ike, rested
the defence of theology on the proofs of the discontinuity of the
universe and the consequent necessity for admitting supernatural
interference. Science was therefore invoked to place absolute limits
on its own progress.

But other vital difficulties were already felt. The argument from
contrivance naturally implies limitation. The maker of a machine is
strictly limited by the properties of the matter upon which he works.
The inference might be verbally saved by saying that the maker was
'potentially' omnipotent; but the argument, so far as it goes, is more
easily satisfied by the hypothesis of a Being of great but still
limited powers. The Deity so proved, if the proof be valid, is not
himself the ground of the universe, the source from which nature
itself emanates, as well as the special laws of nature, but a part of
the whole system; interfering, guiding, and controlling, but still
only one of the powers which contribute to the formation of the whole.
Hence arise questions which theologians rather evaded than attempted
to answer. If with the help of Paley we can prove the existence of an
invisible Being--potentially omnipotent, though always operating as
though limited--there would still remain the question as to his
attributes. He is skilful, we may grant, but is he benevolent or is he
moral? The benevolence could of course be asserted by optimists, if
facts were amenable to rhetoric. But a theory which is essentially
scientific or empirical, and consistently argues from the effect to
the cause, must start from an impartial view of the facts, and must
make no presupposition as to the nature of the cause. The cause is
known only through the effects, and our judgment of them cannot be
modified by simply discovering that they are caused. If, then,
contrivance is as manifest in disease as in health, in all the
sufferings which afflict mankind as well as in the pleasures which
solace him, we must either admit that the creator is not benevolent,
or frankly admit that he is not omnipotent and fall into Manichaeism.
Nature, we are frequently told, is indifferent if not cruel; and
though Paley and his followers choose to shut their eyes to ugly
facts, it could be only by sacrificing their logic. They were bound to
prove from observation that the world was so designed as to secure the
'greatest happiness' before they could logically infer a purely
benevolent designer. It was of the very essence of their position