344 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



include this necessarily singular instance, and 

 thus give legitimacy and validity to our rea- 

 sonings ? 



What has already been said on the subject of 

 the two different processes by which we obtain 

 principles, and by which we reason from them, 

 will suggest the reply to these questions. When 

 we collect design and purpose from the arrange- 

 ments of the universe, we do not arrive at our 

 conclusion by a train of deductive reasoning, but 

 by the conviction which such combinations as we 

 perceive, immediately and directly impress upon 

 the mind. " Design must have had a designer." 

 But such a principle can be of no avail to one 

 whom the contemplation or the description of the 

 world does not impress with the perception of 

 design. It is not therefore at the end, but at the 

 beginning of our syllogisms, not among remote 

 conclusions, but among original principles, that 

 we must place the truth, that such arrange- 

 ments, manifestations, and proceedings as we 

 behold about us imply a Being endowed with 

 consciousness, design, and will, from whom they 

 proceed. 



This is inevitably the mode in which such a 

 conviction is acquired ; and that it is so, we may 

 the more readily believe, when we consider that it 

 is the case with the design and will which we as- 

 cribe to man, no less than in that which we believe 

 to exist in God. At first sight we might perhaps 



