538 EEYIEWS — TYPICAL FOBMS AND 



the conviction which we feel, on the one hand, that the innumerable 

 and varied special adaptations, and, on the other hand, that the 

 order, manifest in the universe, have been the result of intelligence ; 

 only, in either of these cases, the unlikelihood of the effect being due 

 to chance, is so great as to transcend, not only the power of num- 

 bers to express, but even of imagination to conceive it. 



From this it follows, that, if we desire to arrive at a strictly scien- 

 tific persuasion of the existence of God — a persuasion having the 

 character of absolute certainty, and in which there shall be no place 

 for even the most infinitesimal element of doubt — we must have 

 recourse to other than Cosmological considerations. Whether we 

 argue from the special adaptations, or from the order, of nature, we 

 cannot possibly infer more than that there is an incalculable proba- 

 bility in favour of the conclusion that the universe has been fashioned 

 by intelligence. But what is of still greater moment : even were it 

 absolutely certain that the order and special adaptations which we 

 perceive in nature, must be ascribed to an intelligent Being, this is 

 not tantamount to saying that the Being whose agency we recognise, 

 is infinite, or that the universe was created by Him. Our authors 

 admit that Cosmology is insufficient to prove the Being of an infinite 

 Creator. "It is not pretended," they observe — after giving some 

 instances of the principle of order — " that these facts do of them- 

 selves prove that there is a living and personal God, clothed with 

 every perfection. But they are fitted to deliver us from several pain- 

 ful and degrading notions, which may be suggested by the human 

 heart in times of unbelief, or by persons who have been lost in a 

 labyrinth built by themselves, and who are not unwilling that others 

 should become as bewildered as they are. They prevent us from 

 feeling that we, and all things else, are the mere sport of chance, 

 ever changing its procedure, without reason and without notice, or, 

 what is still more dreadful, that we may be crushed beneath the 

 chariot wheels of a stern and relentless fate, moving on without 

 design and without end. They show us what certainly looks very 

 like a method pursued diligently and systematically — very like a plan 

 designed for some grand end ; so very like it, that it behoves the 

 sceptic to take upon himself the burden of demonstrating that it can 

 be anything else. Taken along with their proper complement ; the 

 special adaptation of parts, they exhibit to us an enlarged wisdom, 

 which prosecutes its plans methodically, combined with a minute 

 care, which provides for every object, and every part of that object." 

 Some persons, in their zeal for the great fundamental doctrine of 

 religion, may be displeased at our plainly affirming the inadequacy 



