If this be conceivable, the really trivial nature of gravitating force ([Art. 139]) might come to be associated with the extraordinary persistence of the present state of things.
[51] The words ‘left to its own laws’ must not be taken too literally. We ought perhaps rather to say, the procedure of the Governor of the visible universe is at present such as to indicate uniformity of physical laws, while, on the other hand, His procedure when producing the universe indicated an intelligent agent designing uniformity of product.
[52] Lay Sermons, Essays, and Reviews.
[53] Stewart on the Conservation of Energy.
[54] Stewart on the Conservation of Energy.
[55] Stewart on the Conservation of Energy.
[56] See Meldrum on the Periodicity of Rainfall.
[57] Principles of Science, vol. ii. p. 455.
[58] So-called Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.
[59] It is surely unnecessary to inform our readers that we adopt this hypothesis, not because we imagine it to have any inherent probability, but simply as a concrete mode of bringing development before the understanding.