rthodox persons as read it assumed it to
be a kind of _reductio ad absurdum_ of the Utilitarian creed. It might
follow, they could admit, logically from the Utilitarian analysis of
human nature, but it could only prove that the analysis was
fundamentally wrong. Yet its real significance is precisely its
thorough applicability to the contemporary state of opinion.
Beauchamp's definition coincides with Paley's. The coincidence was
inevitable. Utilitarians both in ethical and philosophical questions
start from the same assumptions as Paley, and the Paley doctrine gave
the pith of the dominant theology. I have observed that the Scottish
philosophers had abandoned the _a priori_ argument, and laid the whole
stress of their theological doctrine upon Paley's argument from final
causes. The change of base was an inevitable consequence of their
whole system. They appealed to experience, to 'Baconian' methods, and
to 'inductive psychology.' The theory of 'intuitions,' effective where
it fell in with admitted beliefs, was idle against an atheist, who
denied that he had the intuition. The 'final causes' argument,
however, rested upon common ground, and supplied a possible line of
defence. The existence of the Deity could perhaps be proved
empirically, like the existence of the 'watchmaker.' Accordingly, this
was the argument upon which reliance was really placed by the average
theologian of the time. Metaphysical or ontological reasoning had been
discarded for plain common-sense. The famous _Bridgewater Treatises_
are the characteristic product of the period. It had occurred to the
earl of Bridgewater, who died in 1829, that L8000 from his estate
might be judiciously spent in proving the existence of a benevolent
creator. The council of the Royal Society employed eight eminent men
of science to carry out this design.[628] They wrote some interesting
manuals of popular science, interspersed with proper theological
applications. The arguments were sincere enough, though they now seem
to overlook with singular blindness the answer which would be
suggested by the 'evolutionist.' The logical result is, in any case, a
purely empirical theology. The religion which emerges is not a
philosophy or theory of the world in general, but corresponds to a
belief in certain matters of fact (or fiction). The existence of the
Deity is to be proved, like the existence of Caesar, by special
evidence.

The main results are obvious. The logical base of