On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
suppose he embraces . On the testimony of one man , we should certainly not believe that ice retained its solidity when exposed to ardent heat . We should suppose that he had mistaken a piece of crystal for ice , that his thermometer had deceived him , that his understanding was disordered , or that he had some unknown motive for ( declaring a falsehood . But if five men of science , sagacity , caution , and integrity , declared themselves to have been eye-witnesses of the fact , after having excluded every possibility of deception , we should believe the testimony . Our assent to the bare fact
could not be withheld ; and if some grand final cause for the apparent deviation could be at the same time perceived , our belief would be immeasurably quickened and confirmed . Believing moral causes to be as certain in their operation as physical agents , it would seem more probable that the breach of succession should take place in the single instance of the ice remaining solid , than in the five instances of wise , upright , and sound minds acting in direct opposition to , the strongest motives . The discrepancy of the facts is
as perplexing in the one case as in the other ; and were there no more satisfactory mode of attaining conviction , we should abide by the rule of chodsirig the least of two difficulties . But we believe that there is a more satisfactory mode of explanation bpeii to us , a mode which is not inconsistent with our author ' s belief in the hedes ~ sary connexion of cause and effect . When he cannot account fbf ^ ahy
rhetital or moral phenomena , he readily and justly supposes that causes are at work , with whose nature and mode of operation he is unacquainted . Why should not the same supposition be held reasonable with respect td physical events ? Can any one say that he knows all the p hysical causes Wnich nalty be put in operation ? Can the most learned philosopher declare ^ to be , impossible that the operation of familiar causes may be modifi ^ 4 'b y ^ te agency of others less familiar , or hitherto wholly unknown ? Wnerip ; multitude of new facts , a crowd of agents hitherto concealed , are continually displayed by the development of science , is it incredible that some" 6 f these agents , or others as little familiar , should have been occasionally ejtiployeal
by the Creator of them all to produce novel results , themselves destine ^ to become the cause of moral phenomena as stupendous ? By the law of jgtavitation ( which term is in itself only an appeal to ignorance ) , bo ^ eV ; Heavier * than itself sink in water . Where is the impossibility that some Hidden a ^ eh't might be employed , not to break or suspend the law , but to modify its ' ireSulti in one or two particular instances , so that an iron axe might uOBt oti jt | ie surface , or a man be enabled to walk the waves as if they were dry latfd ? That such an agent is not perceptible to the senses is no argurnefiit against its existence / If its effects are perceptible , this is as much as cari be
affirmed of other agents whose existence is proved to demonstration . If it be objected that miracles are divested of their grandeur and lose their c ^ aiadtef if effected by physical agents , we reply , that this agency , whatever its nature , is extraordinary , is such as could not have been employed by human wisdom and power , and may prove , if ever comprehended by man in the pre&e ) it state of being , an additional evidence of the divine authority of the revelation it was appointed to confirm . If it be further objected that the rofegbjng supposition can at most only apply to one class of miracles , and lekVe unik .-plain £ d the extraprdihary influences on the minds of mfen , as in the instances of the gift pjf tongues ^ prophecy &q ., ~; it may be replied , 4 hat the made hi wjrich impressions are received , the agency of matter on Tnirid , ahd egpeciall y the influence of the Deity on tlie ^ mari ^ tki ^ ^^ sbVj ^^^ iftlrt ^' r ^ moved frpm bur knowleqge ^ th&h jne pr ^ ce ^ es of external' Wtdre ; and that
Untitled Article
Essays on the Pursuit of Truth . 637
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 637, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/37/
-