But if there be any difference, PHILO, between this supposed case and the
real one of the universe, it is all to the advantage of the latter. The
anatomy of an animal affords many stronger instances of design than the
perusal of LIVY or TACITUS; and any objection which you start in the
former case, by carrying me back to so unusual and extraordinary a scene
as the first formation of worlds, the same objection has place on the
supposition of our vegetating library. Choose, then, your party, PHILO,
without ambiguity or evasion; assert either that a rational volume is no
proof of a rational cause, or admit of a similar cause to all the works
of nature.

Let me here observe too, continued CLEANTHES, that this religious
argument, instead of being weakened by that scepticism so much affected
by you, rather acquires force from it, and becomes more firm and
undisputed. To exclude all argument or reasoning of every kind, is either
affectation or madness. The declared profession of every reasonable
sceptic is only to reject abstruse, remote, and refined arguments; to
adhere to common sense and the plain instincts of nature; and to assent,
wherever any reasons strike him with so full a force that he cannot,
without the greatest violence, prevent it. Now the arguments for Natural
Religion are plainly of this kind; and nothing but the most perverse,
obstinate metaphysics can reject them. Consider, anatomise the eye;
survey its structure and contrivance; and tell me, from your own feeling,
if the idea of a contriver does not immediately flow in upon you with a
force like that of sensation. The most obvious conclusion, surely, is in
favour of design; and it requires time, reflection, and study, to summon
up those frivolous, though abstruse objections, which can support
Infidelity. Who can behold the male and female of each species, the
correspondence of their parts and instincts, their passions, and whole
course of life before and after generation, but must be sensible, that