315 
the purpose for which it was constructed gives of the skill and ability of its 
fabricator ; for it must be supposed that in calling the elements and their 
qualities into existence for effecting His purposes, the Creator had prevision 
of all those consequences from them which we seek to acquire a knowledge 
of by so much toil in experimental and mathematical research. From the 
foregoing considerations, it seems reasonable to conclude that the world was 
created so as to be in reality such as we perceive it to be for the purpose 
(among others) of making intelligible to us the wisdom, as well as the power, 
of the Creator ; and that for the same reason “all things have been ordered 
in number, measure, and weight.” (For more that might be said on this part 
of the subject I beg to refer to the concluding portions of the two works I 
have already named.) 
8. The possibility of a miracle, which the writers before mentioned refuse 
to admit, as being repugnant to the principles of their philosophy, is quite 
consistent with the views maintained above, according to which a miracle 
may be said to be performed by an exercise of power of the same kind as 
that which created the constituent elements of substances, and endued them 
with qualities, and which can, consequently, change them in any manner, and 
even destroy them. The extension of this power to the creating, altering, or 
destroying, the combinations and arrangements of atoms whereby organic as 
well as inorganic bodies are constituted, must be conceded to be possible on 
the principle that whilst from personal acts and consciousness we can under- 
stand what it is to make or create, we are wholly unable to assign limits to 
the creative power of the Maker of the universe. (I shall have occasion 
subsequently to cite this assertion. ) Of course, a miracle, however performed, 
as being a superhuman act, is to be regarded as the act of the Creator and 
Upholder of all things, although human agency may have been concerned in 
the performance of it. It seems, in fact, to be sufficiently established by 
testimony that on particular occasions, and for special reasons, miracles have 
been wrought in answer to the prayers of righteous men gifted in a high 
degree with understanding and faith, but not the less are they wrought by 
the power of God. 
9. The conclusion I draw from the preceding arguments is, that the 
7rpixjrov xpevSog, or radical fault, in the commonly received systems of physics 
and metaphysics, lies in the acceptance of the doctrine of invariable ante- 
cedence and sequence, to the exclusion of the consideration of causes. This 
belief may be said (in words that occur in the Book of Wisdom) to be “ a 
betrayal of the succours of reason.” It seems, in fact, to influence in various 
and singular ways the intellectual faculty of those who hold it. Possibly we 
may thus account for the mental peculiarity which, as mentioned in Art. 8 
of Mr. Row’s paper, “ considers it possible that in some distant region of 
the universe two and two may make five.” Others of the same way of think- 
ing have imagined it to be possible that somewhere space may have more 
dimensions than length, breadth, and depth. Another instance of false con- 
ception, having, it seems to me a like origin, is referred to in Art. 87 of Mr. 
Row’s essay as having been relied upon by Strauss for supporting some of 
VOL. VIII. 2 A 
