150 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



were less or more acquainted with the reasons 

 which influenced the deHberation. The differ- 

 ence resides in the information of the observer, 

 and not in the thing itself; which, in all the cases 

 proposed, proceeds from intelligence, from mind, 

 from counsel, from design.^^ 



Now, when this one cause of the appearance of 

 chance, viz . the ignorance of the observer, comes 

 to be applied to the operations of the Deity, it is 

 easy to foresee how fruitful it must prove of diffi- 

 culties and of seeming confusion It is only to 

 think of the Deity, to perceive what variety of 

 objects, what distance of time, what extent of 

 space and action, his counsels may, or rather must, 

 comprehend. Can it be wondered at, that, of the 

 purposes which dwell in such a mind as this, so 

 small a part should be known to us? It is only 

 necessary, therefore, to bear in our thought, that 

 in proportion to the inadequateness of our infor- 

 mation, will be the quantity in the world of ap- 

 parent chance. 



III. In a great variety of cases, and of cases 

 comprehending numerous subdivisions, it appears, 

 for many reasons, to be better that events rise up 

 by chance^ or, more properly speaking, with the 

 appearance of chance, than according to any ob- 

 sei-vable rule whatever. This is not seldom the 



*^ Sec note to page 68 of the former volume respecting Chance. 

 This paragraph is wholly free from the inaccuracy taken notice of 

 in the former note. 



