CAUSES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE 293

had any competitor. Therefore, if the universe is eternal, it

must have existed from all eternity in the multiform

complexity in which we know it now to be.

On this account, reason postulates a cause for the universe,

considered as one whole, even though it were eternal. A

cause is required to account for the special orderly conditions,

and the definite actions of the multitudes of secondary causes

it contains, the specific laws of the bodies and substances

which enter into its composition, and the peculiar collocations

of the substances, causes, and conditions which pervade it.

For the material universe cannot be shown to contain within

itself any sufficient cause for its existence for its existence

as it exists and in no other mode. An eternal complex

mixture of different substances, with very different powers,

all harmoniously co-ordinated, and which were never other-

wise than harmoniously co-ordinated, could not evidently

contain within itself the sufficient cause for its own existence ;

and the greater the number of the natural laws which

physical science reveals to us, thus acting in harmony, so

much the more does reason make evident to us the necessity

of one great integrating and pervading cause sustaining

that harmony unchanged. Such a cause is necessary for

the existence of the universe at all, and however far back

the duration of such a universe be supposed to extend,

even to eternity, so far back must the duration of its cause

evidently extend.

The existence and 'operation of that cause can be no more

dispensed with at one epoch than at another, and so back-

wards for an eternity of duration. Hence, an ever-present,

constantly causing, and everywhere active and sustaining

principle must endure and energize now, as in the past, and

for ever onwards for a future eternity, should the universe

persist eternally under the same laws.

As to that cause, we can, in some respects, judge of its

had any competitor. Therefore, if the universe is eternal, it

must have existed from all eternity in the multiform

complexity in which we know it now to be.

On this account, reason postulates a cause for the universe,

considered as one whole, even though it were eternal. A

cause is required to account for the special orderly conditions,

and the definite actions of the multitudes of secondary causes

it contains, the specific laws of the bodies and substances

which enter into its composition, and the peculiar collocations

of the substances, causes, and conditions which pervade it.

For the material universe cannot be shown to contain within

itself any sufficient cause for its existence for its existence

as it exists and in no other mode. An eternal complex

mixture of different substances, with very different powers,

all harmoniously co-ordinated, and which were never other-

wise than harmoniously co-ordinated, could not evidently

contain within itself the sufficient cause for its own existence ;

and the greater the number of the natural laws which

physical science reveals to us, thus acting in harmony, so

much the more does reason make evident to us the necessity

of one great integrating and pervading cause sustaining

that harmony unchanged. Such a cause is necessary for

the existence of the universe at all, and however far back

the duration of such a universe be supposed to extend,

even to eternity, so far back must the duration of its cause

evidently extend.

The existence and 'operation of that cause can be no more

dispensed with at one epoch than at another, and so back-

wards for an eternity of duration. Hence, an ever-present,

constantly causing, and everywhere active and sustaining

principle must endure and energize now, as in the past, and

for ever onwards for a future eternity, should the universe

persist eternally under the same laws.

As to that cause, we can, in some respects, judge of its