THE ARGUMENT STATED. 17 



A. chain composed of an infinite number of links can no more 

 support itself than a chain composed of a finite rmmber of 

 links. And of this we are assured, though we never can 

 have tried the experiment ; because, by increasing the num- 

 ber of links, from ten, for instance, to a hundred, from a hun- 

 dred to a thousand, etc., we make not the smallest approach, 

 we observe not the smallest tendency towards self support. 

 There is no difference in this respect — yet there may be a 

 great difTerence in several respects — between a chain of a 

 greater or less length, between one chain and another, be- 

 tween one that is finite and one that is infinite. This very 

 much resembles the case before us. The machine which we 

 are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance 

 and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver, de- 

 sign a designer, whether the m.achine immediately proceed- 

 ed from another machine or not. That circumstance alters 

 not the case. That other machine may, in like manner, have 

 proceeded from a former machine : nor does that alter the 

 case ; the contrivance must have had a contriver. That for- 

 mer one from one preceding it : no alteration still ; a contriv- 

 er is still necessary. No tendency is perceived, no approach 

 towards a diminution of this necessity. It is the same with 

 any and every succession of these machines — a succession of 

 ten, of a hundred, of a thousand ; with one series, as with 

 another — a series which is finite, as with a series which is 

 infinite. In whatever other respects they may difier, in this 

 they do not. In all equally, contrivance and design arc 

 unaccounted for. 



The question is not simply. How came the first watch 

 into existence ? which question, it may be pretended, is done 

 away by supposing the series of watches thus produced from 

 one another to have been infinite, and consequently to have 

 had no such first, for which it was necessary to provide a 

 cause. Tliis, perhaps, would have been nearly the state of 

 the question, if nothing had been before us but an unorgan- 

 ized, unmechanized substance, without mark or indication 



