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    appoint a change in its operations , the time of which he shall not foresee ; ergo , the Creator can decree some event , some condition of which is optional to the parties concerned ! Again ,

    —because the manager of the Calculating Machine can decree some single exception in the operation of its laws at any remote period , the Deity is able to decree an exception in the laws of Nature , or what is called

    a miracle ! Mr Babbage begins where Natural Theology ends . Our reason attains the limits set to it by our senses , in the contemplation of natural objects , without perceiving any change

    in nature ' s fertile production of life and enjoyment ; one step beyond that and our reason stops . How far this goes towards the conception of the Universe and its Creator , we

    have seen . Imagination and faith may go somewhat beyond , and may help us , if not to more definite , yet to more enlarged and exalted ideas of the Infinite Goodness than a mere review

    of tangible objects , however industriously reason may labour to prove its independence of its more spiritual auxiliary ; nor is it presumptuous to suppose that we may get an atom or two nearer to our conceptions of the Deity by the exercise of all the

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    faculties which constitute our nature , imagination included , than by means of that one alone by which so much is undoubtedly done for us , but so little concluded .

    We the more regret having to urge such grave objections to . Mr Babbage's work , in consequence of the very handsome and generous spirit in which he writes , reprobating all the old

    and absurd modes of drawing odium upon an opponent in religious discussions by allusions to his private , personal , or moral habits , and thus endeavouring to enlist prejudices against him . w l-c * - \ f \ fi > -v vt « «* t j * v » ^ ' It s \ . r + 4 t vvn / *^ - » ^ m Reasoning" he ( d

    " , says an most worthily he says it , and like a true philosopher ) " is to be combated and confuted by reasoning alone . Any endeavour to raise a prejudice , or throw the shade of an

    imputation , eitherimplies the existence of some latent misgiving in the minds of those who employ such weapons , or is a tacit admission that the question is beyond the grasp of one , at least , of the debaters . "

    In the Appendix of Mr Babbage'swork are some interesting papers , particularly one on the Calculating Machine , and another on the probable causes of the changes in the bed of the ocean .

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    The Purposes of Natural Theology Mistaken . 127

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 1, 1837, page 127, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1834/page/55/