ULTIMATE CAUSES. 409 



conveniently divided into ultimate, essential and non- 

 essential ; real and apparent; absorbing, exciting, re- 

 leasing, and determining ones ; deflecting and guiding ; 

 primary and secondary; immediate, proximate, and re- 

 mote ; direct, indirect, and successive ; active and latent ; 

 general and special ; simple, complex, compound, and con- 

 curring ; inductive and deductive ; qualitative' and quanti- 

 tative ; regulating, balanced, equivalent, preventive, &c. 



Ultimate causes are the most abstruse of any. The 

 most ultimate cause is the greatest uniformity, and the 

 greatest uniformity is the most ultimate cause. That 

 there must be an ultimate cause of all things is proved by 

 the universality of causation, and by the existence of 

 things and their properties ; but the origin and essential 

 nature of that cause is to us, with our very limited facul- 

 ties, an inscrutable and inconceivable mystery. Whilst 

 many men profess to be familiar with the Ultimate Cause 

 of all things, few are able to give a rational account of 

 their idea of it. 



A natural cause is only made known to us by means of 

 its effects,, because those are the only evidences we have 

 of its existence, and because it is only by means of mental 

 changes (produced by those effects) that our consciousness 

 is excited. As also such a cause becomes known to us 

 only by means of its effects, and as the effects of the 

 ultimate cause of all things appear to exist through 

 infinite time and occupy boundless space, our idea of it is 

 the most inadequate of any; it is, however, the most 

 extensive and overpowering of all our ideas, because of 

 the immense variety, magnitude, and number of its 

 effects. And as it is only by means of a study of its 

 effects that we acquire the most rational or intelligent 

 idea of an ultimate power, the extent to which a man is 

 able to realise such an idea is proportionate to his know- 



