OR EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY, COLLECTED FROM THE APPEARANCES OF NATURE. BY WILLIAM PALEY, D. D. HALLOWELL : PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. GOODALE: 1819 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. CHAP. I. State of the argument II. State of the argument continued III. Application of the argument - IV. Of the succession of plants and animals VII. Of the mechanical and immechanical parts and functions of animals and vegetables TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND SHUTE BARRINGTON, LL. D. LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM, MY LORD, THE following Work was undertaken at your Lordship's recommendation; and, amongst other motives, for the purpose of making the most acceptable return I could make for a great and important benefit conferred upon me. It may be unnecessary, yet not perhaps, quite impertinent, to state to your Lordship and to the reader, the sev eral inducements that have led me once more to the press. The favor of my first and ever honored patron had put me in possession of so liberal a provision in the church, as abundantly to satisfy my wants, and much to exceed my pretensions. Your Lordship's munificence, in conjunction with that of some other excellent Prelates, who regarded my services with the partiality with which your Lordship was pleased to consider them, hath since placed me in ecclesiastical situations, more than adequate to every object of reasonable ambition. In the mean time, a weak, and, of late, a painful state of health, deprived me of the power of discharging the duties of my station, in a manner at all suitable, either to my sense of those duties, or to my most anxious wishes concerning them. My inability for the public functions of my profession, amongst other consequences, left me much at leisure. That leisure was not to be lost. It was only in my study that I could repa ir my deficiencies in the church. It was only through the press that I could speak. These circumstances, in particular, entitled your Lordship to call upon me for the only speciesof exertion of which I was capable, and disposed me, without hesitation, to obey the call in the best manner that I could. In the choice of a subject had no place left for doubt in saying which, I do not so much refer, either to the supreme importance of the subject, or to any scepticism. concerning it with which the present times are charged, as |