t". Surely that which is the ground and reason
of all existence must have the ground and reason of its own existence in
itself. That which is _first_ in the order of existence, and in the
logical order of thought, can have nothing prior to itself. If the
supposed First Cause is not necessarily self-existent and independent,
it is not the _first_; if it has a dependent existence, there must be a
prior being on which it depends. If the First Cause is not eternal, then
prior to this Ultimate Cause there was nothingness and vacuity, and pure
nothing, by its own act, became something. But "_Ex nihilo nihil_" is a
universal law of thought. To ask the question whether the First Cause be
self-existent and eternal, is, in effect, to ask the question "who made
God?" and this is not the question of an adult theologian, but of a
little child. Surely Mr. Watson must have penned the above passage
without any reflection on its real import[368].

[Footnote 368: In an article on "the Impending Revolution in Anglo-Saxon
Theology" Methodist Quarterly Review, (July, 1863), Dr. Warren seems to
take it for granted that the "aiteological" and "teleological" arguments
for the existence of God are utterly invalidated by the Dynamical theory
of matter. "Once admit that _real power_ can and does reside in matter,
and all these reasonings fail. If inherent forces of matter are
competent to the production of all the innumerable miracles of movement
in the natural world, what is there in the natural world which they can
not produce. If all _the exertions of power_ in the universe can be
accounted for without resort to something back of, and superior to,
nature, what is there which can force the mind to such a resort?" (p.
463). "Having granted that _power_, or _self-activity_, is a natural
attribute of all matter, what right have we to deny it _intelligence_?"
(p. 465). "_Self-moving matter must have thought and design_" (p. 469).

It is not our intention to offer an extended criticism of the above
positions in this note. We shall discuss "the Dynamical theory" more
fully in a subsequent work. If the theory apparently accepted by Dr.
Warren be true, that "_the ultimate atoms of matter are as uniformly
efficient as minds_, and that we have the same ground to regard the
force exerted by the one _innate_ and _natural_ as that exerted by the
other" (p. 464), then we grant that the conclusions of Dr. Warren, as
above stated, are unavoidable. We proceed o