of all
things to find a sceptic making use of."

"I admit they are his, my friend; but not that there is any inconsistency
in my employing them. I affirm that Butler is quite right in his premises,
though I may reject the conclusion to which he would bring me. He leaves
two alternatives, and only two, in my judgment, open; leaves two parties
untouched; one is the Christian, and the other is the Atheist or the
Sceptic, which-ever you please; but I am profoundly convinced he does
not leave a consistent footing for any thing between. His fire does not
injure the Christian, for-comes out of his own camp; nor me, for it
falls short of my lines; but for you, who have pitched your tent
between, take heed to yourselves. He proves clearly enough, that the
very difficulties for which you reject Christianity exist equally,
sometimes to a still amount, in the domain of nature."

"Oh!" said the youngest, "we do not think that Butler's argument is
sound."

"Then," said Harrington, "the sooner you refute it the better. All you
have to do is, just to show that this world does not exhibit the
inequalities, the miseries,--the apparent caprice in its administration,
--the involuntary ignorance,--the enormous wrongs,--the wide-spread
sorrows and death,--it does. You will do greater service to the
Deist than the whole of the have ever done him yet. I am convinced
that Butler is not to be refuted."

"But do you not recollect what no less a man than Pitt said,--'Analogy
is an argument so easily retorted!'" replied the same youth.

"Then you will have the less difficulty in retorting it," said
Harrington, coolly. "Pitt's observation only shows that he had
forgotten the true object of the work, or never understood it. For the
purposes of refutation, it does not follow that an analogy may be easily
retorted; it may be, and often is, irresistible. It is when employed
to establish a truth, not to expose an error, that it is often feeble.
If Butler had attempted to prove that the inhabitants of Jupiter must
be miserable, nothing could have been more ridiculous than to adduce the
analogy of our planet. But if he merely wished to show that it did not
follow that that beautiful orb, being created by infinite power, wisdom,
and goodness, must be an abode of happiness, (just the Rationalist style
of reasoning,) it would be quite sufficient to introduce the speculator
to this ill-starred planet of ours."

There are few who will not acquiesce in t