w of other beings,--seems so majestic as
fairly to be supposed to _include all others_; for that which has power
_to be_ has power _to act_, for the power to be is the most majestic of
all forms of action."[273]

It is here admitted that there must be a self-existent, independent,
and eternal Being, that self-existence is an attribute so majestic that
it may be fairly said to include all others, that the Being to whom it
belongs is exempt from the conditions of other beings, and that the
power _to act_ is involved in the power _to be_. It is assumed, indeed,
that these attributes may belong to Nature, and that Nature is mere
matter; but, reserving this point for the present, are we not warranted
in saying that his doctrine, as stated by himself, involves the same
profound mysteries, and is embarrassed by the same difficulties, which
are often urged as objections to the theory of Religion, and that it is,
at the very least, as _incomprehensible_, as the doctrine which affirms
the existence of God? Suppose there were simply an equality in this
respect between the Theistic and Atheistic hypothesis, that both were
alike incomprehensible and incapable of an adequate explanation, still
the former might be more credible and more satisfactory to reason than
the latter, since in the one we have an intelligent and designing Cause,
such as accounts for the existence of other minds and the manifold marks
of design in Nature, whereas in the other all the phenomena of thought,
and feeling, and volition, as well as all the instances of skilful
adjustment and adaptation, must be resolved into the power of
self-existent, but unintelligent and unconscious matter.

Further it is admitted, not only that we may, but that we _must_,
proceed on the principle of Causality, the fundamental axiom of
Theology; for "there _must_ always have been something, or there _could
be_ nothing now." This principle or law of human thought leads him up to
a region which far transcends his present sensible experience, and
guides him to the stupendous height of self-existent and eternal Being.
It is assumed and applied to prove the self-existence and eternity of
matter. But if it be a valid principle of reason, its application may be
equally legitimate when it is employed, in conjunction with the manifest
evidence of _moral_ as distinct from _physical_ causation, to prove the
self-existence and eternity of a supreme intelligent Cause. A principle
such as this