Natural theology; or, evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity. Collected from the appearances of nature / [William Paley].

  • Paley, William, 1743-1805
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural theology; or, evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity. Collected from the appearances of nature / [William Paley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/484 (page 15)
    Contrivance is still unaccounted for. We still want a contriver. A designing mind is neither supplied by this supposition, nor dispensed with. If the difficulty were diminished the further we went back, by going back indefinitely we might exhaust it. And this is the only case to which this sort of reasoning applies. Where there is a tendency, or, as we increase the number of terms, a continual approach towards a limit, there, by supposing the number of terms to be what is call¬ ed infinite, we mav conceive the limit to be at- tained; but where there is no such tendency, or approach, nothing is effected by lengthening the series. There is no difference as to the point in question (whatever there may be as to many points), between one series and another; between a series which is finite, and a series which is infinite. A chain, composed of an infinite num¬ ber of links, can no more support itself, than a chain composed of a finite number of links. And of this we are assured (though we never can have tried the experiment), because, by increasing the number of links, from ten for instance to a hun¬ dred, from a hundred to a thousand, &c. w^e make not the smallest approach, we observe not the smallest tendency, towards self-support. There is no difference in this respect (yet there may be a great difference in several respects) be¬ tween a chain of a greater or less length, between one chain and another, between one that is finite and one that is infinite. This very much resem-