Very early childhood gives evidence of the existence of these principles. An interesting instance of this is recorded by a celebrated philosopher, who, to test the existence of these principles in the mind of his child, planted a bed with seeds arranged in the form of the letters which spelled the child’s name. When the green symbols had sprung from the ground and were discovered by the delighted child, the father in vain endeavored to force his belief that the letters came without _a cause_ and without _a design_. “No, father. _Somebody_ planted them; somebody _intended_ to have them come up and spell my name!” And thus infancy itself maintains the principles which are our guide to the Great Source of all finite existences. Another principle of common sense lends us still further aid in arriving at the natural attributes of the Creator. It is this: Things are and will continue according to our past experience till there is evidence of a change. All the business of life rests on a belief of this truth. Our confidence that the sun will rise, the seasons return, the ocean and rivers flow, the mountains remain; and in thousands of other things that regulate our plans and conduct, all depends on this implanted belief that things will continue according to our past experience till there is evidence of a change. A man who acted as if he disbelieved this principle would be regarded as having “lost his reason.” When, therefore, we have gained the idea that the Creator is an _intelligent mind_, we necessarily believe that his mind is _such as we have ever known in past experience_, that is, a mind _like our own_, endowed with reason, intellect, susceptibilities and will. We can not conceive of any other kind of mind, because we have never had any experience or knowledge of any other kind. The only respect in which we can conceive of the Creator as differing from our own minds is in the _extent_ of those natural faculties which are exhibited in his works. Thus by the use of the principles of common sense we have gained the positions that there is a Being who is the Author of all finite existences, whose mind is like our own in natural faculties, while in the extent of these faculties, as exhibited in his works, he is far beyond our conceptions. CHAPTER XI. THE PEOPLE’S MENTAL PHILOSOPHY. In the preceding chapter we have applied the principles of common sense to gain evidence of the existence of a Creator, or Great First Cause, whose natural attributes we can discover only by _the nature_ of our own minds. This being so, our next step in seeking after God is to examine the construction or nature of our own minds.