Page:OptimismBlood.djvu/35

This page needs to be proofread.

This, then, is our presumption—there is but one God. And now we say, the harmony of any supposable system requires the guidance of a single will and purpose. Partly for this reason men have believed in one God, taking the harmony of the world upon faith, though they saw it not clearly. Any power, independent of the first, can be operated only by a limited intelligence, and must run counter to the great and perfect purpose. For if it be permitted to act independently, it must either conform to, or diverge from that purpose; if it must invariably conform, it cannot be independent, being subservient by its inherent and unavoidable nature; (of this hereafter;) and if it shall invariably diverge, being independent, only disorder, confusion, and ruin can be the result. Here then we shall admit that what- ever power or intelligence man may possess must, for his own good and the good of the system of which he is a part, be of an entirely subservient character. This is the moral to the fable of the Sphinx.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.