34 FINAL CAUSES. 



for us to estimate the analogous powers and attributes of 

 other minds. The difficulty of applying this scale of mea- 

 surement will, of course, increase in proportion to the dif- 

 ference between the objects compared; and although we may 

 conceive that there are powers and intelligences infinitely 

 surpassing our own, the conceptions we can form of such 

 superior essences must necessarily be indefinite and obscure, 

 and must partake of the same kind of imperfection as our 

 notions of the distances of the heavenly bodies, however 

 familiar we may be with the units of the scale by which 

 those distances are capable of being expressed. When, on 

 the other hand, the objects contemplated are more within 

 the range of our mental vision; when, for instance, they are 

 phenomena that we can assimilate to our own voluntary 

 acts, and in which we can clearly trace the connexion be- 

 tween means and end, then does our recognition of the 

 agency of intellect become most distinct, and our conviction 

 of its real and independent existence become most intimate 

 and assured. 



Such is the kind of evidence on which rests our belief of 

 the existence of our fellow men. Such, also, is the founda- 

 tion of our assurance that there exists a mighty Intellect, 

 who has planned and executed the stupendous works of crea- 

 tion, with a skill surpassing our utmost conceptions; by 

 powers to which we can assign no limit, and the object of 

 whose will is universal good.* 



It will argue no undue presumption, therefore, if, in our 

 earnest endeavours to form just ideas of the attributes of the 

 Deity from the examination of nature, we are led to insti- 

 tute comparisons between His works and those of man; and 

 strive to gather some faint notions of the divine intelligence 

 by applying the only standard of admeasurement wdiich we 

 ^ssess, and are permitted to employ, namely, that derived 

 from the operations of human intellect. Our interpretations 

 of the designs of the Creator must here be obtained through 



* The view here taken is, of course, limited to Natural Theology ; that 

 being' the express and exclusive object of these Treatises. 



