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Show EXPLANATIONS nomena of natnre, like so. I?any revolted principalities, have fallen under the domuuon of order or law; but here is one little p~·o':'ince still faithful to the Bre~tian government; and as It IS nearly the last, no wonder 1t is so vigorously defended. As, in the political world, however, men do not trust in the enduranc.e of a dynasty which is reduced to a single city or nook of its dominions, so may \Ve expect a speedy extinction to a doctrine which has been driven from every portion of nature but one or two limited fields. Several eminent authors of our age have even pronounced upon the question as already settled. "Our most deeply investigated views of the Divine gov ernment," says the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith, "lead to the conviction that it is exercised in the \Vay of order, oJ what we usually call law. God reigns according to immutable principles, that is, by law, in eve1·y part of ht.~ kinudom-the mechanical, the intellectual, and tlze nwralJ· and it appears to be most clearly a position arising out of that fact, that a comprehensive genn which shall neces. wrrily evolve all fttture developrnents, down to the minute~t atomic movement , is a more suitable attributio~ to the Deity than the idea of a necessity for irregular 1nter~~rcnces."* In Blackwood s lllagazine, a writer, understood to be a naturali t of distingui hed ability, expresses himself in an equally d cided manner:-'' To reduce to a system the act of creation, or the development of tlle several forms of animal life, no more impeaches the authorship of creation than to trace the law by which the world is upheld and it phenomena pcrp tually r newed. The presumption naturally ri.-e in the mind, that the same Great 13 ino- would arlopt the same mode of action in both ca e .... To a mind accu tomrd, 'as is every educated mind, to re~ard the p l'ations of Deity as e scntiaJly differing from the limited, sudd n, evanescent impr lses o1 a human ag)nt, it i di ·tr ing- to be compelled ro picture to it elf the power of God as put forth in any other manner than in tho e slrnv, my terious, universal lau·s which have so plainly an eternity to u•ork 1·n j it paills the ima ~ rination to b • oblig d to a imilate those operation for a mom nt to the brief n rgy of a human wi~l, or th manipulation of a human hand-..... The:e ~ll'G still, ind · ·d, om m n of nanow pr ~judices, wh< lool< • Letter tu Dr Garpen ter, appcndjx to PhiJ. Mag., xvi. (1840.) " OPINIONS OF MR s·ru ART MILt.. 27:> upon every fresh attempt to_ reduce the phenorr.ena of nature to general laws, and .to limit t.hose occasions on which it is necessary to conceive of a dn·ect and separate interposition of Divine power, as a fresh encroachment on the prerogatives of the Deity, or a concealed attack upon his very e?'istenr.e. And yet these very_ same men are daily appealing to such laws of the creatiOn as have been already established for their great. proofs of the existence and wisdom of God! ... " He adds, " No, there is nothino- atheistic, nothing irreligious, in the attempt to co...Ylceive 0 creation, as well as reproduction, carried on by universal laws."* There is, however, no more interesting or valuable testimony to universal causation than that presented in the System of Logic of Mr. Stuart Mill. If, in the following extract, we were to substitute the creation of organism~ for human volitions, it would apply remarkably well to the state of the argument presented in the preseni vol-ume: " The conviction that phenomena have invariable laws, and follow with regularity certain antecedent ph~nomena, was only acquired gradually, and extended Itself, as knowledge advanced, from one order· of phenomena to another, beginning ~ith thos~ Y\rhose laws were most accessible to observatwn. Tlus progress has not yet attained its ultimate point; there being still one class of phenomena [huma.n volitions,]_ the subjection .of which to invariable laws IS not yet un1versally recognized. So long as any doubt hung over ~his fu~damental princ!pl~, the various methods of Inductwn whiCh took that pnnciple for granted could only afford. results which were admissible conditionally, as showmg what law· the phenomenon under investigation must follow if it followed any fixed law at all. As, however, 'vhen the rules of correct induction had been conformed to, the result obtained never failed to be verified hy all subsequent experience, every such inquctive oper.at~on had the effect of extending the acknowledged dominiOn of general laws, and brino-in()" an additional portion of the experience of mankind0 to 0 strengthen the evidence of the unive1·sality of the law of causation j until now at lengt~ we are fully warranted in considering that law, as apph~d to ali phenomena within the range of human observatwn, to stand "Re\'iew of Vestiges, Blackwood's Mi}.gazine, April, 1846. |