134 
his writings we may date the definite abandonment of the 
philosophical conceptions of the preceding century, leading, 
in some cases, to an abandonment of the great questions as 
insoluble ; and, in others, to an attempt to solve them by a 
new method. Hume did not destroy ontology or theology, 
but he destroyed the old ontology ; and all later thinkers, 
who have not been content with the mere dead bones of 
extinct philosophy, have built up their systems upon entirely 
new lines/-’* 
Of Paley Mr. Stephen says : — “ The Natural Theology lays 
the basis of his whole system. The book, whatever its philo- 
sophical shortcomings, is a marvel of skilful statement. It 
states, with admirable clearness and in a most attractive form, 
the argument which has the greatest popular force, and which, 
duly etherealized, still passes muster with metaphysicians. 
Considered as the work of a man who had to cram himself for 
the purpose, it would be difficult to praise its literary merits 
too highly. The only fault in the book, considered as an 
instrument of persuasion, is that it is too conclusive. If there 
were no hidden flaw in the reasoning, it would be impossible 
to understand, not only how any should resist, but how any 
one should ever have overlooked the demonstration.” f 
In the history of polemics there is hardly another instance 
of such collapse of populai’ity as has befallen the book, the 
style and method of which Mr. Stephen has here so justly 
praised. The argument of Paley was regarded by theologians 
of his time as invincible ; and his illustrations from Nature 
were so attractive to youth that his “ Natural Theology ” was 
adopted as a text-book in colleges. Upon the basis of his 
famous axiom was built up the series of “ Bridgewater 
Treatises,” in which anatomy and physiology, astronomy, 
geology, and various branches of physics were brought to 
illustrate and establish the evidence of design in Nature. So 
keen a logician as Archbishop Whately used his acumen to 
adapt Paley’ s reasoning to the later discoveries and develop- 
ments of science; and so careful a physicist as Dr. Whcwell 
led his “ Induction of the Physical Sciences ” up to the same 
conclusion. Yet to the present generation, within less than 
eighty years from its first appearance, Paley’ s “Natural 
Theology ” is already antiquated as to its once brilliant and 
conclusive demonstrations, and as an authority is well-nigh 
obsolete. 
Quite otherwise has been the fate of llume. Mr. Stephen 
* Chap. iii. sec. 43. 
f Chap. viii. iv. 38. 
