against one of my objections. When I inquired concerning the cause of
that supreme reason and intelligence into which he resolves every thing;
he told me, that the impossibility of satisfying such inquiries could
never be admitted as an objection in any species of philosophy. "We must
stop somewhere", says he; "nor is it ever within the reach of human
capacity to explain ultimate causes, or show the last connections of any
objects. It is sufficient, if any steps, so far as we go, are supported
by experience and observation." Now, that vegetation and generation, as
well as reason, are experienced to be principles of order in nature, is
undeniable. If I rest my system of cosmogony on the former, preferably to
the latter, it is at my choice. The matter seems entirely arbitrary. And
when CLEANTHES asks me what is the cause of my great vegetative or
generative faculty, I am equally entitled to ask him the cause of his
great reasoning principle. These questions we have agreed to forbear on
both sides; and it is chiefly his interest on the present occasion to
stick to this agreement. Judging by our limited and imperfect experience,
generation has some privileges above reason: for we see every day the
latter arise from the former, never the former from the latter.

Compare, I beseech you, the consequences on both sides. The world, say I,
resembles an animal; therefore it is an animal, therefore it arose from
generation. The steps, I confess, are wide; yet there is some small
appearance of analogy in each step. The world, says CLEANTHES, resembles
a machine; therefore it is a machine, therefore it arose from design. The
steps are here equally wide, and the analogy less striking. And if he
pretends to carry on my hypothesis a step further, and to infer design or
reason from the great principle of generation, on which I insist; I may,
with better authority, use the same freedom to push further his
hypothesis, and infer a divine generation or theogony from his principle
of reason. I have at least some faint shadow of experience, which is the