falso Suspectis."
[4] Buddæi, "Theses Theologicæ," cap. III., "De dogmatibus quæ cum Atheismo conjuncta sunt, aut ad eum ducunt," p. 240.
[5] Cousin, "Introduction Generale a l'Histoire de la Philosophie," I. 169:—"Que toute pensée implique une foi spontanée à Dieu, et qu'il n'y a pas d'Atheisme naturel. Croit-il qu'il existe, par exemple? S'il croit çela, çela me suffit,"—"il a donc foi au principe de la pensée;—or la est Dieu,"—"Selon moi, toute parole prononcée avec confiance, n'est pas moins qu'une profession de la foi a la pensée—a la raison en soi—c'est a dire a Dieu."
[6] M. Helvetius, "Treatise on Man, his Intellectual Faculties and Education: translated by W. Hooper, M. D.," I. 247.
[7] M. Lamennais, "Esquisse d'une Philosophie," I. 95.
[8] "Spinoza is a God-intoxicated man."—Novalis, quoted in T. Carlyle's Essays, II. 43.
[9] "Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, by H. G. Atkinson and Harriet Martineau," p. 241.
[10] Psalm 14: 1; 53: 1.
[11] Psalm 10: 4, 11, 13.
[12] Eph. 2: 12, Αθεοι εν τῳ κοσμῳ.
[13] Gal. 4: 8; 2 Tim. 3: 4; Titus 1: 16.
[14] Estlin, "Discourse on Atheism," pp. 8, 19, 28. Dr. Chalmers, "Institutes," I. 375.
[15] Dr. Chalmers, Works, "Natural Theology," I. 58. "The Reasoner," edited by Holyoake, XI. 15, 232.
[16] Robert Hall's Works, I. 58.
[17] Romans 1: 21, 28.
[18] Hall's "Works," I. 128.
[19] Estlin's "Discourse," p. 57.
[20] Robert Hall, "Modern Infidelity Considered," I. 38, 67.
[21] Robert Hall on Modern Infidelity, I. 70.
[22] T. Carlyle, "Essays," II. 142.
[23] P. Bayle, "Pensées diverses Ecrites à un Docteur de Sorbonne a l'Occasion de la Comète," 4 vols. Also his "Reponse aux Questions d'un Provincial," II. 688, IV. 101, 112.
[24] Hall on Modern Infidelity, I. 59, 64.
[25] Abbé Barruel, "Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire du Jacobinisme," I. 31, 131, 135, 184, 357.
[26] Abbé Barruel, "Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire du Jacobinisme," I. 22, II. 190, 193.
[27] "The Leader;" a series of articles on Comte's Philosophy, by G. H. Lewes, April 7, 10, 17, etc., etc., 1852.—"The Glasgow Mechanics' Journal."
CHAPTER II.
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT.
There have been various applications of the general principle of Development, by means of which an attempt has been made to explain the origin of all things by Natural Laws, so as to exclude the necessity of any Divine interposition, either for the creation of the world, or for the introduction and establishment of Christianity itself. It has been applied, first, to explain the origin of worlds and planetary systems, by showing that, certain specified conditions being presupposed, there are fixed mechanical laws which might sufficiently account for the production of the earth and of the other planets and satellites of our Solar System, without any special interposition of Divine power at the commencement of the existing order of things. It has been applied, secondly, to explain the origin of the various tribes or races of vegetable and animal life, and especially the production of the human race, by showing that the existing types may have sprung, by a process of gradual development, from inferior races previously existing, and that these again may have been produced by the action of chemical agents in certain favorable conditions. It has been applied, thirdly, to explain all the most important phenomena of Human History, and to illustrate the law which is supposed to determine and regulate the progressive course of civilization, so as to account, on natural principles, for the origin and prevalence of the various forms of Religion, and even for the introduction, in its appointed season, of Christianity itself, without having recourse to anything so utterly unphilosophical as the idea of a Divine Revelation, or the supposition of supernatural agency. And it has been applied, fourthly, to explain the order, and to vindicate the use, of those additions both to the doctrines and rites of primitive Christianity, which Protestants have denounced as corruptions, but which Popish and Tractarian writers defend as developments, of the system that was originally deposited, like a prolific germ or seed, in the bosom of the Catholic Church.
It is the more necessary to examine the various forms of this theory, because unquestionably it can appeal to not a few natural analogies, which may serve, on a superficial view, to give it the aspect of verisimilitude. For many of the most signal works of God have been manifestly framed on the principle of gradual growth, and matured by a process of progressive development. We see in the natural world a small seed deposited in the earth, which, under the agency of certain suitable influences, germinates and springs up, producing first a tender shoot, then a stem, and branches, and leaves, and blossoms, and fruit; and every herb or tree, "having seed in itself," makes provision for the repetition of the same process, and the perpetuation and indefinite increase of its kind. The same law is observed in the animal kingdom, where a continuous race is produced from a single pair. And even in the supernatural scheme of Revelation itself, the truth was gradually unfolded in a series of successive dispensations; the First Promise being the germ, which expanded as the Church advanced, until it reached its full development in the Scriptures of the New Testament. These and similar instances may suffice to show that, both in the natural and supernatural Providence of God, He has been pleased to act on the principle of gradual and progressive, as contradistinguished from that of instant and perfect production; and they may seem, at first sight, to afford some natural analogies
