British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871Various
History
British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871
Various
English periodicals
But farther, the validity of the teleological argument depends upon
the accuracy of our interpretation of those 'signs of intelligence' of
which it makes so much, and which it interprets analogically in the
light of human nature. But the 'interpreter' is ever 'one among a
thousand.' Who is to guarantee to us that we have not erred as to the
meaning of Nature's secret tracery? Who is to secure us against
inerrancy in this? Before we deduce so weighty a conclusion from data
so peculiar, we must obtain some assurance that no further insight
will disallow the interpretation we have given. But is not this
presumptuous in those who are acquainted in a very partial manner with
the significance of a few of nature's laws? Who will presume to say
that he has penetrated to the meaning of any one of these laws? And,
if he has not done so, can he validly single out a few resemblances he
has detected, and explain the nature of the infinite, by a sample of
the finite? Nature is so inscrutable that, even when a law is
discerned, the scientific explorer will not venture to say that he has
read its character, so as to be sure that the law reflects the
ultimate meaning of the several phenomena it explains. Nay, is he not
convinced that other and deeper meanings must lie within them? A law
of nature is but the generalized expression of the extent to which our
human insight has as yet extended into the secret laboratory of her
powers. But as that insight deepens, our explanations change. We say
the lower law is resolved back into a higher one, the more detailed
into the more comprehensive. But if our scientific conceptions
themselves are thus constantly changing, progressing, enlarging, how
can we venture to erect our natural theology on the surface
interpretation of the fleeting phenomena of the universe? 'Lo, these
are a part of His ways, but how little a portion is known of Him!'
And this conclusion we advance against those who as dogmatically deny
that there can be _any_ resemblance between the forces of nature as a
revelation of the Infinite, and the volitional energy of man. Both
assumptions are equally arbitrary and illegitimate. We shall shortly
endeavour to show on what grounds (remote from teleology) we are
warranted in believing that a resemblance does exist.
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