CHAP. XII.
That there is a God.
That there is a God! How is it possible to avoid being penetrated with an awful respect in uttering these words? How reflect on them without the deepest humility, and even an emotion of surprise, that man, this weak creature, this atom dispersed in the immensity of space, undertakes to add some weight to a truth, of which all nature is the splendid witness? However, if this truth is our supreme good, if we are nothing without it, how can we banish it from our minds? Does it not constrain us to dwell continually on the subject? Compared with it, all other thoughts are insignificant and uninteresting; it gives birth to, and sustains all the sentiments on which the happiness of an intelligent creature depends. I confess I tremblingly discussed the different objections which are employed to destroy our confidence in the existence of a Supreme Being; I dreaded the melancholy which those arguments produced; I was afraid to feel the impression of it myself, and thus to hazard the opinion most dear to my heart, and most essential to my happiness; it appeared to me, that a few general ideas, supported by lively feelings, would have been sufficient for my tranquillity; and without an interest more extended, without the desire of opposing, according to my powers, a spirit of indifference and false philosophy, which is every day gaining ground, I should never have stepped beyond my circle. But, I am far from regretting the part I have taken: I have ran over, without much trouble, those books where the most pernicious doctrines are ingeniously disseminated; and have thought that a person, endowed with common sense, on whom metaphysical subtleties were obtruded, would resemble those savages who are brought sometimes amongst us, and who, from the depraved refinement of our morals and manners, have often recalled us, by some natural reflections, to those simple principles which we have abandoned, to those ancient truths whose vestiges are lost.
The whole structure of religion would be overturned, if, by the strength or artifices of reasoning, men could destroy our confidence in the existence of a Supreme Being: morality, being detached from the opinions which sustain it, would remain a wavering, unsupported notion, only defended by a policy, whose power time would insensibly weaken. A fatal languor invading every mind, where would be that universal interest, that sentiment felt by all men, and proper to form a general alliance between them? Then those, who, with pure intentions, can only be guided and sustained by an intimate persuasion, would retire sad, and leave to others the care of supporting moral order by fictions and falsehoods; they would pity that dismayed race, called to appear and pass away like flowers, which bloom but for a day; they would despise those animated phantoms which only come to make a buz with their vanity and trivial passions, and fall in a little while into eternal oblivion. All that appears beautiful in the universe, and excites our enthusiasm, would soon lose its splendour and enchantment, if we perceived nothing in this brilliant scene but the play of some atoms, and the uniform walk of blind necessity; for it is always because a thing may be otherwise, that it acquires a claim to our admiration: in short, that soul, that spirit, which vivifies man, that faculty of thought which surprises and confounds those who reflect, would only appear a vain movement, if nothing was before, or was to follow, if some unknown breath, or general intelligence, did not animate nature. But we have dwelt too long on those gloomy thoughts; reassume your light and life, admirable works of God; come and confound the pride of some, and comfort others; come and take possession of our souls, and direct our affections towards Him whom we ought to love, towards Him who is the eternal model of perfect wisdom, and unlimitted goodness!
I shall not endeavour to prove that there is a God, by reciting all the wonders the works of nature display to our eyes; several celebrated writers have already done it, and have missed their aim. Infinity can only be represented by astonishment and respect, which overwhelms all our thoughts: and when we labour to explain the successive and varied picture of the wonders of nature, this change of objects is more calculated to relax our admiration than to increase it; for any change eases our mind, by affording those relaxations which our weakness has need of; and if we were to investigate only one phœnomenon, we should soon discover the utmost extent of our faculties. We find the limits of our understanding in the examination of the organization of the smallest insect, as well as in observing the faculties of the soul; and the mysteries of the simplest vegetation is as far above the reach of our intelligence, as the principal agent of the universe.
It is then as a hymn of praise to the Supreme Being, and not as necessary instruction that I freely follow the course of my thoughts. I shall begin by throwing a rapid glance on the principal characters of wisdom and grandeur, which we are all equally struck with, when we contemplate the wonder of the universe.
What a sight is that of the world! What a magnificent picture for those who can be roused out of the state of indifference, in which habit has thrown them. We know not where to begin, or stop, when we expatiate on so many wonders; and the most noble of all is, the faculty which has been bestowed on us of admiring and conceiving them. What an astonishing and sublime relation is that of the innumerable beauties of nature, with the intelligence which permits us to enjoy, and to be made happy by them! What relation so surprising, as that of the order and harmony of the universe, with the moral intelligence which enables us to anticipate the enjoyments of wisdom and unclouded knowledge! Nature is immense, and all that it contains, all that it spreads with so much splendour, seems within the reach of our sensibility, or the powers of our mind; and these faculties, invisible and incomprehensible, unite to form, that wonder of wonders, which we call felicity. Let not these plain words turn our attention from the magical ideas which they represent. It is because the grand phœnomena of our existence cannot either be defined or expressed many ways, that they are so much more wonderful; and those words, used by common consent, soul, mind, sensation, life, happiness, and many others besides, which we pronounce so slightly, confound not less our understanding, when we wish to discuss the essence of the properties of which they are the sign. It is for this reason, among several others, that the admiration of particulars, in the works of nature, is always insufficient for those who have sensibility, as such admiration is necessarily placed between two ideas susceptible of being known; ideas which we connect through the aid of our own knowledge; but the charm of our relation with the wonders which surround us, arises from experiencing every instant the impression of an infinite grandeur; and feeling the necessity of flying to that mild refuge of ignorance and weakness, the sublime idea of a God. We are continually carried towards this idea by the vain efforts which we make, in order to penetrate the secrets of our own nature; and when I fix my attention on those astonishing mysteries, which seem to terminate, in some manner, the power of our thoughts, I represent them with emotion, as the only barrier which separates us from the infinite spirit, the source of all knowledge.
Men endowed with the greatest genius, perceive quickly the bounds of their faculties when they wish to go very far in the study of abstract metaphysical truths; but the simplest and least exercised mind, can distinguish the proofs of that order, which announces with so much splendour the end and design of sovereign wisdom. It seems, that all the knowledge proper to interest men has been placed within their reach. The learned astronomer, observing the course of our globe round the sun, perceives the cause of that regular succession of repose and vegetation, which secures the earth its fecundity, and adorns every season with renewed beauties; but the simple cultivator, who sees the treasurers of the earth renovated every year, and answer, with singular precision, to the wants of animated beings, is not less a witness of a phœnomenon which is sufficient to excite his admiration and gratitude! Newton analyzed light, and calculated the swiftness with which it runs over the immensity of space; but the ignorant herdsman, who sees, when he wakes, his hut enlightened by the same rays which animate all nature, is equally benefitted by them. The indefatigable anatomist attains a just idea of our inimitable structure, and the ingenious texture of our different organs; but the man most devoid of instruction, who reflects an instant on the pleasures, and the variety of the sensations, which we find ourselves susceptible of, partakes the blessing equally.
The transcendent knowledge of some people, is a degree of superiority which disappears when contrasted with the incomprehensible grandeur of nature; when we contemplate infinity, those talents which exalt one man above another are no more seen; and probably it is beyond the limits of our intelligence that the greatest wonders of nature begin. The knowledge of all ages has not explained what is the imperious authority of our will over our actions, nor how our thoughts could reach the most remote ages, how our souls could investigate that innumerable multitude of present objects, of recollections and anticipations; neither has it informed us how all those excellencies of the mind, sometimes remain unknown to itself, nor how they are sometimes at its command, issuing out of their long obscurity, and succeeding each other with method, or are profusely poured forth. At the sight of these astonishing phœnomena, we think man presumptuous, when, puffed up with pride, he mistakes the measure of his strength and wishes to penetrate into the secrets, whose confines are shut by an invisible hand. He should be content to know, that his existence is united to so many wonders; he should be satisfied with being the principal object of the liberality of nature, and he should adore with reverential respect that powerful Sovereign, who bestows so many blessings on him, and who has made him to sympathize with all the powers of heaven and earth.
The globe on which we live runs over every year a space of two hundred millions of leagues; and in this immense course, its distance from the sun, determined by immutable laws, is exactly proportioned to the degree of the temperature necessary to our feeble nature, and to the successive return of that precious vegetation, without which no animated being could subsist.
That celestial body, which fertilizes the seeds of life shut up in the bosom of the earth, is, at the same time, the source of that light which opens to our view the glorious sight of the universe. The rays of the sun run over in eight minutes about thirty millions of leagues: such an impetuous motion would be sufficient to pulverize the largest masses of matter; but, by an admirable combination, such is the incomprehensible tenuity of these rays, that they strike the most tender of our organs, not only without wounding it; but with a measure so delicate and precise, that they excite in us those extatic sensations, which are the origin and the indispensable condition of our greatest enjoyments.
Man, in immensity, is only an imperceptible point; and yet, by his senses and intelligence, he seems in communication with the whole universe; but how pleasant and peaceable is this communication! It is almost that of a prince with his subjects: all is animated round man, all relates to his desires and wants; the action of the elements, every thing on earth, like the rays of light, seems to be proportioned to his faculties and strength; and whilst the celestial bodies move with a rapidity which terrifies our imagination, and whilst they hurry along in their course our dwelling, we are tranquil in the bosom of an asylum, and under the protecting shelter allotted us; we enjoy there in peace a multitude of blessings, which, by another wonderful affinity, ally themselves to our taste, and all the sentiments we are endowed with.
In short, and it is another favour, man is permitted to be, in some things, the contriver of his own happiness, by his will and ingenuity; he has embellished his habitation, and united several ornaments to the simple beauties of nature; he has improved, by his care, the salutary plants; and even in those which seemed the most dangerous he has discovered some wholesome property, and carefully separated it from the envenomed parts which surrounded it; he can soften metals, and make them serve to augment his strength; he obliges the marble to obey him, and assume what form he desires; he gives laws to the elements, or circumscribes their empire; he stops the invasion of the sea; he restrains the rivers in their natural bed, and sometimes obliges them to take a different course, in order to spread their benign influence; he erects a shelter against the fury of the winds, and by an ingenious contrivance, makes use of that impetuous force, which he could not at first dream of defending himself from; even the fire, whose terrible action seems to presage destruction, he subjugates, and renders it, if I may so express myself, the confident of his industry, and the companion of his labours.
What a source of reflections is this dominion of the mind over the most dreadful effects of the movement of blind matter. It seems as if the Supreme Being, in submitting thus to the intelligence of men the most powerful elements, chose to give us an anticipation of the empire which His sovereign wisdom has over the universe.
However, it is in the influence of our spiritual faculties on themselves, that we observe, above all, their admirable nature; we see, with astonishment, the perfections which they acquire by their own action. Intelligence, considered in a general manner, undoubtedly is a great phœnomenon; but it is a still greater wonder, to see the thoughts of a man reach, by the most ingenious means, the knowledge of others, and form an alliance between the past and present productions of the mind. It is by such an alliance that the sciences have been improved, and that the mind of man has been acquainted with all its strength. The mighty of the earth cannot break this association, nor subject to their tyrannic divisions the noble heritage of knowledge; this gift, so precious, preserves the stamp of a divine hand;—and no one has yet been able to say it is mine.
The most noble use that has ever been made of the admirable union of so many talents, and so much knowledge, was to demonstrate how every thing in nature relates to the idea of a first cause; which forcibly announces a design full of wisdom, and a beneficent intention; but now, unhappily, these proofs of the existence of a God are not sufficient; imperious philosophers have laboured to subvert every thing founded on the connection and wonderful harmony of the system of nature; it is not sufficient to oppose to these new opinions the mere authority of final causes; they do not contest that there is a perfect conformity between our desires and wants, between our senses and the bounties of nature; they do not contest, from the cedar to the hyssop, from the insect to man, that there is a beauty of proportion in the whole, which is to be found equally in the relation that objects have with each other, as well as in their different parts; but this admirable harmony, in which the pious man, the man of feeling, perceives with delight the stamp of an eternal intelligence; others less fortunate, undoubtedly, obstinately present it to us as a fortuitous collision, as a play of atoms agitated by a blind movement, or as nature itself, existing thus from all eternity. What trouble they take to invent and defend these systems destructive of our happiness and hopes! I prefer my feelings to all this philosophy; but, to avoid an encounter would be to favour their presumption, and give additional strength to their opinions.
Thus I shall treat the most important question that man can consider. I shall endeavour first to show, that the different conjectures on the origin of the world all centre in the single opinion of the eternal and necessary existence of every thing which is; and I shall afterwards compare the basis of that system with the reason of that happy and simple belief which unites the idea of a Supreme Being with all we see and know; in short, to the universe, the most unlimitted of our conceptions.