302 



and, in consequence, often to pair with their own 

 daughters,, I will not pretend to decide." (!) 



How coolly, Design is here invoked, to extricate 

 this brilliant disciple of Bacon, from the quandary he 

 is now in. When our heterodox friends fancy, that 

 some secondary law which they have discovered, or 

 some apology therefor, which they have deftly de- 

 vised, contravenes the doctrine of Final Causes, they 

 take care to acquaint the world, in tones of dignified 

 severity, that they esteem such doctrine, a monster of 

 most frightful mien, born 6f the distempered imagina- 

 tions of the superstitious ; but, when this principle, — so 

 much abused in the houses, both of its friends and of 

 its foes,: — will alone, they conceive, subserve the pur- 

 pose of patching up their ragged, and flimsy theories, 

 with what charming suavity, they court and embrace 

 it ! We believe in the doctrine, — not in such an appli- 

 cation, as is above made of it however ; — but, we do 

 not deem ourselves bound therefore to believe every 

 absurdity which is adduced in evidence thereof. It is 

 ignorance alone, which holds itself constrained to fall 

 back upon the doctrine of Final Causes. There is. 

 never, need to invoke the doctrine, to solve any diffi- 

 culty. For, wherever its operation, in any instance, 

 may be definitively settled; there are always sec- 

 ondary laws which wholly preclude the necessity of 

 any reference to it. Where such secondary laws 

 are not positively known to subserve it, — however 

 proper it may be to admit it as an element of moral 

 evidence, — it has no title to admission within the do- 

 main of positive science. So, in either contingency, 



