Were this
principle more intelligible on that account, such a partiality
might be somewhat excusable: But reason, in its internal fabric
and structure, is really as little known to us as instinct or
vegetation; and, perhaps, even that vague, indeterminate word,
Nature, to which the vulgar refer every thing, is not at the
bottom more inexplicable. The effects of these principles are all
known to us from experience; but the principles themselves, and
their manner of operation, are totally unknown; nor is it less
intelligible, or less conformable to experience, to say, that the
world arose by vegetation, from a seed shed by another world,
than to say that it arose from a divine reason or contrivance,
according to the sense in which C/LEANTHES\ understands it.
But methinks, said D/EMEA\, if the world had a vegetative
quality, and could sow the seeds of new worlds into the infinite
chaos, this power would be still an additional argument for
design in its author. For whence could arise so wonderful a
faculty but from design? Or how can order spring from any thing
which perceives not that order which it bestows?
You need only look around you, replied P/HILO\, to satisfy
yourself with regard to this question. A tree bestows order and
organisation on that tree which springs from it, without knowing
the order; an animal in the same manner on its offspring; a bird
on its nest; and instances of this kind are even more frequent in
the world than those of order, which arise from reason and
contrivance.
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