The most noble use that has ever been made of the admirable union of so many talents, and so much knowledge, was to demonstrate how every thing in nature relates to the idea of a first cause; which forcibly announces a design full of wisdom, and a beneficent intention; but now, unhappily, these proofs of the existence of a God are not sufficient; imperious philosophers have laboured to subvert every thing founded on the connection and wonderful harmony of the system of nature; it is not sufficient to oppose to these new opinions the mere authority of final causes; they do not contest that there is a perfect conformity between our desires and wants, between our senses and the bounties of nature; they do not contest, from the cedar to the hyssop, from the insect to man, that there is a beauty of proportion in the whole, which is to be found equally in the relation that objects have with each other, as well as in their different parts; but this admirable harmony, in which the pious man, the man of feeling, perceives with delight the stamp of an eternal intelligence; others less fortunate, undoubtedly, obstinately present it to us as a fortuitous collision, as a play of atoms agitated by a blind movement, or as nature itself, existing thus from all eternity. What trouble they take to invent and defend these systems destructive of our happiness and hopes! I prefer my feelings to all this philosophy; but, to avoid an encounter would be to favour their presumption, and give additional strength to their opinions. Thus I shall treat the most important question that man can consider. I shall endeavour first to show, that the different conjectures on the origin of the world all centre in the single opinion of the eternal and necessary existence of every thing which is; and I shall afterwards compare the basis of that system with the reason of that happy and simple belief which unites the idea of a Supreme Being with all we see and know; in short, to the universe, the most unlimitted of our conceptions. CHAP. XIII. _The same Subject continued._