This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com IM • X THE CONNEXION NATURAL AND DIVINE TRUTH; STUDY OF THE INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY CONSIDERED AS SUBSERVIENT TO THEOLOGY. BV j The Rev. BADEN POWELL, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. OF ORIEL COLLEGE, SAVILL4N PROFESSOR OF GEOMETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. LONDON : JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. M.DCCC.XXXVIII. L TO THE RIGHT REV. EDWARD STANLEY, D.D. PRES. L. S., F.G.S., &c, LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH. My deap Lord, In availing myself of your Lordship's permission to dedicate to you the ensuing volume, I am desirous briefly to refer to the grounds on which I made the request, more especially because I feel assured that it is in the very same spirit that that request has been complied with. The right use and just value of physical science in con nexion with the evidences and illustration of religious truth, are topics always demanding serious attention, but more especially in an age like the present, abounding with false pretensions on the one hand, and opposing prejudices on the other. Amid such errors and perversions it is a matter of particular satisfaction when the advocates of reason and truth find their efforts approved and encouraged by those whose situation in the Church silences all cavils ; and in no instance is this more gratifying than when those who are now in the position to confer that sanction have themselves previously been labourers in the diffusion and enlargement of the knowledge of nature. a2 iv DEDICATION. Your Lordship's sentiments on this important subject have been sufficiently evinced, were it only by the part you have taken in that vast Association of British Science which is now yearly exciting so general and powerful an interest in physical pursuits, and by the zeal with which you have there upheld the religious application of true philosophy, — and asserted the revelation of God in the volume of nature as our best guide to the manifestation of Him in the pages of inspiration. It was from such considerations, that, being engaged in a work having the same great object in view, I was naturally led to look to your Lordship's name as that which above all others would be most appropriately prefixed to it, and most powerfully assist in promoting the important end to which it is designed to be subservient. I remain, With the greatest esteem and respect, My dear Lord, Most sincerely your's, BADEN POWELL. Oxford, December 13, 1837. CONTENTS. Page Introduction 1 Section I. — The Evidence of Physical Truth. The Inductive Method. Introduction . 11 Meaning and Nature of Induction . 14 Grounds of Inductive Conclusions .... 16 Belief in the Uniformity of Nature .... 18 Antecedent Probability in Induction .... 21 Analogy the Ground of Antecedent Probability . 25 Force of Physical Analogies ..... 32 Mathematical Laws ....... 35 Induction in Natural History 37 Induction in Geology 42 Combination of Inductions 46 Caution in assuming Analogies ..... 49 Rejection of Principles foreign to Analogy ... 55 Examples : Theories of Cosmogony .... 55 Inductive Character of Geology 60 Objections to Geology 62 False Philosophy from neglect of Analogy ... 64 Objections to Physical Inquiries 67 Conclusion ......... 70 Section II. — The Nature of Physical Truth : Cause and Effect. Introduction ........ 73 Study of Cause and Effect 76 Meaning of the Term " Cause" 78 vi CONTENTS. Page Nature of Physical Causes 82 Opinions on the Nature of Causation .... 85 Physical Causes ; Sequence of Phenomena ... 87 Causes referred to General Laws : Examples ... 89 True and Hypothetical Causes ..... 93 Examples : in Physics 95 in Geology 96 Connexion of Causes 102 Ideas of Efficient Causation 103 Conclusion 107 Section III. — The Relation of Physical Science to Natural Theology. Introduction 113 Evidence of Moral Causation 115 Nature of Final Causes 113 Use of Final Causes in Science 123 The Economy of Causes . 1 26 Final Causes in Comparative Physiology . 128 Comparison of Arguments from Order and from Mechanism 133 Examples : from Botanical Symmetry . 136 from Physiology . 140 Proximate Causes compared with Fixed Laws . 146 Evidences of Creation . 148 Fixed Laws the Proofs of Design . 155 Examples: Gravitation . 158 Perturbations; Stability of the System . 160 Resisting Medium . 164 Proportions of Births . 166 Unexplained Phenomena : tendency of Philosophical Con jectures I67 Examples: Nature of Gravitation . 169 Aggregation of Matter . .. 1 70 The Nebular Hypothesis . 172 CONTENTS. vii Page Argument from Physical to Moral Causation . 176 Secondary Causes and the First Cause . 179 Argument from Design to Intelligence . 182 The Divine Supremacy 186 The Divine Unity 187 Objections to the Study of Secondary Causes . 189 Scientific details 190 The Pride of Science 193 Interposition: Permanent Laws . 197 Conclusion 199 Section IV. — The Relation of Physical Science and of Natural Theology to Revelation. Introduction 205 Our Ideas of the Divine Attributes .... 208 Limits of Natural Theology . ... 214 Natural Theology necessary as the Basis of Revelation.— Opposite Views considered .... 216 Rational Evidences of Faith 222 Independence of Scientific and Revealed Truth . 229 Attempts to combine Philosophy and Scripture • . 236 Distinct Objects of Revelation 239 Low Views of Revelation . 241 Geological Interpretations of Scripture .... 245 Representation of the Creation in Genesis . 250 Admission of Contradictions 253 Adaptations to the Ideas of the Jews .... 256 Representation of the Creation in the Decalogue . 259 Importance of the Question 261 Relation of the Question to Christianity . 264 Conclusion 268 General Conclusion 270 VIII CONTENTS. Page Pase A. referred to in 18 277 B. 62 279 C. » » 87 281 D. n » 120 283 E. » » 121 121 F. n )1 178 285 G. M 185 287 H. » 191 289 K. » » 196 290 L. 199 291 M. M >9 225 294 N. » » 230 295 0. 235 296 P. J) 251 297 Q. » 254 300 R. 264 302 S. » 266 303 T. » 269 304 Supplementary Note . 309 ERRATA. Page. Lins. Error. Correction. 153 . 7 • • successions . succession 168 . 11'.. physical laws . physical causes 225 dele the second reference to Note M. and insert it at p. 228. 273 . 22 . in . as 273 . 23 . foundations . foundation PREFACE. Within a few years past, an extraordinary interest has been evinced, and an unusual supply of works produced on subjects relating to the application of Physical Science to Natural Theology ; its connexion with revelation, and the influence which physical truths have in guiding us even in the interpretation of Scripture. The train of writers called forth by the Bridgewater bequest ; the reproduction of Paley's work, illustrated and prefaced from the resources of a period of advanced knowledge ; and the various other publications to which these directly or indi rectly have given rise, have together furnished a body of facts and arguments in which it might be supposed every topic would have been exhausted, and nothing left to be desired in the analysis of those evidences on which the fundamental truths of all religion are established. If we look more closely into the nature of the discussion, we however perceive that this is far from being the case. With the majority of writers on natural theology, the mere accumulation of particular instances of design from different parts of the natural world, has been almost the sole object of attention ; now though it cannot be denied that they have thus most advan tageously brought the resources of all branches of science to bear on the question, yet (to whatever source it may be traced), a great deficiency appears to exist to the exact analysis of principles, and the philosophy of the argument ; of which it must be X PREFACE. confessed we meet with frequent instances even among writers of high eminence. The cultivators of physical science, perhaps, have not been gene rally disposed or qualified to enter upon logical dis tinctions ; while the theological and metaphysical inquirers have too commonly been but little versed in physical evidence, and have thus failed to appre ciate and enforce the extent and importance of the great argument from the order and arrangement of physical laws and causes. To bring united resources of both kinds to bear on the subject has been the professed object of some of the recent publications alluded to. Among these the Bridgewater Treatise of Mr. Whewell, the Dis course of* Lord Brougham, and the Fragment of Mr. Babbage, stand conspicuous, especially when the first is taken in connexion with some passages in the History of the Inductive Sciences by the same author ; and the second, with the Natural Theology of Dr. Turton. Another writer, also, has recently discussed the evidences of natural theology ; but with widely dif ferent views from any of those just referred to ; and to whose treatise (as it has Obtained a considerable share of commendation in certain quarters,) I must briefly allude, viz., a work entitled, The whole Doc trine of Final Causes, &c, by the Rev. W. J. Irons, of Queen's College, Oxford. London, 1836. This writer, upon professedly philosophical prin ciples, and by an elaborate metaphysical argument, has undertaken to maintain that a strictly natural theology, logically deduced from the phenomena of creation, is absolutely unattainable. PREFACE. xi This position he seeks to maintain for the express object of showing the necessity and all-sufficiency of revelation. He pursues the argument by enter ing largely into the discussion of the nature of causes, examining the opinions, both ancient and modern, on the subject ; and after considering the nature of final causes, he at length endeavours to show (upon his previous notion of causes in general,) that the argument from final causes is altogether fallacious and illusory.