20 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



Supremely Wise Power, which has known how to use > it 

 in such a glorious way, is indeed great, but not infinite; 

 is indeed powerful, but not all-sufficient? 



The defender of religion is afraid that those harmonies 



which may be explained from a natural tendency of 



matter, may prove nature to be independent of Divine 



Providence. He confesses distinctly that if natural causes 



could be discovered for all the order of the universe, 



and that if these causes could bring forth this order from 



the most general and essential properties of matter, it would 



be unnecessary to have recourse to a Higher Government 



at all. The advocate of Naturalism finds his account in 



not disputing this assumption. He heaps up examples 



which prove that the general laws of nature are fruitful 



in perfectly beautiful consequences, and he brings the 



orthodox believer into danger by adducing reasons which 



in the believer's hands might become invincible weapons 



of his faith. I will give some examples. It has often 



been adduced as one of the clearest proofs of a benevolent 



Providence which watches over men, that in the hottest 



climates the sea-breezes, just at the time when the heated 



soil most needs their cooling breath, are, as it were, called 



to sweep over the land and refresh it. For instance, in 



the island of Jamaica, as soon as the sun has risen so 



high as to throw the most unbearable heat on the soil 



just after nine o'clock in the forenoon a wind begins to 



rise from the sea, which blows from all sides over the land, 



and its strength increases in the same proportion as the 



height of the sun. About one o'clock in the afternoon, 



when it is naturally hottest, this wind is most violent, and 



it diminishes again as the sun gradually goes down, so that 



towards evening the same stillness prevails as at sunrise. 



