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On first observing these marauding insects at Kolobeng, I had the idea, imbibed from a work of no less authority than Brougham's Paley, that they seized the white ants in order to make them slaves; but, having rescued a number of captives, I placed them aside, and found that they never recovered from the state of insensibility into which they had been thrown by the leaders.
Coleridge. These two gentlemen, who privately hated Paley, and, perhaps, traduced him, have hung like bees over one particular paragraph in his Evidences, as though it were a flower transplanted from Hymettus. Dr. Parr pronounced it the finest sentence in the English language.
The reader will advert to this distinction. The italics here are Paley's own. Now let the reader turn to the passage itself, and he will find that Paley has deliberately altered the construction of the phrases, in order to make a "distinction" that Justin does not make, inserting the reference to the apostles in a different place to that which it holds in Justin.
Arthur Pendennis and his friend Mr. Warrington are returning from some of their wild expeditions. How differently employed Mr. Paley has been!
He allows that some persons are so far disinterested as to be capable of benevolence and self-sacrifice, without any motive of reward or punishment; but 'to require that all persons should be such, would be not only to require what we certainly shall not find, but to put the requirements of our Morality in a shape in which it cannot convince men. Accordingly, like Paley, he places the doctrine that 'to promote the happiness of others will lead to our own happiness, exclusively on the ground of Religion.
This chapter alone has always convinced me that Paley did not believe in his own book. No one could have rested satisfied with it for moment, if he felt that he was on really strong ground. Besides, how insufficient for their purpose are his examples of discrepancies which do not impair the credibility of the main fact recorded!
It discusses the Origin of Civil Government, the Duty of Submission to Government, Liberty, the Forms of Government, the British Constitution, the Administration of Justice, &c. The Ethical Theory of Paley may be briefly resumed thus: I. The Ethical Standard with him is the conjoined reference to the Will of the Deity, and to Utility, or Human Happiness.
Malthus expresses a hope that Paley had modified his views upon population, and refers to a passage in the Natural Theology. Political Economy , p. 214. Ibid. ii. The phrases quoted are toned down in later editions. Ibid. Senior's Three Lectures, p. 86. Senior's Three Lectures, p. 60. Smith's Works , i. 295.
To mention one such instance, Mr Paley calls attention to the different ornamentation on the windows of the south transept when compared with those in the north transept, as well as to the fact that on the south those windows have straight sides to the inner surface of the wall, while those on the north have the sides splayed.
It dealt, of course, with the beauties and singularities of the place, the streets, the people, and the quantities of unowned yellow dogs. "Don't you think it dreadfully cruel the way they treat dogs in this country?" asked Mrs. Paley. "I'd have 'em all shot," said Mr. Venning. "Oh, but the darling puppies," said Susan. "Jolly little chaps," said Mr. Venning.
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