But our more peculiar business at present is to observe that Laplace himself, in describing the arrangements by which the stability of the solar system is secured, uses language which shows how irresistibly these arrangements suggest an adaptation to its preservation as an end. If in his expressions we were to substitute the Deity for the abstraction “nature” which he employs, his reflection would coincide with that which the most religious philosopher would entertain. “It seems that ‘God’ has ordered every thing in the heavens to ensure the duration of the planetary system, by views similar to those which He appears to us so admirably to follow upon the earth, for the preservation of animals and the perpetuity of species.[40] This consideration alone would explain the disposition of the system, if it were not the business of the geometer to go further.” It may be possible for the geometer to go further; but he must be strangely blinded by his peculiar pursuits, if, when he has discovered the mode in which these views are answered, he supposes himself to have obtained a proof that there are no views at all. It would be as if the savage, who had marvelled at the steady working of the steam engine, should cease to consider it a work of art, as soon as the self-regulating part of the mechanism had been explained to him.
The unsuccessful struggle in which those persons engage, who attempt to throw off the impression of design in the creation, appears in an amusing manner through the simplicity of the ancient Roman poet of this school. Lucretius maintains that the eye was not made for seeing, nor the ear for hearing. But the terms in which he recommends this doctrine show how hard he knew it to be for men to entertain such an opinion. His advice is,—
Illud in his rebus vitium vehementer et istum
Effugere errorem, vitareque præmeditator,
Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata,
Prospicere ut possimus. iv. 823.
’Gainst their preposterous error guard thy mind
Who say each organ was for use design’d;
Think not the visual orbs, so clear, so bright,
Were furnish’d for the purposes of sight.