AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS. 2f 



judges since he ventured to explain the formation of the 

 heavenly bodies by merely natural laws. I will therefore 

 quote the Authors of the Universal History, when they 

 say : " However, we cannot but think the essay of that 

 philosopher who endeavoured to account for the forma- 

 tion of the world in a certain time from a rude matter, 

 by the sole continuation of a motion once impressed, 

 and reduced to a few simple and general laws ; or of 

 others, who have since attempted the same, with more 

 applause, from the original properties of matter, with 

 which it was endued at its creation, is so far from being 

 criminal or injurious to GOD, as some have imagined, 

 that it is rather giving a more sublime idea of His 

 infinite wisdom." 1 



I have tried to remove the objections which seemed to 

 threaten my positions from the side of religion. There 

 are others not less forcible that arise in regard to the 

 subject itself. Thus it will be said, that although it is 

 true that God has put a secret art into the forces of 

 nature so as to enable it to fashion itself out of chaos 

 into a perfect world system, yet will the intelligence of 

 man, so weak as it is in dealing with the commonest 

 objects, be capable of investigating the hidden properties 



1 Part I. 88. [This quotation is taken from the Introduction to 

 the large English History of the World entitled, An Universal 

 History from the Earliest Account of Time to the Present: compiled 

 from Original Authors ; and illustrated with Maps, Cuts, Notes, 

 Chronological and other Tables. London, 7 vols. 4. 1736-44. 

 Vol. I., p. 36 c. The Introduction quoted from deals with the Cos- 

 mogony or Creation of the World, and it gives an account of all the 

 principal theories ancient and modern, as then understood. The 

 quotation as given in the text is from the original work, but the 

 italics run after Kant's rendering. ' That philosopher ' is Descartes ; 

 the 'others' are Burnet and Whiston. Tr.] 



