33 o OMNIPOTENCE. 



structure of some kind or other. " Nature " seems to be 

 able to perform wonderful operations although blind and 

 unintelligent. Incapable, though it be of acting for any 

 definite purpose, "nature" somehow produces the most 

 wonderful " contrivances " of its own. Nevertheless, 

 according to modern philosophy, " nature " has no object 

 whatever in contriving. This new " nature " even, seems 

 to possess the capacity of exhibiting properties that in some 

 respects conflict with one another. Thus, " nature " is 

 ever active, but unable to govern, regulate, direct, or con- 

 trol " Nature " constructs, but is helpless as regards the 

 origination of new forms. We are to believe that nature 

 acts without intelligence, and fashions without designing. 

 Such notions are but a very natural consequence of the 

 determination on the part of authorities who have the 

 advantage, notoriety alone can give, to deny the existence 

 of power, while at the same time, they do not admit their 

 inability to adequately explain the facts of nature, without 

 calling in the aid of fictitious powers of their own creation. 



But many, as I have said, do not go so far as this. 

 Such persons will not go the length of utterly discarding 

 the old ideas, but they adopt the more ingenious plan of 

 progressively thinning away the doctrine of design and final 

 causes, until at length it is discovered that it would be 

 foolish on the part of any one to consider the shadow of 

 the original ideas which alone remains worth fighting for. 

 In the same way, old ideas concerning the attributes of 

 Deity, have been attenuated and modified to such an extent 

 that few would care to acknowledge the powerless God that 

 would alone remain. As already remarked, it has been 

 ingeniously suggested, that the active interference on the 



