throwing upon the 

 subject one additional ray, notwithstanding past failures, I shall just 

 examine how far the question is affected by the preceding notions: 

 ome of which appearing to be new either in their conception or 

 arrangement, promise at least to add to our results in the present 

 application. 



2. The axiom " ex nihilo nihiljit" has been by some cited in 

 support of theism : how far its services in .this way extend, or 

 whether it possesses a tendency of a different description, will per- 

 haps hereafter more fully appear. The principle that " nothing can 

 exist without a cause" has been before shewn to rest upon analogy; 

 as a principle, it can certainly be no part of our experience ; but 

 though not amounting to an ocular testimony, it is found to be an 

 inference which deserves consideration. The evidence for the 

 principle amounts to this, viz. none of the examples of the origin of 

 an existence, of whose origin we have an experience or sensible 

 testimony, take place spontaneously, or in any way but by an act of 

 causation which has been before described. Without affirming that 

 this evidence is sufficient to establish the principle, or without 

 affirming the truth of any of the principles which may be hereafter 



