We have,

ble of tracing the deviation into a new species. therefore, the material to act upon, and the power to act. And then, with this power, and this subject-matter, when we lift the curtain and gaze upon these wonderful archives of geological scriptures, there opens upon us not merely the written truth that God created each living thing after his kind, but the august reality of creation itself, begun, continued, and closed by the Great First Cause in person.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RELATIONS OF GOD AND MAN AS DETERMINED BY NATURAL THEOLOGY.

§ 85. a. In the preceding chapters the following propositions may be considered as established:

a1. That there is an all-powerful God who seeks the pleasure of His creatures.

b1. That this God is a sovereign, directing all things by His will.

c1. That He governs by general laws.

d'. That besides this, He has established in each breast

a moral tribunal, armed with powerful sanctions,

for the purpose of directing right and prohibiting wrong.

§ 86. b. On the other hand, it is clear that a comprehensive survey of the phenomena already examined brings before us the following apparently contradictory truths :

a1. That what appear gratuitous pain and sorrow are often inflicted on the animal creation.

b1. That man is endowed with freedom of will and action, which, however, he frequently perverts to his own ruin.

c1. That human conduct is to a great degree affected by what are called "accidents," i.e. events not to be accounted for by any general law.

RECONCILIATION

OF THESE APPARENT CONTRADIC

C.

TORIES.

a1. The attempt to reconcile them by the hypothesis of an imperfect Creator illogical.

§ 87. These supposed contradictions have been used to prove the imperfection of the creative power. If a contrivance, it is argued, proves a contriver, so an imperfect contrivance proves an imperfect contriver.

Now, there is a fallacy in the very statement of this proposition, which Dr. Johnson pointed out when touching upon a kindred dogma. The line, "Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free," was quoted in his presence; and he disposed of it by the parody, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat." It is not necessary that the ruler should partake of the character of the ruled, or the creator of the created. A glass-blower, for instance, may produce a thick shingle of glass, for a roof, so tough and hard that it may resist all blows, or he may produce a wide sheet which will make an excellent mirror, but will crack if struck by a pebble. Now, if the mirror was intended for the roof, or the roof for the mirror, we would infer an imperfect artificer; but if they are each adapted to their specific purposes, we can infer nothing more than a wise economy of means toward end. Before, therefore, determining whether the imperfectness of the machine proves the imperfectness of the machinist, we must inquire for what the machine is meant.

§ 88. This same proposition may be further illustrated as follows:-A river is let into a canal; at a distance of twenty miles from the feeder the water is lost. Now, this may be attributed either to a deficiency in the original stream or a

leak in the canal. And the presumption that it is the latter, increases as, on going nearer and nearer to the feeder, we find the volume of water proportionally enlarge.

§ 89. Now it is remarkable that, in contemplating the great area of the universe, the nearer we get to man the more these irregularities and imperfections multiply: the farther off we get the more they decrease. It would seem as it God governs the inanimate creation through the vice-agency of subalterns, in the shape of second causes, whose letters of instruction are known to all, while He commands mankind in person. The laws that control the former are open to the observation of science; not so with the laws that control the latter. The philosopher may tell where a comet will drop a thousand years hence, but he cannot tell where his own days will end. He can lay down the laws of celestial harmony, but not those of life and death. There seems to be something about the moral atmosphere which surrounds man which excludes the entrance of these general laws.

Rien n'est certain que l'imprévu,

says a French proverb.

"There is nothing certain but the unforeseen." An "accidental" surfeit of pork so deranged Napoleon I.'s stomach as to lose him the battle of Leipsic. The “accidental” delay of an aid-de-camp lately saved Napoleon III.'s life. History is but the analysis of "accidents," and biography their narrative. As we come down

to domestic life, these interruptions of general law increase. The movements of large bodies of men may be determined beforehand by law, but not the movements of individuals. In ten thousand individuals we can positively say that there

will be ten who will die in a given period; but there is no one to whom we can say, "this day one year, or ten years hence, you will cease to exist." No one who looks back on the past will deny that by "chance," as distinguished from "law," the main results of his history have been produced. No one can look forward to the future and deny that it is by the uncertain that it is to be controlled.*

§ 90. If, then, it is at the human end of the system that this uncertainty exists; if, as we approach nearer man, these laws yield more and more to irregularities, we are pointed. to an inquiry into the human constitution in order to see whether an explanation of these apparent contradictions may be found. We find the signals in the telegraph weakening as they reach a particular point, and we look to see if there be a leakage at that point before we decide that there is a defect in the electric fluid. And this course seems the more appropriate from the fact that, until other methods of accounting for these defects fail, it seems unreasonable to charge the Creator of all things with imperfection. b1. These apparent contradictions may be reconciled by the following assumptions:

a2. Man is in a state of exile from God.

§ 91. During the French Indian wars, a party of Indians made an attack on a Moravian cottage in Northeastern Pennsylvania, at the time of family worship, and succeeded in carrying off a little girl of three or four years of age. Season after season the parents of the child endeavored to discover her, but in vain. Ten years, however, had

* See post, 213-14-15.