28 FINAL CAUSES. 



It will argue no undue presumption, therefore, 

 if, in our earnest endeavours to form just ideas of 

 the attributes of the Deity from the examination 

 of nature, we are led to institute comparisons 

 between His works and those of man ; and strive 

 to gather some faint notions of the divine intelli- 

 gence by applying the only standard of admea- 

 surement which we possess, and are permitted to 

 employ, namely, that derived from the operations 

 of human intellect. Our interpretations of the 

 designs of the Creator must here be obtained 

 through the medium of human views ; and our 

 judgment of His benevolence can be formed 

 only by reference to our own affections, and by 

 their accordance with those ardent aspirations 

 after good, which the Author of our being has 

 deeply interwoven with our frame. 



The evidence of design and contrivance in the 

 works of nature carries with it the greatest force 

 whenever we can trace a coincidence between 

 them and the products of human art. If in any 

 unknown region of the earth we chanced to 

 discover a piece of machinery, of which the 

 purpose was manifest, we should not fail to 

 ascribe it to the workmanship of some me- 

 chanist, possessed of intelligence, actuated by 

 a motive, and guided by intention. Farther, if 

 we had a previous experience of the operation of 

 similar kinds of mechanism, we could not doubt 

 that the effect we saw produced was the one 



