The Existence of God | Page 4

SECT. VI. Second Comparison, drawn from the Sound of Instruments.
If we heard in a room, from behind a curtain, a soft and harmonious

instrument, should we believe that chance, without the help of any
human hand, could have formed such an instrument? Should we say
that the strings of a violin, for instance, had of their own accord ranged
and extended themselves on a wooden frame, whose several parts had
glued themselves together to form a cavity with regular apertures?
Should we maintain that the bow formed without art should be pushed
by the wind to touch every string so variously, and with such nice
justness? What rational man could seriously entertain a doubt whether a
human hand touched such an instrument with so much harmony?
Would he not cry out, "It is a masterly hand that plays upon it?" Let us
proceed to inculcate the same truth.
SECT. VII. Third Comparison, drawn from a Statue.
If a man should find in a desert island a fine statue of marble, he would
undoubtedly immediately say, "Sure, there have been men here
formerly; I perceive the workmanship of a skilful statuary; I admire
with what niceness he has proportioned all the limbs of this body, in
order to give them so much beauty, gracefulness, majesty, life,
tenderness, motion, and action!"
What would such a man answer if anybody should tell him, "That's
your mistake; a statuary never carved that figure. It is made, I confess,
with an excellent gusto, and according to the rules of perfection; but yet
it is chance alone made it. Among so many pieces of marble there was
one that formed itself of its own accord in this manner; the rains and
winds have loosened it from the mountains; a violent storm has thrown
it plumb upright on this pedestal, which had prepared itself to support it
in this place. It is a perfect Apollo, like that of Belvedere; a Venus that
equals that of the Medicis; an Hercules, like that of Farnese. You would
think, it is true, that this figure walks, lives, thinks, and is just going to
speak. But, however, it is not in the least beholden to art; and it is only
a blind stroke of chance that has thus so well finished and placed it."
SECT. VIII. Fourth Comparison, drawn from a Picture.
If a man had before his eyes a fine picture, representing, for example,
the passage of the Red Sea, with Moses, at whose voice the waters

divide themselves, and rise like two walls to let the Israelites pass
dryfoot through the deep, he would see, on the one side, that
innumerable multitude of people, full of confidence and joy, lifting up
their hands to heaven; and perceive, on the other side, King Pharaoh
with the Egyptians frighted and confounded at the sight of the waves
that join again to swallow them up. Now, in good earnest, who would
be so bold as to affirm that a chambermaid, having by chance daubed
that piece of cloth, the colours had of their own accord ranged
themselves in order to produce that lively colouring, those various
attitudes, those looks so well expressing different passions, that elegant
disposition of so many figures without confusion, that decent plaiting
of draperies, that management of lights, that degradation of colours,
that exact perspective--in short, all that the noblest genius of a painter
can invent? If there were no more in the case than a little foam at the
mouth of a horse, I own, as the story goes, and which I readily allow
without examining into it, that a stroke of a pencil thrown in a pet by a
painter might once in many ages happen to express it well. But, at least,
the painter must beforehand have, with design, chosen the most proper
colours to represent that foam, in order to prepare them at the end of his
pencil; and, therefore, it were only a little chance that had finished what
art had begun. Besides, this work of art and chance together being only
a little foam, a confused object, and so most proper to credit a stroke of
chance--an object without form, that requires only a little whitish
colour dropped from a pencil, without any exact figure or correction of
design. What comparison is there between that foam with a whole
design of a large continued history, in which the most fertile fancy and
the boldest genius, supported by the perfect knowledge of rules, are
scarce sufficient to perform what makes an excellent picture? I cannot
prevail with myself to leave these instances without desiring the reader
to observe that the most rational men are naturally extreme loath to
think that beasts have no manner of understanding, and are mere
machines. Now, whence proceeds such