This world, for aught he knows,
is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard;
and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity, who
afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance: it is
the work only of some dependent, inferior deity; and is the
object of derision to his superiors: it is the production of old
age and dotage in some superannuated deity; and ever since his
death, has run on at adventures, from the first impulse and
active force which it received from him. You justly give signs of
horror, D/EMEA\, at these strange suppositions; but these, and a
thousand more of the same kind, are C/LEANTHES\'s suppositions,
not mine. From the moment the attributes of the Deity are
supposed finite, all these have place. And I cannot, for my part,
think that so wild and unsettled a system of theology is, in any
respect, preferable to none at all.
These suppositions I absolutely disown, cried C/LEANTHES\:
they strike me, however, with no horror, especially when proposed
in that rambling way in which they drop from you. On the
contrary, they give me pleasure, when I see, that, by the utmost
indulgence of your imagination, you never get rid of the
hypothesis of design in the universe, but are obliged at every
turn to have recourse to it. To this concession I adhere
steadily; and this I regard as a sufficient foundation for
religion.
* * * *
PART 6
It must be a slight fabric, indeed, said D/EMEA\, which can
be erected on so tottering a foundation.
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