Eddy Matthew - Natural theology: or, evidence of the existence and attributes of the deity, collected from the appearances of nature

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

NATURAL THEOLOGY

WILLIAM PALEY was born in Peterborough in 1743. His father was a clergyman who became a headmaster. In 1759 he went to Christs College, Cambridge, where he won scholarships and prizes, and graduated as Senior Wrangler, the best student of his year in the prestigious mathematical course. He was ordained deacon in 1766, and elected a fellow of his college. There with his friend John Law he undertook teaching, especially of moral philosophy. In 1775 Laws father, Edmund, Bishop of Carlisle, offered Paley a post as a vicar. In 1776 he left Cambridge, and married Jane Hewitt. In 1785 he published The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, based on his Cambridge lectures. It sold very well, and made his name as a clear and accessible writer. He was promoted to be Archdeacon of Carlisle. In 1791 his wife died, leaving him with eight children to bring up, and in 1795 he married Catherine Dobinson as his second wife. They moved to Bishop Wearmouth, a well-endowed parish, where he spent the rest of his life.

Paley published Evidences of Christianity in 1794 and it rapidly became a classic, dealing with the fulfilment of prophecy, miracles, and the reliability of the Bible. Natural Theology appeared in 1802. As a classic statement of the argument for intelligent design, it was a huge success, and a major spur to Charles Darwins thinking. Paley died in Lincoln in 1805.

MATTHEW D. EDDY is Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science and an associate of the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease at the University of Durham. He has most recently held fellowships at the Dibner Institute (MIT), Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and with the University of Notre Dames Erasmus Institute. He has written numerous articles on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century intellectual history. Most recently he has edited (with David M. Knight) Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 17001900 (2005) and he is currently writing a book on the interaction between medicine, philosophy, and geology in Enlightenment Edinburgh.

DAVID M. KNIGHT is Emeritus Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Durham. He has edited the British Journal for the History of Science, and served as President of the British Society for the History of Science. In 1997 and 1998 he was awarded prizes by the Templeton Foundation for his course on Science and Religion in the nineteenth century, and in 2003 he received the American Chemical Societys Edelstein Award for History of Chemistry. He has published numerous works; his single-authored books include Atoms and Elements (1967), The Nature of Science (1976), Ordering the World (1981), The Age of Science (1986), Natural Science Books in English, 16001900 (1989), Science in the Romantic Era (1998), and Science and Spirituality (2004).

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

WILLIAM PALEY

or Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the appearances of nature

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by
MATTHEW D. EDDY and DAVID KNIGHT

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Paley, William, a17431805.
Natural theology: evidence of the existence and attributes of the deity, collected from the
appearances of nature / William Paley; edited with an introduction and notes by
Matthew D. Eddy and David Knight.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Natural theology. I. Eddy, Matthew, 1972 II. Knight, David M. III. Title.
BL183.P35 2006 210dc22 2005026316

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We offer a special thanks to the many students and colleagues who encouraged us to pursue this project, particularly to those who responded to our initial emails in the early stages of our research and to the following scholars who offered considerable moral support and advice: John H. Brooke, Geoffrey N. Cantor, Beth Rainey, Roger Norris, Jonathan Topham, Aileen Fyfe, William H. Brock, Peter J. Bowler, Andreas-Holger Maehle, E. Jonathan Lowe, Simon P. James, Andreas Pantazatos, Momme von Sydow, Stephen W. Sykes, Paul Murray, Colin G. Crowder, Rob Iliffe, Anthony Grafton, Ann Blair, and Alistair McGrath. Resources and funds for our research were generously supplied by the University of Durham, the Dibner Institute for the History of Science, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholars Programme, Princeton Theological Seminary, the University of Edinburghs library system (the Special Collections Department and New College Library) and the Harvard University Library system (especially the Hilles Library, which provided a gratis photocopy of the first edition of