8 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



na, in exclusion of agency and power, or when it 

 is substituted into the place of these.* 



VIII. Neither, lastly, would our observer be 

 driven out of his conclusion, or from his confidence 

 in its truth, by being told that he knew nothing at 

 all about the matter. He knows enough for his ar- 

 gument : he knows the utility of the end : he knows 

 the subserviency and adaptation of the means to 

 the end. These points being known, his ignorance 

 of other points, his doubts concerning other points, 

 affect not the certainty of his reasoning. The con- 

 sciousness of knowing little need not beget a dis- 

 trust of that which he does know. 



* When phftosophers and naturalists obsen^e a certain succes- 

 sion in the phenomena of the universe, they consider the uniformity 

 to exist through a laio of nalure. If they discover the order of 

 events, or phenomena, they say they have discovered the law : for 

 example, the law of affinities, of gravitation, &c. It is a loose ex- 

 pression ; for to obey a law supposes an understanding and a will 

 to comply. The phrase also implies that we know the nature of 

 the governing power which is in operation, and in the present case 

 both conditions are wanting. 



The " law " is the mode in which the poM^er acts, and the term 

 should infer, not only an acquiescence in the existence of the power, 

 but of Him who has bestowed the power and enforced the law. 



The term "force" is generally used instead of power, when the 

 intensities are measurable in their mechanical results. 



