THE SYNTHETICAL METHOD. 473 



principle, we can only be acquainted accurately with our 

 own individual feelings. Uncertainty thus attending our 

 knowledge of what really operates in the minds of others of 

 our own species, it is little to be wondered at, if all our spe- 

 culations on the perceptions of animals of a structure dif- 

 ferent from our own should be shrouded in comparative 

 darkness. In the examination of the sentiments which agi- 

 tate or appear to agitate such bodies, analogy ceases to be 

 of much use, and we are obliged to rest content with no 

 better guide than conjecture. 



The last, but by no means the least obstacle to these re- 

 searches, which we shall take notice of, is the absolute in- 

 ability of the human soul to comprehend perfectly in what 

 manner a being can be omnipotent. Nothing is so mani- 

 fest as that the Primary Cause must be omnipotent ; yet it 

 scarcely seems possible, in the imperfect state of our facul- 

 ties, to imagine a divine attribute without at the same time 

 limiting almighty power. Few persons are aware how 

 much this subject was formerly connected with Natural 

 History, or how much injury was formerly done to the 

 science by erroneous notions of omnipotence. The older 

 philosophers, whether materialists or not, seem all to have 

 entangled themselves in a maze of difficulties, when they 

 took up the most useless and hopeless of all researches, 

 and laboured to discover what works were compatible with 

 omnipotence. Their inquiries were directed not to the 

 actual state of the creation as it appears to be formed, but 

 to the means by which it has arrived at its present state. 

 Hence came those subtle scholastic questions relative to 

 final causes, which as long as this world exists will afford 

 matter for disputation. Few thought of ascertaining what 



