On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    To all genius a species of creative power , that is , a faculty of producing something new is ascribed . A fine statue is indeed hewn out of a block of inarble ; but where were the beauty , the symmetry , the projjjyrtion and ex quisite composition which the statue displays ?*' .. Again : * In fact , if the <; ase be accurately examined , it displayed perhaps a greater exertion of divine power to superinduce on Tude , uninformed matter , that symmetry ,

    beauty -and admirable construction which the universe exhibits , than to call into being the chaotic mass . "—Pp . 70 . 72 . So that according to the learned Principal , it is more difficult to conceive how a beautiful statue should be hewn out of a block of marble , than how marble itself should be produced out of nothing .

    The proof of the being of God , from the manifestation of design in the works of nature , is in itself complete and decisive . On this rock the Theist may take his stand ; and it is not possible for all the artifice which human ingenuity can employ , to shake for a .. moment the firm foundation of his faith .

    -Wherever there is cjesign there must h ' n \ fe been a designer ; wherever there is contrivance there must have been a contriver . This simple argument is level to the comprehension of every capacity ; and to niixi who is worthy

    of the name of . a philosopher , it appears with an evidence which is absolutely irresistible . Show to any rational being a piece of mechanism , explain to him haw one paFt is adapted to another , and how all the various parts are fitted to bring about some one particular result ; and he must admit the existence

    of a wisdom to conceive and of a power to execute that result . If he affirm , that Jhe does not , ail reasoning must be at append with him ; for it is no longer possible to hold an argument with a person wh 6 declares that he , does not perceive the relation between what is admitted to be contrivance and what is

    termed a contriver . In the great controversy therefore between the Theist and the Atheist , the only question of real importance is—Are there or are there not indications of design in the works of nature ? Doctor Br ^ vn says there are ^ and he re fers in general to seyeral ^ things in evidence oi the fact , but / lie' does flfot % r $$ e . \ he f ^ Qt- He ddfes ' not give , ancl ne does not attempt to give any illustration of it , any in-

    Untitled Article

    stance which brings it home to the understanding with irresistible nersn * sion , and upon which the mind ma ? rest in those moments of doubt and difficulty which sometimes come to all . Nothing it is true was more easy it had indeed been perfectly done before ; but Paley b y no means exhausted the-subject 5 and if Doctor Brown did

    not chuse to repeat what this admirable writer has said about the structure of the valves of :-the human , heart , or tbe ligament attached to the head of tbe thigh bone , all ojature was open before him—the sublime and most intefesring

    adaptations ^ of objects Ho each other on the most magnificent and on tbe humblest scale with which chemistry has made us acquainted ; tbe structure of the simplest flower or the formation und the fall of the dew of heaven that

    ministers to its sustenance . And the omission to state in detail at least some one of those striking and wonderful adaptations with which by the light of philosophy we know that every part of nature abounds , and the simple statement of which baffles the sceptic and

    silences his sophisms in the same manner as the philosopher by the act of walking silenced the sciolist who endeavoured to persuade him that there was no such thing as motion in the world , appears to us to be a capital defect , because it is neglecting by far the most convincing argument in su \* port of the truth , for the clear and popular illustration of which the prize

    was instituted . In the next chapter Doctor Brown , wonderful as it may seem , endeavours to prove the existence of God from the immateriality of the soul . Now with- * out entering into the dark and difficult dispute which ha £ been agitated about the nature of matter and of mind , we

    are humbly of opinion that no judicious person who has at all attended to that controversy , or who is even acquainted with the opinions of Metaphysicians andTheists in the present age , would have Ventured to ground such a truth upon such a basis . But indeed there looseness

    is in every part of this work a , an inattention to the strict accuracy of the statements , the appositeness of tne illustrations , the proper selection ana the judicious application of the arguments , which take ffoin it all its value as a philosophical , and much , very much , of its usefulness as a P ^" , ^ work . What is to be thoug ht oi w

    Untitled Article

    53 f $ Review .- ^ -Broic ri s JPrize Essay ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/36/