The sole argument for a divine existence is from the marks of design
in nature; must not infer greater power in the cause than is
necessary to produce the observed effects, nor argue from
such an inferred cause to any new effects which have not
been observed, 105;
so must not infer in God more power, wisdom, and benevolence than
appears in nature, 106;
so it is unnecessary to try and save the honour of the Gods by
assuming the intractability of matter or the observance of
general laws, 107;
to argue from effects to unknown causes, and then from these causes
to unknown effects, is a gross sophism, 108.
From imperfect exercise of justice in this world we cannot infer its
perfect exercise in a future world, 109;
we must regulate our conduct solely by the experienced train of
events, 110;
in case of human works of art we can infer the perfect from the
imperfect, but that is because we know man by experience and
also know other instances of his art, 111-112;
but in the case of God we only know him by his productions, and do
not know any class of beings to which he belongs, 113;
and the universe, his production, is entirely singular and does not
belong to a known species of things, 115.
Punishment
requires doctrines of necessity and liberty, 76 (v. _Necessity_).
Pyrrhonism
126.
Qualities
primary and secondary, 122.
Quantity
and number, the only objects of demonstration, the parts of them
being entirely similar, 131.
Real
presence, 86.
Reality
and thought, 44.
Realism
of the vulgar, 118.
Reason
(a) opp. intuition, 29;
opp. experience, 28, 36 n.
(b) Corrects sympathy and senses, 117.
No match for nature, 34.
Fallacious, compared with instinct, 45.
Of men and animals, 84 n.
(c) attempts to destroy, by reasoning, 124;
objections to abstract reasoning, 124 f. (v. _Scepticism_).
(d) _Reasoning_.
Two kinds of, demonstrative and moral, 30, 46 n, 132;
moral, divided into general and particular, 132;
produces demonstrations, proofs, and probabilities, 46 n.
Probable (v. _Cause_, 28-32).
Relations
of ideas, discoverable by the mere operation of thought,
independently of the existence of any object, 20.
Religion
a kind of philosophy, 113 (v. _Miracles, Providence_).
Resemblance
19, 41 (v. _Similarity_).
Resistance
and idea of power, 53 n.
Scepticism
A. antecedent to study and philosophy, such as Descartes' universal
doubt of our faculties, would be incurable: in a more
moderate sense it is useful, 116 (cf. 129-30);
extravagant attempts of, to destroy reason by reasoning, 124.
No such absurd creature as a man who has no opinion about anything
at all, 116;
admits of no answer and produces no conviction, 122 n. (cf. 34, 126,
128).
B. _As to the Senses_, 117-123.