Some thoughts [by W.P. Urquhart] on natural theology suggested by a work entitled 'Vestiges of ...

Front matter

Google to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

Chapter I. Argument Stated

The argument in favour of a creating and presiding intelligence, drawn from the design so conspicuous in aU parts of the universe, which has been illustrated by the supposition of a man crossing a heath, and pitching his foot against a watch, the construction and mechanism of which would show that it must have been the work of a skilful artisan, has been so clearly stated, and so ably applied by Paley, in the first chapters of his Natural Theology, and must be so well known to all who have paid any attention to that science, that it would be superfluous in us to re-state it in any form, however condensed, for the sake of recalling it to the recollection of our readers. But, inasmuch as the recent discoveries of geology and zoology have led men to think that the universe has come into its

B

Z ARGUMENT STATED.

present state by means of the working of certain fixed and invariable laws, termed the laws of Nature, which have been in operation for an indefinite period of time, and which still continue, and that these are sufiicient to account for the origin of animal as well as of vegetable life, whence some shallow reasoners have attempted to subvert, and some weak-minded people have been led to overlook, the proofs of the existence of a Deity ; we think that the following extension of the simile on which Paley's argument is founded, may be with advantage brought before those who fancy that they see anything dangerous to natural religion, in these recent advances of science.

Any man who had examined the construction of a watch, or, indeed, of any time-piece, would feel most certain that it was the work of a skilled artisan, and could not fail to admire the genius of him who had planned and constructed such a wonderful piece of mechanism. If, on further inquiry, he were to find out that the different parts of this curious article had been put together not by the hands of an artisan, but by a machine wonderfully contrived and admirably adapted for the purpose, and which never, or at least scarcely ever, failed in accomplishing its end, his admiration for the skill of the artisan would be further increased, and he would not for one moment entertain the idea that the wheels, springs, and other component parts of the time-piece had been subjected to the action of the machinery by mere chance, or that the time-piece was merely one of the possible combinations that might have been formed by matter coming under the influence of the machine, or that the machine itself had not been planned and constructed by an intelligent workman. The power and skill of the maker of the time-piece would be again magnified in his eyes, if he were to find reason to believe that its springs, wheels, and other component parts had been made out of the raw material in some less finished form, and submitted to the action of the machine, by means of another machine equally adapted for its purpose, and that the component parts of the machines themselves had been put together in the same manner. Every step made in tfee abridgment of labour by machinery would afford more evidence of the power and skill of the master manufacturer, and would render any supposition of a fortuitous disposition of materials more absurd. We need scarcely add, that the simpler the process by which this abridgment of labour was effected, the more wonderful would the whole contrivance appear to be.

Suppose, now, that this abridgment was so far continued, that the hand of man was not required in any of the various processes to which the metals had to be subjected between the state in which they are found in the mines, and their appearance in the form of a time-piece, and that the whole of the wonderful apparatus which would be required for eflfecting these processes, was set in motion by some very simple moving power, that of steam for example, and had itself been constructed in the same manner; would not such a contrivance be looked upon as one of the wonderful productions of constructive genius'? Could any one say that it was by mere chance that the time-pieces had been formed out of the metals? And the greater the simplicity of the first machine in this apparatus, the more conspicuous would be the genius of him who had designed it, aad by whose directions the work had been carried into execution ; the more palpable would be the absurdity of ascribing any part of it to chance.

We have chosen to illustrate our subject, by supposing the abridgment of labour to take place in the construction of a watch, because others have chosen this piece of mechanism, perhaps the most wonderful of human construction, to elucidate the arguments which are the foundation of their reasonings on natural theology, though we are aware that the idea of its being carried so far in this particular instance may seem rather chimerical. Nevertheless, it will answer our purpose as well,

ARGUMENT STATED. O

as if we had chosen for examples the cotton or the woollen manufactures, in which the abridgment of labour and the simplification of machinery are making wonderful progress every day. Who, for instance, wotdd hesitate to ascribe the production of a piece of cloth or calico to the skill of a manufacturer, after the inventions of Watt and Arkwright had come into use, as much as before? Who would now hesitate to do so, though inventions for superseding manual labour, both in the construction of the machines themselves and in the working of them, are daily taking place? Last of all, who could fail to recognise and to admire the master-minds of those who had invented these machines ? It is perfectly possible to conceive the same abridgment of labour taking place in the construction of a watch, and it is peculiarly fitted to be introduced into a discourse the object of which is to demonstrate the existence, the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the Creator, from the infinitely more curious and more wonderful specimens of His workmanship, which are everywhere exhibited to us.

We may further illustrate, our subject by supposing that the first piece of mechanism constructed in this manner was merely a pulley attached to a weight, or a wheel set in motion by an elastic spring; that, by different additions made by machinery, it became a time-piece of the simplest and rudest sort, which served merely to indicate the hour of the day; that after serving this purpose for some time, it was again subjected to the influence of a machine, by which some additional apparatus was added to it, which made it indicate the minutes as well as the hours ; that after another

lapse of time, it acquired some new apparatus in the same manner, by which it was made to show

the days of the week; that after another long interval it was, by some further addition, made to show the age of the moon ; and that by successive improvements, each of which was made after intervening periods of considerable length, it became as complete as the clock at Strasburgh, which has justly been reckoned one of the wonders of the world. The construction of such a clock in such a manner, would certainly furnish us with a proof of skill and ingenuity superior to anything that has hitherto been exhibited by man; and would demonstrate th(B superior wisdom 9,nd power of the master-mind of him, by whom it had been planned and executed.

Perhaps the following comparison may be more immediately applicable to some of the hypotheses of creation that have lately been brought before the scientific world. A time-piece may be pro-

ARGUMENT STATED.

duced out of raw material by machinery in the manner we have supposed, which time-piece may be so formed, that after a certain time it produces its like, which new one in due course of time does the same; and this process of successive generation may be supposed to be continued for any indefinite period. A considerable time after the formation of the first instrument, some new useful property may be discovered in one of its descendants, which none of the intervening ones had been known to possess. There are many different ways by which we can suppose this to have been brought about. Some new wheel may be set in motion by the continuous action of the spring, wheels, or pendulum, for several generations, or some constant progressive motion might have been given to the whole of the internal apparatus, which would at length set a-going some piece of mechanism hitherto unperceived, and so develop some of the ulterior purposes for which the time-piece had been intended, and which the maker must have had in view at the time that he constructed the first, or, rather, at the time that he arranged the machinery for the construction of the first ; each instrument being supposed to produce another in the state that it was when it became a parent, so that the continuous action of any of these forces would be the same in each new time-piece, as if it

8 AROUMEKT STATED.

acted on it during the whole of the time that had elapsed since the creation of the first time-piece ; or many of its usefdl functions, unknown and undeveloped at first, might be developed and brought into notice by the new circumstances in which it might be placed. To every one of the instruments so formed might be attached a pedometer. As long as the instruments remained stationary, the nature and use of this part of the apparatus could not have been known or observed, and it could not have been brought into use, or have attracted observation, until it had been carried by a pedestrian. Possibly, in consequence of long disuse, some parts of the apparatus last referred to might not work easily at first, so that its property of measuring distance would be only gradually developed by its being subjected to motion. There might be apparatus so attached which no circumstances could develop, if they had lain idle a certain length of time. Nevertheless, it would be folly to assert that the pedometer had been created by the motion of the pedestrian. In the same manner, we may suppose the instrument to have been furnished with a thermometer, in which of course the height of the mercury would remain unchanged, while the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere continued so ; a barometer, the use of which would be unknown, as long as the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere remained unaltered; an apparatus for determining the latitude, which was first called into action by the requisite change of position.

Nobody could say that the variation of the temperature, or of the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere, or the change of place of the instruments, had created these apparatus. The first instrument might have been furnished, at the time of its creation, with all the apparatus necessary for these purposes, which might subsequently have been brought into use among its descendants by the different circumstances in which they were placed, but which must, at the time of their formation in the parent instrument, have been constructed for the express purpose of being used in its offspring, when placed in and developed by the circumstances that would render them useful ; or they might have been formed by some mechanism contained in the interior of the parent instrument, and working through several generations, which must have been placed therein for the express purpose of forming these apparatus in its progeny, and with the foreknowledge that they would afterwards be useful; or they might have been added to some of the instruments by the action of a machine, as at first supposed; or they might have been formed by some combination of these three methods, which, as they are all supposed to be under the regulation of law, may with perfect justice be compared to those laws, which in cosmogeny are termed " natural." We may suppose any one of these methods to have been adapted for constructing and developing the different apparatus attached to the instruments, and with respect to each of these we would put the question — ^Which shows greater skiU and power on the part of the artisan, the improving of the instrument by any one of these systems, or the constructing new instruments with different improvements, at various periods adapted for different circumstances? To this question we think that any one will immediately reply — Undoubtedly the former.

We may also suppose instruments endowed with a peculiar property of adapting themselves to varieties of climate and temperature. The compensation balance, by means of which the regulator of a watch is rendered unaffected by changes of temperature, has justly been considered one of the greatest improvements in this department of mechanics. A person, who, though ignorant of this contrivance, was aware that the metals of which the interior mechanism of a watch is composed were liable to be contracted or expanded by cold or heat, and observed, nevertheless, that watches went well in different climates and in different seasons, might think that different watches had been constructed for different temperatures, and look upon this adaptation as a proof of the skill and power of the watch-maker. Surely, when he came to understand the nature and property of the contrivance above referred to, he would ascribe it to the design of the watch-maker, and acknowledge it to be a greater proof of his skill and power than if he had made different watches in the manner he had at first supposed.

We can in the same manner suppose the barometers or pedometers that are formed in this manner, so connected with the regulators of the time-pieces, as to counteract any effect which rapid motion or elevation above the surface of the earth might have upon their rate of going. The discovery of such arrangements would indubitably demonstrate the design of the maker, and would indicate far greater power and wisdom on his part, than if he had made one set of watches to be used by people engaged in sedentary occupations, another for active pedestrians ; one species of clock that would keep accurate time at the surface of the earth, another to be used only at a certain elevation above the level of the sea.

It is also possible to imagine many developments taking place in various modes in different instruments, according to the divers circumstances that brought into exercise their properties, which were, at first, latent and unobserved. Some of these qualities might not be fully acquired, until the circumstances which tended to bring them into use had acted on several successive generations of the instruments ; and the manner as well as the degree in which they were ultimately developed in each might vary. Many combinations of latent properties developed differently, and in a greater or less degree in each, might arise in the several instruments. Each of these would, by the law of generation which we have supposed to exist, produce a new instrument, endowed with the same properties to the same extent, as was the parent at the time of its producing a new one. Thus we should have many and various instruments apparently totally different in their construction, and intended for every variety of purposes entirely different, as also modifications of instruments of the same sort, in which the same properties were more or less developed, all descended from the same ancestor. Although the different properties of the instruments might have been thus acquired, there would be the same proof of design, and a far greater proof of power and forethought on the part of the maker, than if he had constructed a number of different instruments, to answer every different purpose that might be required, and different sorts of the same instraments varying according to changes of time, condition, and circumstances.

We will use one more illustration, because it seems to us to be peculiarly fitted to illustrate some cases of adaptation in natural theology, which were formerly ascribed to special fiats on the part of the Creator, but have latterly been thought by some to be the results of some general law. It is well known that, in a horizontal dial, the inclination of the gnomon to the plane of the horizon must be equal to the latitude of the place for which it is intended, and that the plate of the dial itself must be graduated diflferently for diflerent latitudes, according to a well-known formula. So that, at present whenever a horizontal dial is seen showing correctly the solar time in any place, it is evident that the dial must have been designed by its maker for that place, or at least for some place of that latitude. Suppose, now, that some piece of mechanism were discovered whereby any variation in the angle of the gnomon were made to change the graduation of the dial plate in the manner required by the formula, and that this angle itself was made by some contrivance or other to vary with the latitude of the place to which it might be transported ; would not one single dial so constructed show more design, wisdom, and foresight, on the part of the maker, than any number of dials constructed on diiFerent plans for different latitudes ? What would be thought of one who said that the discovery of the existence of such an apparatus took away the proof of skill or knowledge on the part of the maker, which the dials were formerly supposed to afford 1 It need scarcely be added, that the simpler the mechanical contrivances by which these corresponding variations were effected, the more worthy of our admiration would the skill and genius of the maker appear.

Chapter II. Application Of The Argument

The application of these arguments to natural theology is easy ; we might almost say, self-evident. To whatever point of the universe we turn our attention, whether we contemplate the heavens that are above, or the earth beneath, or the water that is under the earth; the grass and the herb yielding seed after their kind; the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after his kind; the whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly; the fowls that fly above the earth in the firmament of heaven ; or, lastly, man, and his adaptations, both mental and physical, to the state in which he has been placed; in all we find examples of design and of power more wonderful, than in the most curious pieces of mechanism constructed by human ingenuity. To whatever part of nature the investigations of science have conducted man ; wherever, by its mighty aid, new wonders are unfolded to him, he finds fresh traces of a benevolent and powerful Creator, which, if they were all enumerated, it might almost be said that the world itself would not contain the books that should be written. The most striking of these have been brought before our notice in the Bridgewater Treatises, written by men who had attained the greatest eminence in the different departments of science which they had undertaken to illustrate. Well, indeed, may the student of nature exclaim, in the words of the Psalmist — " Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all ; the earth is full of thy riches ; so is the great " and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innu- " merable, both small and great beasts." Not less astonishing is the harmonious adaptation and the working of the whole system. Everything about seems to form part of a chain of the deepest contrivance of an incomprehensible author, whose works are magnificent as on the first day*.

We are forced to conclude that everything in which design is conspicuous is the workmanship of a designing mind, and from the relations which the different specimens of design bear to one another,

* Goethe.

from their harmonious adaptation, and from the unity of plan manifest throughout, we infer them to have been the works of the same designer. The reasonings by which these conclusions have been arrived at have been lucidly detailed by modem writers, and appear to be incapable of refutation. The majority of mankind had been in the habit of regarding all these beautiful examples of divine workmanship, as having been formed by separate and isolated acts of the creative power, and these opinions had always been supported by the most devout theologians, who regarded them as necessary for a due conception of the personality of the Deity, almost for a belief in His very existence. It may then easily be conceived that many excellent men must have viewed with no small degree of pious horror the various theories of several of the most eminent natural philosophers, who maintained that all these wonderful specimens of art which had hitherto been the objects of their devout contemplation, as evincing the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Almighty, had been produced by the action of certain fixed and unvarying operations of nature, and taxed their wits to discover, and their ingenuity to defend, a system of laws which they asserted would be sufficient to explain the existence of the universe, both animate and inanimate, in its present condition. Their horror of works of this

c description must have been mucli increased by the avowed atheistical opinions of some of these writers, who, not content with the pre-eminence of genius with which they really had been endowed, were anxious to show their superiority to what they deemed the prejudices of the .vulgar, by rejecting the ordinarily received notions of the world having been made by an omnipotent Creator. And it cannot be denied that, even in modem and less prejudiced times, many good people view with fear and trembling the recent discoveries of geologists and physiologists, fearfiil lest men's conceptions of the Creator should be rendered doubtftd or imperfect, by making them acquainted with the general plan and method by which He thinks fit to work. Surely as modem theologians have rested their proofs of the existence and the personality of the Deity mainly on the many marks of design and contrivance that are apparent throughout the works of creation, it will be sufficient to dispel their fears on this score, if they are enabled to perceive in the several hypotheses of creation which have been promulgated by philosophers, the same undeniable proofs of wisdom, power, goodness, and design which have been shown to exist in the different objects of the universe^ considered without reference to any general plan of creation. Indeed, by aid of the foregoing illustrations, we trust that it may be easily shown, that the hypotheses which have been lately brought forward, allovring them to be true, would not only detract nothing from, but would even make more manifest the attributes of the Creator, which have called forth the admiration of reflecting people. It may therefore be worth our while briefly to review some of these hypotheses which have been most in vogue, and to show how the conclusions we have drawn from the supposed analogies of the formation of watches and other instruments may be made to bear upon them^

Buffbn, one of the most pleasing of naturalists, and one whose vast information on the subject to which he devoted himself, has entitled him to a great deal of consideration, supposes, that in the same manner that we can make moulds, by which we can give to the exterior of a body any figure that we please. Nature can make moulds, by which she can give, not only the exterior figure, but also the interior form, and that the world is full of living particles, which have a constant tendency to marshal themselves in these moulds, and thus attempts to explain the formation of the bodies of

the animals and vegetables which at present replenish the earth. We are not aware that this celebrated philosopher has in any part of his works attempted to account for the formation of these moulds to which he ascribes so much. And surely, without some such explanation, the most timid theologian can, in this theory see nothing dangerous to natural religion. For, if the bodies of plants and animals abound with specimens of design, so numerous, and so wonderful, as to leave no doubt of their maker; it is plain that the same marks of design must exist in these moulds, which are able to give 'to the plants and animals not only the exterior figure, but also the interior form ; the same proofs of the existence of a designing mind that have been drawn from the latter, must also be found in the former. And, as we remarked already, if any person who, after having minutely examined the construction of a watch, was admiring the genius of him who had planned and constructed such a wonderful piece of mechanism, was subset quently to discover that the different parts of this curious and wonderfully made article had been put together not by the hands of an artisan, but by a machine, wonderfully contrived, and admirably adapted for the purpose, and which never, or at least scarcely ever failed in its object, his admiration of the skill of the artisan would be furtiier increased ; and he would never entertain the idea that the wheels, springs, and other component parts of the time-piece had been subjected to the action of the machine, or that the machine itself had been constructed by mere chance.

It is evident that precisely the same train of reasoning is applicable to Buffon's theory of the formation of plants and animals by moulds, if it should be true; in this mode of creation we should behold equally cogent proofs of the existence of a designing mind, as in the things alleged to have been so created; and we should also be constrained to acknowledge an exhibition of far greater power and wisdom, than in separate and unconnected exertions of creative power. And if any reasonable explanation of the formation of these moulds, and of the causes of the influence they exert over living particles, were by any future naturalist to be given to mankind, stiU, as in the supposititious case of a machine for the construction of watches, the same proofs of a designing mind would be apparent, and proofs of still more exalted power and wisdom would be unfolded. No advance made in this department of human knowledge could possiblyinduce men to suspect that the things which they had hitherto regarded as affording the clearest evidence of the existence of a designing mind, had been created by mere chance, and the more the simplicity and the regularity of the process by which they were created, became apparent, the more they would see to admire in the wisdom and power of the Creator. And if, at any time, it should be allowed to man to penetrate so far into what are now deemed the mysteries of nature, as that he should find reason to beUeve that all things he now beholds in the universe, animate and inanimate, were merely the results of a primeval arrangement of matter, being subjected to certain known influences, such as the law of gravitation, and those of electricity and chemistry, or perhaps even to the former alone, and that he had a know- 'ledge of the whole history of the creation, and was able to trace its entire process, irom the time the world was a chaos, till it attained its present state, and was peopled with animate beings, whether by means of Buffon's moulds or otherwise, would he not, in such a primordial arrangement of matter, see proofs of design at least as convincing, as those upon which natural theologians have grounded their arguments, as coming under the more immediate observation of mankind? With such results, would it not be palpably absurd to assert that such an arrangement was the result of mere chance ] It has been said, that the examination of the eye alone ought to cure any person of atheism; would not the knowledge of the manner in which matter of a heterogeneous description had been arranged, so that by being subjected to the action of one or more fixed laws for an indefinite length of time, it should undergo various modifications.

and at length become an eye, have at least the

same convincing effect ? Much more would such

an arrangement of matter by which any number of

instruments, if we may use the word, equally curious,

equally useful, and all bearing certain relations to

one another, were formed in the same manner, afford

the most incontrovertible proofs of the existence

of an Almighty Creator.

Until those who maintain that the earth and its inhabitants, the air, the water, the firmament, have

all been produced by generation, explain their

meaning with some degree of precision, it would be

needless to bestow much attention on their theories,

or to attempt, by any process of reasoning, to dispel

the doubts that any such an assertion may raise in

the mind of the most timid well-wisher to natural

religion. If to the word generation, we attach

the ordinary, and only intelligible meaning, that of