THE SYNTHETICAL METHOD. 485 



think it will have many advocates, is neither utterly incon- 

 sistent with natural history nor in opposition to revealed 

 religion. It rests on the belief, that no active energy can 

 be imparted to nervous matter, except by the volition of 

 an immaterial spirit. Thus an immaterial soul, placed 

 here in a state of probation, is held to act by volition di- 

 rectly on the brain of man. But the brain of other ani- 

 mals or the ganghons which obtain that name, are supposed 

 to be acted upon by the volition of the Deity. This opi- 

 nion can only have one foundation, which is far from being 

 weak or easily subverted. It is, that this planet and its 

 contents were created for the sole use and instruction of 

 man, who thus is the end of the terrestrial creation. " Prin- 

 cipio ipse mundus Deorum hominumque causa f actus est : 

 guaquein eo sunt omnia, ea parata ad friictmn hominum 

 et inventa sunt." The common objection to the theory 

 now under discussion is, that if the Deity be really the di- 

 rect cause of the actions of animals, they ought never to err 

 in their instincts, as we know that they do. Such reasoning, 

 however, is as erroneous as that of Cudworth in favour 

 of aplastic nature. It is surely presumption to talk of errors 

 in nature, as if they were faults or imperfections that had 

 taken place in opposition to the will of the Deity. All we 

 can mean without impiety is, that they are departures 

 from a general plan or rule, which very departures are 

 perhaps proofs of some interference. 



A more powerful obstacle to our belief in the divine vo- 

 lition being the only agent on the nerves of animals other 

 than man, is their possession of organs of sense. We can 

 perhaps conceive that the Deity should be the cause of 

 their actions ; but what can be their passive principle f 

 The Deity cannot surely be the percipient. If the eyes of 



