The Works...: With a Biographical Sketch of the Author, Volume 4 |
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Popular passages
Page 307 - Evil, no doubt, exists; but is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache; their aching now and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it; or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in the contrivance; but it is not the object of it.
Page 354 - I say, that if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is that which regards the phenomena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme intelligent Author.
Page 307 - Here, pain and misery are the very objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is to be found in the works of nature. We never discover a train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. No anatomist ever discovered a system of organization calculated to produce pain and disease; or, in explaining the parts of the human body, ever said : This is to irritate, this to inflame...
Page 375 - ... receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, according to the usage of the Church of England...
Page 5 - A law presupposes an agent, for it is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power, for it is the order according to which that power acts. Without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself, the " law
Page 302 - The vigour of youth was to be stimulated to action by impatience of rest ; whilst to the imbecility of age, quietness and repose become positive gratifications. In one important respect the advantage is with the old. A state of ease is, generally speaking, more attainable than a state of pleasure. A constitution, therefore, which can enjoy ease, is preferable to that which can taste only pleasure. This same perception of ease oftentimes renders old age a condition of great comfort ; especially when...
Page 92 - ... employed every time we breathe ; yet we take in, or let out, our breath, without reflecting what a work is thereby performed ; what an apparatus is laid in, of instruments for the service, and how many such contribute their assistance to the effect. Breathing with ease, is a blessing of every moment ; yet, of all others, it is that which we possess with the least consciousness. A man in an asthma is the only man who knows how to estimate it.
Page 102 - Consider what an affair this is, when we come to very large animals. The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the waterworks at London bridge; and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior, in impetus and velocity, to the blood gushing from the whale's heart.
Page 268 - ... to deny a personal agent. Now that which can contrive, which can design, must be a person. These capacities constitute personality, for they imply consciousness and thought. They require that which can perceive an end or purpose ; as well as the power of providing means, and of directing them to their end*.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Works...: With a Biographical Sketch of the Author, Volume 4 The Works...: With a Biographical Sketch of the Author, William Paley |
| Author | William Paley |
| Publisher | G. Cowie and Company, 1837 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 8 May 2008 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |