Chapter I: Introductory

"Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;--
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is."

_Tennyson._

"I have written under the conviction that no Philosophy of the Universe can satisfy the minds of thoughtful men which does not deal with such questions as inevitably force themselves on our notice, respecting the Author and the Object of the Universe; and also under the conviction that every Philosophy of the Universe which has any consistency, must suggest answers, at least conjectural, to such questions. No _Cosmos_ is complete from which the question of Deity is excluded; and all Cosmology has a side turned towards Theology."--_Whewell, Philosophy of Discovery_, Preface, p. vi.

"All science is but the intercalation, each more comprehensive than that which it endeavours to explain, between the great Primal Cause and the ultimate effect."--_Professor Allman's Address to the British Association at Bradford_, 1873.

"Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom,
Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom.
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet,--
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."

_Tennyson._

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER I.

This Introductory Chapter consists of three parts. The first lays down the questions proposed, and shows the necessity of asking them. The second illustrates what may be termed in Art-phrase the _motives_ of the Essay. The third briefly describes its method, and explains the readiest mode of studying Natural Theology.

_Analysis_--Inquiries underlying Natural Theology--Way in which they are answered by our Instinctive Persuasions--How far this answer is sufficing; how far influential.

Phases of Doubt; undeclared Scepticism and Indifferentism--Origin and leaders of the modern Sceptical and Materialistic Schools--Doubts of Intellect distinguished from Scepticism of Immorality--Social dangers and alarms exemplified.

Method of this Essay, and requests as to the mode of reading it--Divisions of Argument; their separate and consilient effect.

_Additional Notes and Illustrations._

A.--The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone and others on Modern Scepticism.

B.--On Corruption of the Judgment by misdirected Moral Sentiments.

C.--On Special Pleading in History and Morals.

D.--On the Method employed throughout this Essay.

E.--On the Effect of Consilient Proofs.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL THEOLOGY.