777 AST A D7)i:/ ftfl 



Conception but of o mir. who best' 



and order on tbis vasi machine, and adjusted all its parts 

 to one regular system." Inferring to the condition of the 

 heathen, who 8668 a god behind every natural event, thus 

 peopling the world with thousands of beings whoseeaprices 

 are incalculable, Lange shows the impos-ibilit v of any 

 com promise between such notions and those of seii-nee. 

 \vhi(;h proceeds on the assumption of nerer-o hanging law 

 and causality. " But," he continues, with cliai.u-: 

 penetration, M when the irivnt thought of one (Jod, acting 

 as a unit upon the universe, has been sei/ed, t he connection 

 of things in accordant* with the law of ; I etTect is 



nly thinkable, but it is a necessary consequence of the 

 assumption. For when I see ten thousand wheels in 

 motion, and know, or believe, that they are all driven by 

 one motive power, then I know that I have before me a 

 mechanism, the action of every part of which is determined 

 by the plan of the whole. So much being assumed, it 

 follows that I may investigate the structure of that machine, 

 and the. various motions of its parts. For the time being, 

 therefore, this conception renders scientific action free." 

 In other words, were a capricious God at the circumference 

 of every wheel and at the end of every lever, the action of 

 the. machine would l>e incalculable by the methods of 

 MHMMft, But the actions of all its parts being rigidly 

 determined by their connections and relations, and these 

 being brought into play by a single motive power, 

 then though this last prime mover may elude me, 1 am 

 still able to comprehend the machinery which it sets in 

 motion. We have here a conception of the relation of 

 Nature to its Author, which seems perfectly acceptable to 

 some minds, but perfectly intolerable to others. Newton 

 and Boyle lived and worked happily under the influence 

 of this conception; (io.-the rejected it with vehemence, 

 and the same repugnance to accepting it is manifest in 



Carlvle.* 



irlylc 



The 



analytic and synthetic tendencies of the human 



Bii\l-'s niKiirl <.f tin- universe was the Stnutburx clock with an 



Ar ftlii-. nil the nthi-r hand, sang 



" Him / mi Iimem /.u Iwwegen, 



,r in -i.-h. -irh 111 Natiir y.u 

 See also Carl) le, " 1'aut and Present 



