Published at Aberdeen by James Nicol, Printer to the City and University, in the Year of our Lord 1723. <2>
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To The Great and Most Illustrious
THOMAS
Earl of Hadinton &c.
Knight of the Most Ancient and Noble order
of St. Andrew.2
Also
To his Noble Son, Distinguished Scion
of his most Honourable Family,
Charles,
Master of Binning,3 &c.
These Philosophical Theses are dedicated,4 as a token of
his great Devotion and everlasting respect
by GEORGE TURNBULL President <3>
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Philosophical Theses
Since the real usefulness of any Science in human life is to be measured by its relation to Moral Philosophy (which has rightly been called by Wise Men the Guide and Parent of life),5 we must now briefly investigate the connection that Natural Science has with it.
There is no need of a full discussion here about natural Philosophy and its recent development and advances. But anyone who has tasted this Science even with the tip of his tongue, can see that, in its present state, it rests on a very firm foundation, since it is sustained not by fanciful hypotheses or unfounded conjectures, but entirely by either Mathematical reasoning or clear and certain experiments6 and Analogy. That this is the only method by which a real knowledge of nature could be advanced and developed, was prescribed long ago by the most Perceptive Verulam.7 And it is by this method that it has indeed come about that this Science has reached such a peak of perfection in our time, especially through the wonderful insight and industry of the most illustrious Newton.8 In explicating the nature and the Phenomena of light (to make the matter clear by one or two examples) that Great Man first investigated and proved by Analysis the innate differences between rays of light as regards refrangibility, reflexibility and colour, and their alternating phases of readier reflection and transmission, as well
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as the properties of the bodies, both opaque and transparent, on which the reflections and colours of the rays depend. Once he had discovered these things, he assumed them as principles, in order to explain by Synthesis the Phenomena that flow from them. In the same way, after he had derived from celestial Phenomena, by Mathematically demonstrated propositions, the forces by which bodies tend towards the Sun and each of the Planets, he derived from those forces, by propositions equally Mathematical, the motions of the Planets, of Comets and of the Moon. And thus he elaborated an Astronomy which was complete in every respect. Every explanation of Corporeal Effects admitted by modern Physicists rests on exactly the same kind of reasoning. And Newton himself observed some time ago that “if natural Philosophy by pursuing this method eventually becomes a <4> perfect Science complete in all its parts, it will undoubtedly result in a similar extension of the boundaries of Moral Philosophy.”9
II
From the most excellent order, harmony and Beauty of the corporeal world is derived a thoroughly lucid argument, by which one may demonstrate, against all Supporters of Atheism, Demonism and Polytheism, that all parts of the world were fashioned in the beginning and are at all times governed by One GOD of supreme intelligence in accordance with the very best design. It is certain that no truth has greater significance than this for the advancement and development of moral Philosophy. For such a great, harmonious, accordant, uniform complex of things could certainly not come about, if all things were not maintained by One Divine and Uniform Spirit.10 There are very many arguments derived from the abstract and Metaphysical consideration of cause and Effect, of Necessary and dependent existence, fashioned11
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and refined by Metaphysicians with consummate skill, which invincibly demonstrate that GOD exists and rules all things by his Most Wise Providence, even if they are inaccessible to most people, because they are constructed purely of reasoning.12 Hence we certainly do not give our support to those who repudiate and reject every exemplary and Metaphysical Proof for establishing the Divine Existence and Providence. But at the same time we do not hesitate to maintain that the argument drawn from the most perfect ordering of the corporeal world in confirmation of these things, not only rests upon a very firm foundation but is suited beyond all others to command the assent of a candid mind, free of evil disturbances.13 For just as no kind of reasoning expands and extends its usefulness more widely in human lives than that which is derived from experiments and evidence and is founded on analogy, so there is none which affects the Understanding more pleasantly or in which the human mind more securely acquiesces; so perfectly are our minds adjusted to the condition of human life. And this itself is no small sign of a supremely good Providence, which presides over the whole of nature and by its own initiative promotes the welfare of all things but especially the welfare of human beings.
III
It is well-known to the learned that Anaximander, Democritus, Leucippus,14 and all the ancient Atheists, however much they disagreed with each other, always agreed in this, that they recognized nothing but bodies. It is also well known that some recent writers have used all their ingenuity to
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support this opinion. The most prominent are Spinoza, Hobbes, and Toland.15 But now the true Science of nature has clearly proved that the whole mass of matter is by itself inert, that it is bound and ruled by necessary laws <5> chosen and determined in utter freedom by the infinitely Wise cause, and thus that no mechanical motion could have either begun or survived for the smallest moment of time apart from a uniform intelligent Cause, which is utterly different in its nature from matter.16 Nearly all Physicists agree that gravity, fermentation, and cohesion, which seem to be the three effective principles from which all the properties and actions of corporeal things follow, are to be directly resolved into the Divine Virtue.17 But even if they did not stop here, and were to discover some very subtle cause of these principles (as some believe they will one day), it would not therefore be legitimate to infer that mechanical motions do not depend on some Supreme intelligent Cause. For it is abundantly confirmed by all experiments and in fact by the whole science of matter and motion, that physical causes are simply natural laws and forces, fashioned and preserved with consummate skill by the Most Wise Creator of nature. And in fact, if matter could understand and will and order and direct itself, the possibility of reaching any certain conclusion about the powers and laws of matter would be so remote that nothing more Chimerical could be attempted than a mechanical explanation of nature. But we can best see how much light and advancement this science of matter has brought to moral Philosophy from the fact that this science
