each  other.  If,  dissatisfied  with  this  solution,  we  turn  to  the
Professor,  he  resolves  all  our  difficulties  by  informing  us,  that
although  it  be  true,  as  Mr.  Hume  has  asserted,  that  we  have
no  just  reason  to  conclude  that  there  is  any  power  or  virtue
residing  in  the  flame  to  produce  these  results,  yet  they  are  to
be  referred  to  the  efiicient  cause  himself,  that  is  to  the  Crea-
tor. Thus,  God  himself  is  brought  in  as  the  immediate  and
sole  operating  cause  throughout  the  natural  world;  and  one
of  the  least  defensible,  though  not  the  most  dangerous  parts
of  the  doctrine  of  Father  Mallebranche,  is  obtruded  upon  us,
without  the  relief  and  advantage  of  its  consistency  and  har-
mony with  itself.  When  by  the  poison  of  a  rattlesnake  we  are
killed,  or  torn  to  pieces  by  the  tiger;  when  the  lightning  darts
upon  our  houses  and  the  huri;icane  destroys  us  in  the  ocean;
when  the  earthquake  opens  the  earth  and  swallows  us  alive,
or  the  lava  of  the  volcanoe  overwhelm  us  with  ruin;  in  all
these  cases,  there  is  no  power  in  the  poison  of  the  snake  to
cause  our  end;  no  strength  in  the  tiger  to  destroy  us;  no  force
in  the  lightning,  the  winds  or  those  agents  that  cause  earth-
quakes and  volcanoes;  but  all  these  results  are  produced  by
the  immediate  operative  agency  of  God  himself.  Such  a  phi-
losophy partakes  too  much  of  the  unintelligible  jargon  of  the
schoolmen;  and  offers  too  great  an  outrage  to  the  principles
of  common  sense  and-  sound  understanding,  not  to  be  dis-
claimed by  the  sober  inquirer  after  truth,  with  indignation
and  scorn.
