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قراءة كتاب The Philosophy of Natural Theology An Essay in confutation of the scepticism of the present day
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The Philosophy of Natural Theology An Essay in confutation of the scepticism of the present day
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THE
PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL THEOLOGY.
"Finis vitæ in primis noscendus est, ut ad eum actiones omnes dirigere valeamus; non minus quàm naviganti portus ad quem deveniat ante omnia statuendus."
Ficinus in Platonis Philebum, Cap. I.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
"I have written under the conviction that no Philosophy of the Universe can satisfy the minds of thoughtful men which does not deal with such questions as inevitably force themselves on our notice, respecting the Author and the Object of the Universe; and also under the conviction that every Philosophy of the Universe which has any consistency, must suggest answers, at least conjectural, to such questions. No Cosmos is complete from which the question of Deity is excluded; and all Cosmology has a side turned towards Theology."—Whewell, Philosophy of Discovery, Preface, p. vi.
"All science is but the intercalation, each more comprehensive than that which it endeavours to explain, between the great Primal Cause and the ultimate effect."—Professor Allman's Address to the British Association at Bradford, 1873.
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER I.
This Introductory Chapter consists of three parts. The first lays down the questions proposed, and shows the necessity of asking them. The second illustrates what may be termed in Art-phrase the motives of the Essay. The third briefly describes its method, and explains the readiest mode of studying Natural Theology.
Analysis—Inquiries underlying Natural Theology—Way in which they are answered by our Instinctive Persuasions—How far this answer is sufficing; how far influential.
Phases of Doubt; undeclared Scepticism and Indifferentism—Origin and leaders of the modern Sceptical and Materialistic Schools—Doubts of Intellect distinguished from Scepticism of Immorality—Social dangers and alarms exemplified.
Method of this Essay, and requests as to the mode of reading it—Divisions of Argument; their separate and consilient effect.
Additional Notes and Illustrations.
A.—The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone and others on Modern Scepticism.
B.—On Corruption of the Judgment by misdirected Moral Sentiments.
C.—On Special Pleading in History and Morals.
D.—On the Method employed throughout this Essay.
E.—On the Effect of Consilient Proofs.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
No subjects of thought have ever been proposed more essential to the culture and happiness of mankind than the two following inquiries.
Upon the first, human minds dwell unweariedly through every change of circumstance from childhood to advanced age. It is this:—What reason have we to look for a future life after that hour of dissolution which inevitably awaits us all?
The second question unites itself closely, as by indissoluble links, to the first. We always proceed to ask, Is there sufficient ground for believing in the existence of a Supreme Moral Being, to whose righteous care and kindness we can calmly commit ourselves when we come to die?
Suppose any man to maintain that the universe we inhabit,—and we who are a portion of its occupants—came into existence by chance, he renounces at once every right and title to expect a life succeeding his bodily death. Chance—if the word means anything—means absolute uncertainty; and from that which is in its own nature uncertain, what continuing effects, what conclusive expectation, can be drawn?
Neither is the prospect improved by Materialists[a], in whose opinion the being of man comprehends no element differing essentially, and in kind, from the natural world he rules over. We see actually consequent upon every death-bed the decay of our material frame; if, therefore, that