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"But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues that Aristotle speaks of, 'that fetched the Original of God and all Things out of Night,' or the dark Chaos of Matter; that held there is no God at all, or that blind and Senseless Matter and Chance are the only Original of all Things."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Author

Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Work Title

A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for James and John Knapton

Date

1731

Metaphor

"But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues that Aristotle speaks of, 'that fetched the Original of God and all Things out of Night,' or the dark Chaos of Matter; that held there is no God at all, or that blind and Senseless Matter and Chance are the only Original of all Things."

Metaphor in Context

[...] This is just as if one should say, that there is indeed a Brightness or Lucidity in the Sun, but yet notwithstanding the Light which is in the Air, is not derived from that Light which is in the Body of the Sun, but springs immediately out of the Power of the dark Air; which being a Thing apparently absurd, it may be presumed that this Assertion is nothing but a verbal and pretended Acknowledgement of a God, that has an antecedent and an independent Knowledge, made by such as really deny the same; for otherwise, to what Purpose should they so violently and distortedly pervert the natural Order and Dependency of Things in the Universe, and cut off that Cognation and Connexion which is betwixt Things imperfect and Things perfect of the same Kind, betwixt created Minds and the increated Mind, which is the intellectual Scale or Ladder by which we climb up to God, if they did really believe and acknowledge any such Thing. But he that can believe that all human Knowledge, Wisdom, and Prudence, has no other Source and Original than the Radiations and Impresses of the dark Matter, and the fortuitous and tumultuous Jumblings thereof; it is justly to be suspected, that he is too near akin to those antient Theologues that Aristotle speaks of, "that fetched the Original of God and all Things out of Night," or the dark Chaos of Matter; that held there is no God at all, or that blind and Senseless Matter and Chance are the only Original of all Things.
(IV.iv.14, pp. 260-1)