Some Thoughts [by W.p. Urquhart] on Natural Theology Suggested by a Work Entitled 'vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' [by R. Chambers]. - Softcover

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1849 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT, CONTINUED. We now propose to turn our attention specially to the second part of the proposition broached in the " Vestiges of the Natural History of the Crea- " tion," namely, that " there is an inherent im- " pnlse connected with vital forces, tending in the " course of generations to modify organic struc- " tures in accordance with external circumstances." And first, concerning this inherent impulse itself, we wish to remark, that if its utility and its beneficial effects are apparent, the fact of its existence must be ascribed to the wisdom and goodness of an all-powerful Creator, as much as that of other things in which his benevolent design is apparent. From observing its universal prevalence, though its power in modifying the forms and constitutions of plants and animals in the present age of the world, is butsmall, some have been led to regard it as a necessary self-existent principle, in the same manner as before the discovery of the universal prevalence of the law of gravitation, men were accustomed to look upon the tendency of heavy bodies to fall to the ground. Hence they were led to think that, if the various conformations of organic structures to external circumstances, which by natural theologians have been denominated adaptations, could be shown to be the result of some such principle as this, there was no need to ascribe them to the wisdom and benevolence of a Creator. We are unable to see any reason why this self-adaptive principle should be the self-existing more than the law of gravitation, and if its results can be shown to be as useful an...