the existence of the Deity, à priori, from Ideas, as well as à posteriori, from Effects.

9. Thus, Thomas Aquinas employs this reasoning to prove the eternity of God". "Oportet ponere aliquod primum necessarium quod est per se ipsum necessarium ; et hoc est Deus, cum sit prima causa ut dictum est: igitur Deus æternus est, cum omne necessarium per se sit æternum." It is true that the schoolmen never professed to be able to prove the existence of the Deity à priori: but they made use of this conception of necessary existence in a manner which approached very near to such an attempt. Thus Suarez+ discusses the question, "Utrum aliquo modo possit à priori demonstrari Deum esse. And resolves the question in this manner: "Ad hunc ergo modum dicendum est: Demonstrato à posteriori Deum esse ens necessarium et a se, ex hoc attributo posse à priori demonstrari præter illud non posse esse aliud ens necessarium et a se, et consequenter demonstrari Deum esse."

But in modern times attempts were made by Descartes and Samuel Clarke, to prove the Divine existence at once à priori, from the conception of necessary existence; which, it was argued, could not subsist without actual existence. This argumentation was acutely and severely criticized by Dr. Waterland.

10. Without dwelling upon a subject, the discussion of which does not enter into the design of the present work, I may remark that the question whether an à priori proof of the existence of a First Cause be possible, is a question concerning the nature of our Ideas, and the evidence of the axioms which they involve, of the same kind as many questions which we have already had to discuss. Is our Conception or Idea of a First Cause gathered from Aquin. Contr. Gentil. Lib. 1. c. xiv. p. 21.

VOL. I.

*

+ Metaphys. Tom. II. Disp. xxix. sect. 3, p. 28.

W. P.

Zz

the effects we see around us? It is plain that we must answer, here as in other cases, that the Idea is not extracted from the phenomena, but assumed in order that the phenomena may become intelligible to the mind;that the Idea is a necessary one, inasmuch as it does not depend upon observation for its evidence; but that it depends upon observation for its developement, since without some observation, we cannot conceive the mind to be cognizant of the relation of causation at all. In this respect, however, the Idea of a First Cause is no less necessary than the ideas of Space, or Time, or Cause in general. And whether we call the reasoning derived from such a necessity an argument à priori or à posteriori, in either case it possesses the genuine character of demonstration, being founded upon axioms which command universal assent.

11. I have, however, spoken of our Conception rather than of our Idea of a First Cause; for the notion of a First Cause appears to be rather a modification of the Fundamental Idea of Cause, which was formerly discussed, than a separate and peculiar Idea. And the Axiom, that there must be a First Cause, is recognized by most persons as an application of the general Axiom of Causation, that every effect must have a cause; this latter Axiom being applied to the world, considered in its totality, as a single effect. This distinction, however, between an Idea and a Conception, is of no material consequence to our argument; provided we allow the maxim, that there must be a First Cause, to be necessarily and evidently true; whether it be thought better to speak of it as an independent Axiom, or to consider it as derived from the general Axiom of Causation.

12. Thus we necessarily infer a First Cause, although the Palætiological Sciences only point towards it, and do not lead us to it. But I must observe further; that in

each of the series of events which form the subject of Palætiological research, the First Cause is the same. Without here resting upon reasoning founded upon our Conception of a First Cause, I may remark that this identity is proved by the close connexion of all the branches of natural science, and the way in which the causes and the events of each are interwoven with those which belong to the others. We must needs believe that the First Cause which produced the earth and its atmosphere is also the Cause of the plants which clothe its surface; that the First Cause of the vegetable and of the animal world are the same; that the First Cause which produced light produced also eyes; that the First Cause which produced air and organs of articulation produced also language and the faculties by which language is rendered possible: and if those faculties, then also all man's other faculties;-the powers by which, as we have said, he discerns right and wrong, and recognizes a providential as well as a natural course of things. Nor can we think otherwise than that the Being who gave these faculties, bestowed them for some purpose;-bestowed them for that purpose which alone is compatible with their nature:-the purpose, namely, of guiding and elevating man in his present career, and of preparing him for another state of being to which they irresistibly direct his hopes. And thus, although, as we have said, no one of the Palætiological Sciences can be traced continuously to an Origin, yet they not only each point to an Origin, but all to the same Origin. Their lines are broken indeed, as they run backwards into the early periods of the world, but yet they all appear to converge to the same invisible point. And this point, thus indicated by the natural course of things, can be no other than that which is disclosed to us as the starting point of the providential course of the world; for we are persuaded by such reasons as have just been hinted, that the Creator of the natural

world can be no other than the Author and Governor and Judge of the moral and spiritual world.

13. Thus we are led, by our material sciences, and especially by the Palætiological class of them, to the borders of a higher region, and to a point of view from which we have a prospect of other provinces of knowledge, in which other faculties of man are concerned besides his intellectual, other interests involved besides those of speculation. On these it does not belong to our present plan to dwell: but even such a brief glance as we have taken of the connexion of material with moral speculations may not be useless, since it may serve to show that the principles of truth which we are now laboriously collecting among the results of the physical sciences, may possibly find some application in those parts of knowledge towards which men most naturally look with deeper interest and more serious reverence.

We have been employed up to the present stage of this work in examining the materials of knowledge, namely, Facts and Ideas; and we have dwelt particularly upon the latter element; inasmuch as the consideration of it is, on various accounts, and especially at the present time, by far the most important. We have now to proceed to the remainder of our task;-to determine the processes by which those materials may actually be made to constitute knowledge. We have surveyed the stones of our building: we have found them exactly squared, and often curiously covered with significant imagery and important inscriptions. We have now to discover how they may best be fitted into their places, and cemented together, so that rising stage above stage, they may grow at last into that fair and lofty temple of Truth for which we cannot doubt that they were intended by the Great Architect.

END OF VOLUME I.

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