Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural TheologyWhewell, William
Religion
Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology
Whewell, William
Astronomy; Cosmic physics; Natural theology
It is difficult to dwell steadily on such thoughts. But they will
at least serve to confirm the view which it was our object to
illustrate; namely, how incomparably the nature of God must be
elevated above any conceptions which our natural reason enables
us to form; and we have been led to these reflections, it will be
recollected, by following the clue of which science gave us the
beginning. The Divine Mind must be conceived by us as the seat of
those laws of nature which we have discovered. It must be no less
the seat of those laws which we have not yet discovered, though
these may and must be of a character far different from any thing
we can guess. The Supreme Intelligence must therefore contain the
laws, each according to their true dependence, of organic life, of
sense, of animal impulse, and must contain also the purpose and
intent for which these powers were put in play. But the Governing
Mind must comprehend also the laws of the responsible creatures
which the world contains, and must entertain the purposes for
which their responsible agency was given them. It must include
these laws and purposes, connected by means of the notions, which
responsibility implies, of desert and reward, of moral excellence
in various degrees, and of well-being as associated with right
doing. All the laws which govern the moral world are expressions
of the thought and intentions of our Supreme Ruler. All the
contrivances for moral no less than for physical good, for the
peace of mind, and other rewards of virtue, for the elevation and
purification of individual character, for the civilization and
refinement of states, their advancement in intellect and virtue,
for the diffusion of good, and the repression of evil; all the
blessings that wait on perseverance and energy in a good cause;
on unquenchable love of mankind, and unconquerable devotedness to
truth; on purity and self-denial; on faith, hope, and charity;--all
these things are indications of the character, will, and future
intentions of that God, of whom we have endeavoured to track the
footsteps upon earth, and to show his handiwork in the heavens.
“This God is our God, for ever and ever.” And if, in endeavouring
to trace the tendencies of the vast labyrinth of laws by which the
universe is governed, we are sometimes lost and bewildered, and
can scarce, or not at all, discern the line by which pain, and
sorrow, and vice fall in with a scheme directed to the strictest
right and greatest good, we yet find no room to faint or falter;
knowing that these are the darkest and most tangled recesses of our
knowledge; that into them science has as yet cast no ray of light;
that in them reason has as yet caught sight of no general law by
which we may securely hold: while, in those regions where we can
see clearly, where science has thrown her strongest illumination
upon the scheme of creation; where we have had displayed to us
the general laws which give rise to all multifarious variety of
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