-'From the
fitness of the universe to its end, you infer the necessity of an
intelligent Creator. But if the fitness of the universe to produce
certain effects be thus conspicuous and evident, how much more exquisite
fitness to this end must exist in the author of this universe!... how
much more clearly must we perceive the necessity of this very Creator's
creation, whose perfections comprehend an _arrangement_ far more
accurate and just! The belief of an infinity of creative and created
gods, each more eminently requiring an intelligent author of his being
than the foregoing, is a direct consequence of the premises.'"--"Hence
from design, designers, and persons, we have stepped to organization and
contrivance, and arrive at a contriver again."[283]

Such is the outline of his argument. He seems to think that if there be
any flaw in it, the only assailable point must be his _extension of the
analogy_: "In the chain of analogies which Paley commenced, and which I
have continued, I believe there is no defective link. The principle of
assailment, if any, is the _extension_ of the analogies beyond the Paley
point.... With the extension commences my responsibility. He who proves
an irrelevancy in it answers my book." This is, no doubt, a vulnerable
point, but we venture to think that it is not the only one. His whole
reasoning seems to proceed on an unsound view of the nature and
conditions of the argument, and is radically defective in at least
_three_ respects.

It is not correct to say that the argument of design, is _a mere
argument from analogy_. Were it so, it might, like many another process
of mere analogical reasoning, yield no more than a probable conclusion
or a plausible conjecture. But in the case before us, the conclusion is
strictly and properly an _inductive inference_. It may be suggested by
the perception of _analogy_, but it is founded on the principle of
_causality_. It is capable, therefore, of yielding, not a mere
_probability_, but an absolute _certainty_. The fact that analogy is so
far concerned in the process cannot weaken a conclusion which rests
ultimately on a fundamental law of reason, the ground-principle of all
induction. It is true, no doubt, that were we destitute of the conscious
possession of intelligence, will, and design, we should be utterly
incapable of forming these conceptions, or applying them to the
interpretation of Nature; and in a loose sense, it may be said that we
are guided