XVI PREFACE. 



My opinions are stated clearly as respects each question 

 under consideration, with confidence or hesitation accord- 

 ing to the weight of the evidence or the force of the 

 arguments producible. I believe the entire tendency of 

 the book is wholesome, but however that may be, it was 

 written in the interests of religion and morals as surely 

 as Butler's Analogy, with the first part of which, on 

 " Natural Religion," strange and audacious as the com- 

 parison may seem, it has in fact a good deal in common, 

 both in subject and spirit, if not always in its conclusions. 

 The topics of a Future Life, of Free-will, and of the 

 Moral Government of the World, though differently 

 treated, and though the conclusions reached are some- 

 what different, are common to both, while Butler's 

 " Natural Government " by rewards and punishments 

 corresponds to the regulation of conduct in accordance 

 with the settled sequences and established order of Nature 

 which our scientific philosophers, like Professor Huxley, 

 insist upon, and which is treated of in the second part 

 of this book. 



In venturing to suggest a comparison with so famous 

 a book as Butler's, I am aware that it will be to my 

 disadvantage on the whole. Nevertheless I venture to 

 make it in order the better to indicate the character of 

 the work, and further, I claim one advantage which it 

 possesses over that of Butler, namely, that it was 

 written a century and a half later, and after the new 

 and deeper vision of the universe which we owe to 

 German Philosophy had been supplemented for us by 

 the new revelation of Science searching space and time, 



