Without entering into the many different sources of argument for the
existence of a Supreme Intelligence, we shall only refer to that proof
on which all theists, savage and civilised, in some form or other,
rely--the traces of an 'eternal power and godhead' in the visible
creation. The argument depends on a principle which, whatever may be its
metaphysical history or origin, is one which man perpetually recognises,
which every act of his own consciousness verifies, which he applies
fearlessly to every phenomenon, known or unknown; and it is this,--That
every effect has a cause (though he knows nothing of their connexion),
and that effects which bear marks of design have a designing cause. This
principle is so familiar that if he were to affect to doubt it in any
practical case in human life, he would only be laughed at as a fool, or
pitied as insane. The evidence, then, which substantiates the greatest
and first of truths mainly depends on a principle perfectly familiar and
perfectly recognised. Man can estimate the nature of that evidence; and
the amount of it, in this instance, he sees to be as vast as the sum of
created objects;--nay, far more, for it is as vast as the sum of their
relations.
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