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Paley an enormous mass of illustrations, all bearing on the one point of 
design, and I think the lecturer was a little severe upon Paley’s expression, 
“You cannot have design without a designer.” It seems no very great 
assumption to say that where you see the evidences of a master mind at 
work, you are entitled to infer the existence of that master mind. And the 
Natural Theology is simply an elaborate mass of such evidence. I may 
be allowed to add a word on another point. A great deal has been said about 
the processes of Nature. Now in these we never see the cause, but the 
effect ; and I contend we are entitled to reason from effect to cause, or, in 
other words, from phenomena to the force which produces them. I have 
used the word force, and it has been frequently used to-night. But it strikes me 
that we might often avoid much discussion by a clearer definition of the terms 
we use. What, for instance, do we mean by force ? Newton uses it in the 
sense of the power which constrains a body to move in a certain orbit. And 
force is surely correctly defined as the unseen power which produces certain 
visible results. This is just where Hume’s argument is false. He assumes 
that we are unable to reason beyond the limits of our own experience. But 
all the great discoveries which have been made in the Sciences have been 
brought about by generalizing on the effect of hidden causes and thus bringing 
about results unknown before. Science may, therefore, be said to be one vast 
procession beyond the limits of our own experience. (Hear, hear.) And there- 
fore I ask on what ground can Hume or anybody else say that we cannot climb 
one step further, and from the force step one degree beyond to the Will that 
set that force in motion ? Force is simply the expression of the Eternal Mind 
and Will. I have only one other remark to make. The ground of Hume’s 
popularity is, that he has translated into beautiful language those lurking 
doubts which are known to the best of us. There are times when we do 
doubt, when we ask ourselves, “ Can this all be true ? Is there a future 
above — a heaven or a hell ? Is there such a thing as redemption or salva- 
tion ? ” And in these moments of darkness and despair some seem inclined 
to welcome a doubt, and then we turn aside from faith. But in the ex- 
perience of life we come to cast aside these doubts. We see that there is 
something deeper than nature, a great cause of force, and rest at last in 
the conviction that that cause “ is our God, for ever and ever, and shall be 
our guide unto death.” 
The Chairman. — As no one seems to be inclined to make any further 
remarks, I think it would be very bad taste in me to intrude upon the 
meeting. It is sometimes desirable that the chairman should, as it were, 
gather up the threads of the various subjects which have been touched upon. 
I shall leave this in the hands of the lecturer, and I will ask him to charm 
us by the replies to the various questions which have been asked him, as he 
did by his paper. 
Dr. Thompson. — I thank you for the courtesy so repeatedly expressed ; 
but I feel it would be an imposition on the patience of my audience to 
reply in detail to the various criticisms and suggestions which have been 
made upon the argument of my paper. If Baley wrote for the common 
