S86 COSMIC FHIL0S0F37. [pt. hi. 



Deity which ir, confessedly based on those limitations alone 

 of finite phenomenal knowledge, which each day's experience 

 proves more and more clearly to be but temporary. Suiely 

 the teleological hypothesis is built upon a rotten foundation, 

 when it has to dread the shock of each advancing wave of 

 knowledge. Surely it is no less irreverent than unphiloso- 

 phical to rest our faith in God's existence upon the alleged 

 impossibility of interpreting in terms of matter and motion 

 the beginnings of life, the cross-relations between marsupials 

 and monodelphia, or the structure of the ears and eyes of a 

 cephalopod. 



Further to develope this argument would be premature, in 

 the absence of explanations to be given in the next chapter. 

 Contenting ourselves for the present with this brief indica- 

 tion, let us now approach the subject somewhat more closely, 

 and examine certain metaphysical arguments upon which it 

 has lately been sought to base an elaborate teleological 

 theory. The " Inquiry into the Theories of History," by 

 Mr. William Adam, presents us with what is probably the 

 last form of the attempt to carry on scientific research by 

 theological methods, and two or three of its arguments may 

 here be fitly noticed, as typical of the entire class to which 

 they belong. 



Mr. Adam accepts, with some qualifications, the doctrine 

 of Descartes and Spinoza, that causes resemble their effects. 

 He holds that physical, intellectual, and moral causes re- 

 spectively resemble their physical, intellectual, and moral 

 effects ; and hence infers that the Deity, as a moral and 

 intellectual cause, must resemble the effect Man — must 

 therefore purpose, contrive, and exert volition. The con 

 elusion would have more weight, were it not so manifestly 

 begged in the premise. Next, even in this modified shape, 

 the rule that causes resemble their effects is hampered by 

 awkward exceptions, in dealing with which Mr. Adam has 

 lot been fortunate. Assuming, for example, that heat is the 



