PERSONALITY OF DEITY. 275 



and nerves of the ear — sets of motions bearing an evident 

 reference to each other ; yet the one, and the apparatus for 

 the one, produced by the intervention of generation ; the 

 other altogether independent of it. 



If it be said that the air, the light, the elements, the 

 u-orld itself is generated, I answer, that I do not compre- 

 hend the proposition. If the term mean any thing similar 

 to what it means when applied to plants or animals, the 

 proposition is certainly without proof, and I think draws 

 as near to absurdity as any proposition can do which docs 

 not include a contradiction in its terms. I am at a loss to 

 conceive how the formation of the world can be compared 

 to the generation of an animal. If the term generation 

 signify something quite difierent from what it signifies on 

 ordinary occasions, it may, by the same latitude, signify any 

 thing. In which case, a word or phrase taken from the 

 language of Otaheite would convey as much theory concern- 

 ing the origin of the universe, as it does to talk of its being 

 generated. 



"VYe know a cause — intelligence — adequate to the appear- 

 ances which we wish to account for ; we have this cause 

 continually producing similar appearances ; yet, rejecting 

 this cause, the sufficiency of which we know, and the action 

 of which is constantly before our eyes, we are invited to 

 resort to suppositions destitute of a single fact for their sup- 

 port, and coilfirmed by no analogy with which we are 

 acquainted. Were it necessary to inquire into the motives, 

 of men's opinions, I mean their motives separate from their 

 arguments, I should almost suspect, that because the proof 

 of a Deity drawn from the constitution of nature is not only 

 popular, but vulgar — which may arise from the cogency oi 

 the proof, and be indeed its highest recommendation — and 

 because it is a species almost Oii 'puerility to take up with it ; 

 for these reasons, minds Avhich are habitually in search of 

 invention and originality, feel a resistless inclination to strike 

 off into other solutions and other expositions. The truth is. 



