xciv KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



to the last limits, and even to chaos, is to be recon- 

 ciled with the higher notion of Providence. Above 

 all, it has to be shown that our tentative Cosmogonies 

 shake in nothing the demonstration of the existence 

 of God, drawn from the wonders of the Heavens. 

 Kant's Preface has done justice, a century and a half 

 ago, to the objections which a false philosophy may 

 raise against the efforts by which science seeks to 

 explain the work which God has delivered to our 

 discussions ; and on that ground this Preface should 

 be regarded as the Preface to all Treatises on Cosmo- 

 gony.' 1 



All true scientists of the present day will sincerely 

 echo these words of M. Wolf. I am one of those who 

 believe that Atheism is entirely inconsistent with true 

 knowledge of science ; it is the vaunt only of the 

 unscientific, the mark on the forehead of the mere 

 sciolist who is incapable of ultimate thinking, or who 

 has never risen to the new scientific conception of God, 

 which Kant here indicates. * It is true,' says Bacon, 

 ( that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to 

 Atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's 

 minds about to Religion. 5 



Kant elaborated the same argument more definitely 

 as * the only possible Proof of the existence of God,' 

 in his Treatise of 1761, in which he incorporated the 

 summary of his Cosmogony. But, as is well known, 

 one of the chief results of the * Critique of Pure 

 Reason' of 1781, was an ingenious and elaborate 



1 Hypotheses Cosmogoniques, IX. 



