Bankers, merchants, and traders judge by this kind of evidence of the solvency and responsibility of the parties with whom they deal. The actual amount of a man's property is probably known only to himself. His standing on the exchange or in the market will depend upon his personal character, his business habits, his conformity to established rules, and the extent to which he practises those moral virtues which are known to be the surest guide to wealth. We are told that "it is of great importance to a banker to have an ample knowledge of the means and transactions of his customers. The customer, when he opens his account, will give him some information on this subject. The banker will afterwards get information from his own books. The amount of transactions that his customer passes through his current account, will show the extent of his business. The amount of his daily balance will show if he has much ready cash. The extent and character of the bills he offers for discount, will show if he trust large amounts to individual houses, and if these are respectable. On the other hand, the bills his customer may accept to other parties, and his payments, will show the class of people with whom he deals, or who are in the habit of giving him credit."* Another banker observes that, “Next in importance to a study of his accounts, the habits and character of a client are deserving of your attentive consideration. If a man's style of living, for example, becomes extravagant, and he gives himself over to excess, you cannot too promptly apply the curb, however regular the transactions upon his account may seem."+

Now, this is judging from circumstantial evidence. By the same kind of evidence we are guided in our domestic adjudications. In this mode of reasoning we judge of the honesty of our servants, of the truthfulness of our children, and of many other transactions connected with family discipline. By this mode too we often judge of the sincerity of our friends, and of the character of public men.

6. The Scriptures furnish us with a good many instances of both right and wrong judgments founded on circumstantial evidence.

* Gilbart's Practical Treatise on Banking.

The "Internal Management of a Country Bank." By Thomas Bullion.

Saul put to the sword the priests of the Lord upon circumstantial evidence. The high priest had given bread to David's troop, had supplied him with a sword, and had inquired of God for him. He made a most logical defence: -He had been in the habit of inquiring of God for him. David was the king's son-in-law; he was a distinguished man in the nation; and the high priest did not know that a rupture had taken place between him and Saul. Samuel convicted Saul of disobedience and falsehood by circumstantial evidence. Saul said: "I have performed the commandment of the Lord." Samuel said: "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" Peter was accused upon circumstantial evidence. He was a Galilean; he spoke a provincial dialect; and he had been seen in the garden— all these circumstances seemed to warrant a suspicion that he also "was one of this man's disciples." St. Paul was accused upon circumstantial evidence. The charge was, that he had defiled the temple: the proof was, that he had been seen walking the streets of Jerusalem in company with Trophimus, an Ephesian. The tribes beyond Jordan were accused of idolatry, upon circumstantial evidence. They had built an altar. It was shown that this altar was not intended for sacrifice.

7. You will observe that arguments are often expressed in a conditional form when they have no reference to the relation of conditional cause and effect.

In these cases, the relation is usually denoted by the words antecedent and consequent. The antecedent denotes what goes before, and the consequent denotes what follows after. The consequent is the result of the antecedent, or is a natural inference from the antecedent. Thus-If the sun be fixed, the earth must move. If there be no fire, there will be no smoke. If it be our duty to love our neighbours as ourselves, very few people perform their duty. "If we say,

We have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Dr. Watts observes, that "the truth of these propositions depends not at all on the truth or falsehood of their two parts, but on the truth of the connexion of them; for each part of them may be false, and yet the whole proposition true, as—“ If there be no Providence, there will be no future punishment."

In many cases, indeed, we do not intend to denote any kind of condition or contingency, but adopt this form of reasoning merely because it is a more forcible way of stating the argument. Arguments from analogy, and à fortiori, as will be explained hereafter, are almost always expressed in this form, as well as those advanced in the way of objections." If the Lord be with us, why is all this evil befallen us?"-Judg. vi. 13.—“ If Baal be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar."Judg. vi. 31.

SECTION VII.

THE RELATION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT-FINAL CAUSES.

WITH regard to intelligent beings, actions are the effects of motives or feelings. Hence the motive or design of an action is called its final cause. With regard to final causes and effects, the mode of reasoning is from the existence of the cause to infer the existence of the effect, or from the existence of the effect to infer the existence of the Moral causes refer to habits, events, and institutions. Final causes refer generally to individual acts. 1. The following are examples :--

cause.

"And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."-Exod. ix. 16.

Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same by his infinite goodness and mercy."—Prayer-Book.

"The gentleman travels for pleasure. The lady rides for exercise. The merchant toils for wealth. The soldier fights for glory."

"Smith has shown that labour is the real source of wealth: that the wish to augment our fortune and to rise in the world

a wish that comes with us from the womb and never leaves us till we go into the grave-is the cause of wealth being saved and accumulated."-Macculloch.

"It is the interest of every master that the persons in his employment should be contented with their position, and feel a pride in everything which contributes to the success of the establishment of which they form a part. The mere labourer for hire, who has no interest in his work beyond the performance of a contract, for which he is to obtain a certain amount of wages, will not be the same zealous workman as the man who brings to his work a feeling of anxiety to perform it in a manner which will redound the most to the credit of the master who employs him." -The Responsibilities of Employers. (Pickering.)

2. The doctrine of final causes enters largely into the science of Natural Theology.

From the adaptation of certain arrangements to answer certain purposes, we infer that these arrangements were designed to answer these purposes. Thus, the eye is adapted for seeing: we infer it was made to answer that purpose. And so we argue respecting hearing, and of all the other animal functions. You may see a large enumeration of similar instances in Paley's Natural Theology, and in the Bridgewater Treatises.

From the manifold proofs of design in the world, we infer the existence of a Designer. These effects denote intelligence, and hence we infer the existence of an Intelligent Cause.

"He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall‍he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?"-Psalm xciv. 9, 40.

"But to proceed to show that in all science there was evidence of a God. Take a fount of types, and scatter them over the floor of Exeter-hall; would they arrange themselves into the shape and order of Milton's Paradise Lost,' or one of Shakspeare's plays? Certainly not; but if, on the other hand, they found them arranged in the composing-stick in the shape and order of either the one or the other, would not the natural inference be, that it had been done by some person who had first designed the work, and then carried that design into execution? Or if a man who had never seen a watch, found one in the desert, and on opening it discovered its wheels and cranks all working together, and some of them apparently in opposition to each other, yet all

combining to show the hour of the day-would he not infer that some ingenious and contriving person had been at work arranging all this delicate and complicated machinery for a definite result? Again, if you took all the bricks of which London was composed and heaped them together, they would be bricks, but nothing more; but when they were arranged and built up into buildings like that hall, into houses, streets, and squares, then there was evidence of design and aim. So with the universe; from the largest star that shone in the firmament to the minutest insect that floated in the sunbeam-in everything-the evidences of design were so various, so clear, so magnificent, so grand, that that man who would still say, "There is no Author here, all is chance,' must be blind or mad-as the Psalmist said, it was 'the fool who said in his heart, There is no God.' * * * * In the human eye, which, while lighting us on our way, was made capable of receiving the most pleasurable impressions from external objects —the ear, which, while performing its duty of warning us of danger, was made also the storehouse of the most exquisite sounds-the taste, which, while pressing us to eat, gave us satisfaction and delight in eating-the muscles of the body, which, while designed with the greatest strength, combined with that strength the greatest lightness and the utmost symmetry and elegance of form—all this, the Atheist would tell you, was the result of mere accident; but the Christian said: 'All this proves the design of a wise, a beneficent, and an omnipotent God.' So with everything in animal life, the wing of the bird, the cell of the bee, the adaptation of everything to its use and purpose, all was indicative of the same great design. **** Take another fact from science. During the months of June, July, and August, the rise in the temperature of the day was so great, that if the heat continued to increase from nine to twelve in the morning, at the same rate as it increased from six to nine, every green thing would be scorched, and the atmosphere would be unbearable. How was this heat modified? Water, in process of conversion into steam, absorbed heat, and in summer, as the sun rose higher in the heavens, the heat of its rays converted the dew-drops on the flowers and the little pools of water on the ground into steam, and the heat was carried off by it. Again, when the sun went down, excessive cold was prevented by another arrangement. Those mists which the sun had taken up in the morning to keep the day cool, were again condensed at night into dew, and water going back from the state of steam to water gave out heat, and thus the night was made warm. And in winter, the rapid increase of cold was prevented by the frosts, which, by converting water into ice, compelled it to pass off its superabundant caloric into the atmosphere, which was thus warmed by it." -Dr. Cumming's Sermon on God in Science.