ANTHROPOMORPHIC THEISM 



human understanding, an ultimate fact, but may 

 be recognized by us as the expression of the 

 will of a Lawgiver. Everything that exists — 

 it is said — has been created to subserve some 

 design, and as a means to the accomplishment 

 of some end ; and the detection of this end, the 

 penetration of this design, must assist us greatly 

 in the scientific study of the universe. Not 

 only must we inquire, with Sokrates, into the 

 divine purposes subserved by the structure of 

 the eyes and the position of the alimentary ca- 

 nal ; ^ but we shall also find it desirable to in- 

 terpret the design exhibited in the inclinations 

 of the planetary axes ; and our knowledge of 

 chemistry must be deemed incomplete until we 

 have ascertained the creative plan in the arrange- 

 ment of combining equivalents.^ Not only will 

 light thus be thrown upon many facts which 

 would else have remained forever wrapped in 

 impenetrable darkness ; but the mere recogni- 

 tion of an anthropomorphic purpose or provi- 

 dence in the constitution of things is said to 

 aflrbrd unfailing consolation amid perplexity and 



1 Xenophon, Memorabiliay vol. i. p. 4, § 6. 



^ ** The inorganic world, considered in the same light, 

 would not fail to exhibit unexpected evidences of thought, in 

 the character of the laws regulating chemical combinations, 

 the action of physical forces, the universal attraction, etc. 

 Even the history of human culture ought to be investigated 

 from this point of view." Agassiz, Essa^ on Classification, 

 p. 199. 



187 



