What you ascribe to the fertility of my invention, replied PHILO, is
entirely owing to the nature of the subject. In subjects adapted to the
narrow compass of human reason, there is commonly but one determination,
which carries probability or conviction with it; and to a man of sound
judgement, all other suppositions, but that one, appear entirely absurd
and chimerical. But in such questions as the present, a hundred
contradictory views may preserve a kind of imperfect analogy; and
invention has here full scope to exert itself. Without any great effort
of thought, I believe that I could, in an instant, propose other systems
of cosmogony, which would have some faint appearance of truth, though it
is a thousand, a million to one, if either yours or any one of mine be
the true system.
For instance, what if I should revive the old EPICUREAN hypothesis? This
is commonly, and I believe justly, esteemed the most absurd system that
has yet been proposed; yet I know not whether, with a few alterations, it
might not be brought to bear a faint appearance of probability. Instead
of supposing matter infinite, as EPICURUS did, let us suppose it finite.
A finite number of particles is only susceptible of finite transpositions:
and it must happen, in an eternal duration, that every possible order or
position must be tried an infinite number of times. This world, therefore,
with all its events, even the most minute, has before been produced and
destroyed, and will again be produced and destroyed, without any bounds
and limitations. No one, who has a conception of the powers of infinite,
in comparison of finite, will ever scruple this determination.
But this supposes, said DEMEA, that matter can acquire motion, without
any voluntary agent or first mover.
And where is the difficulty, replied PHILO, of that supposition? Every
event, before experience, is equally difficult and incomprehensible; and
every event, after experience, is equally easy and intelligible. Motion,
in many instances, from gravity, from elasticity, from electricity,
begins in matter, without any known voluntary agent: and to suppose
always, in these cases, an unknown voluntary agent, is mere hypothesis;
and hypothesis attended with no advantages. The beginning of motion in
matter itself is as conceivable a priori as its communication from mind
and intelligence.
Besides, why may not motion have been propagated by impulse through all
eternity, and the same stock of it, or nearly the same, be still upheld
in the universe? As much is lost by the composition of motion, as much is
gained by its resolution. And whatever the causes are, the fact is
certain, that matter is, and always has been, in continual agitation, as
far as human experience or tradition reaches. There is not probably, at
present, in the whole universe, one particle of matter at absolute rest.
And this very consideration too, continued PHILO, which we have stumbled
on in the course of the argument, suggests a new hypothesis of cosmogony,
that is not absolutely absurd and improbable. Is there a system, an
order, an economy of things, by which matter can preserve that perpetual
agitation which seems essential to it, and yet maintain a constancy in
the forms which it produces? There certainly is such an economy; for this
is actually the case with the present world. The continual motion of
matter, therefore, in less than infinite transpositions, must produce
this economy or order; and by its very nature, that order, when once
established, supports itself, for many ages, if not to eternity. But
wherever matter is so poised, arranged, and adjusted, as to continue in
perpetual motion, and yet preserve a constancy in the forms, its
situation must, of necessity, have all the same appearance of art and
contrivance which we observe at present. All the parts of each form must
have a relation to each other, and to the whole; and the whole itself
must have a relation to the other parts of the universe; to the element
in which the form subsists; to the materials with which it repairs its
waste and decay; and to every other form which is hostile or friendly. A
defect in any of these particulars destroys the form; and the matter of
which it is composed is again set loose, and is thrown into irregular
motions and fermentations, till it unite itself to some other regular
form. If no such form be prepared to receive it, and if there be a great
quantity of this corrupted matter in the universe, the universe itself is
entirely disordered; whether it be the feeble embryo of a world in its
first beginnings that is thus destroyed, or the rotten carcass of one
languishing in old age and infirmity. In either case, a chaos ensues;
till finite, though innumerable revolutions produce at last some forms,
whose parts and organs are so adjusted as to support the forms amidst a
continued succession of matter.
Suppose (for we shall endeavour to vary the expression), that matter were
thrown into any position, by a blind, unguided force; it is evident that
this first position must, in all probability, be the most confused and
most disorderly imaginable, without any resemblance to those works of
human contrivance, which, along with a symmetry of parts, discover an
adjustment of means to ends, and a tendency to self-preservation. If the
actuating force cease after this operation, matter must remain for ever
in disorder, and continue an immense chaos, without any proportion or
activity. But suppose that the actuating force, whatever it be, still
continues in matter, this first position will immediately give place to a
second, which will likewise in all probability be as disorderly as the
first, and so on through many successions of changes and revolutions. No
particular order or position ever continues a moment unaltered. The
original force, still remaining in activity, gives a perpetual
restlessness to matter. Every possible situation is produced, and
instantly destroyed. If a glimpse or dawn of order appears for a moment,
it is instantly hurried away, and confounded, by that never-ceasing force
which actuates every part of matter.
Thus the universe goes on for many ages in a continued succession of
chaos and disorder. But is it not possible that it may settle at last, so
as not to lose its motion and active force (for that we have supposed
inherent in it), yet so as to preserve an uniformity of appearance,
amidst the continual motion and fluctuation of its parts? This we find to
be the case with the universe at present. Every individual is perpetually
changing, and every part of every individual; and yet the whole remains,
in appearance, the same. May we not hope for such a position, or rather
be assured of it, from the eternal revolutions of unguided matter; and
may not this account for all the appearing wisdom and contrivance which
is in the universe? Let us contemplate the subject a little, and we shall
find, that this adjustment, if attained by matter of a seeming stability
in the forms, with a real and perpetual revolution or motion of parts,
affords a plausible, if not a true solution of the difficulty.
It is in vain, therefore, to insist upon the uses of the parts in animals
or vegetables, and their curious adjustment to each other. I would fain
know, how an animal could subsist, unless its parts were so adjusted? Do
we not find, that it immediately perishes whenever this adjustment
ceases, and that its matter corrupting tries some new form? It happens
indeed, that the parts of the world are so well adjusted, that some
regular form immediately lays claim to this corrupted matter: and if it
were not so, could the world subsist? Must it not dissolve as well as the
animal, and pass through new positions and situations, till in great, but
finite succession, it falls at last into the present or some such order?
It is well, replied CLEANTHES, you told us, that this hypothesis was
suggested on a sudden, in the course of the argument. Had you had leisure
to examine it, you would soon have perceived the insuperable objections
to which it is exposed. No form, you say, can subsist, unless it possess
those powers and organs requisite for its subsistence: some new order or
economy must be tried, and so on, without intermission; till at last some
order, which can support and maintain itself, is fallen upon. But
according to this hypothesis, whence arise the many conveniences and
advantages which men and all animals possess? Two eyes, two ears, are not
absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the species. Human race might
have been propagated and preserved, without horses, dogs, cows, sheep,
and those innumerable fruits and products which serve to our satisfaction
and enjoyment. If no camels had been created for the use of man in the
sandy deserts of AFRICA and ARABIA, would the world have been dissolved?
If no lodestone had been framed to give that wonderful and useful
direction to the needle, would human society and the human kind have been
immediately extinguished? Though the maxims of Nature be in general very
frugal, yet instances of this kind are far from being rare; and any one
of them is a sufficient proof of design, and of a benevolent design,
which gave rise to the order and arrangement of the universe.
At least, you may safely infer, said PHILO, that the foregoing hypothesis
is so far incomplete and imperfect, which I shall not scruple to allow.
But can we ever reasonably expect greater success in any attempts of this
nature? Or can we ever hope to erect a system of cosmogony, that will be
liable to no exceptions, and will contain no circumstance repugnant to
our limited and imperfect experience of the analogy of Nature? Your
theory itself cannot surely pretend to any such advantage, even though
you have run into Anthropomorphism, the better to preserve a conformity
to common experience. Let us once more put it to trial. In all instances
which we have ever seen, ideas are copied from real objects, and are
ectypal, not archetypal, to express myself in learned terms: You reverse
this order, and give thought the precedence. In all instances which we
have ever seen, thought has no influence upon matter, except where that
matter is so conjoined with it as to have an equal reciprocal influence
upon it. No animal can move immediately any thing but the members of its
own body; and indeed, the equality of action and reaction seems to be an
universal law of nature: But your theory implies a contradiction to this
experience. These instances, with many more, which it were easy to
collect, (particularly the supposition of a mind or system of thought
that is eternal, or, in other words, an animal ingenerable and immortal);
these instances, I say, may teach all of us sobriety in condemning each
other, and let us see, that as no system of this kind ought ever to be
received from a slight analogy, so neither ought any to be rejected on
account of a small incongruity. For that is an inconvenience from which
we can justly pronounce no one to be exempted.
All religious systems, it is confessed, are subject to great and
insuperable difficulties. Each disputant triumphs in his turn; while he
carries on an offensive war, and exposes the absurdities, barbarities,
and pernicious tenets of his antagonist. But all of them, on the whole,
prepare a complete triumph for the Sceptic; who tells them, that no
system ought ever to be embraced with regard to such subjects: For this
plain reason, that no absurdity ought ever to be assented to with regard
to any subject. A total suspense of judgement is here our only reasonable
resource. And if every attack, as is commonly observed, and no defence,
among Theologians, is successful; how complete must be his victory, who
remains always, with all mankind, on the offensive, and has himself no
fixed station or abiding city, which he is ever, on any occasion, obliged
to defend?