CHAP. XII.] -CAUSES. 365 



This Divine First Cause, thus recognised by our intellect 

 as necessarily existing, is more or less qualitatively revealed 

 to us in the material universe according as we extend the 

 sphere of our observations. It is concealed most completely 

 when the inanimate creation is alone considered. It seems 

 to assume a Pantheistic form when we rise no higher than 

 the brute creation. If man alone occupies our attention, a 

 narrow anthropomorphic Deism may be the result ; but from 

 a sympathetic study of the whole universe the mineral, 

 vegetable, animal, and human creations, including intellect, 

 morality, and will the conception of Almighty God becomes 

 naturally and distinctly revealed to the human intellect. 



Sir William Hamilton has said : * &quot; Nature conceals God, 

 and man reveals Him.&quot; This is too unqualified a statement. 

 Bather, physical nature reveals to us one side of the Deity, 

 while the moral world brings us in contact with another, 

 and at first, to our apprehension, a very different one ; 

 though the difference may be soon perceived to proceed, not 

 from reason, but from a want of flexibility of the imagina 

 tion a want so exceedingly common, especially amongst 

 those whose minds have been long immersed in physical 

 studies only. 



&quot; The theist, having arrived at his theistic convictions from 

 quite other sources than a consideration of zoological or 

 botanical phenomena, comes to the consideration of such 

 phenomena and views them in a theistic light, without, of 

 course, asserting or implying that such light has been derived 

 from them&quot; t 



The only part that irrational nature can be reasonably 

 called upon to play in this matter is the part of a test as to 

 the validity of our conceptions concerning the First Cause 

 derived from a contemplation of nature as a whole and 

 primarily of our own human nature. 



Let us apply then this test to the first of the five objec- 



* Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, vol. i. Lecture ii. p. 40. 

 t Genesis of Species, 2nd edition, p. 296. 



