TRUISMS.
1. "Effects have their adequate causes."
2. "Nothing begins to exist without a cause foreign to itself."
3. "No being could make himself, for that would imply that he existed and did not exist at the same time."
4. If one horse, or one tree, had a cause, all had."
5. Something must have existed from all eternity.
6. "Atoms cannot be arranged, in a manner expressive of the most exquisite design, without competent intelligence having existed somewhere."
7. "The idea of a supreme author is more pleasing to a virtuous mind, than that of a blind fate and fatherless deserted world."
8. "The condition of mankind is in a state of melioration, as far as misery arises from ignorance, for as the world grows older it must grow wiser, if wisdom arises from experience."
9. "All moral virtue is only a modification of benevolence."