mere circumstances with
the force of proof."(142) This is a settled principle of law. If any
supposition can be made, then, which would reconcile the facts in evidence
with a man's innocence, the law directs that he shall be acquitted. Any
other rule of decision would be manifestly unjust, and inconsistent with
the dictates of a sound policy.

This principle is applicable, whether the accused bear a good or a bad
moral character. As, according to the hypothesis, he might be innocent; so
no tribunal on earth could fairly determine that he was guilty. The
hardship of such a conclusion would be still more apparent in regard to
the conduct of a man whose general character is well known to be good. In
such a case, especially, should the facts be of such a nature as to
exclude every favourable hypothesis, before either truth or justice would
listen to an unfavourable decision and judgment.

Such is the rule which human wisdom has established, in order to arrive at
truth, or at least to avoid error, in relation to the acts and intentions
of men. Hence, is it not reasonable, we ask, that we should keep within
the same sacred bounds, when we come to form an estimate of the ways of
God? No one can fairly doubt that the world is replete with the evidences
of his goodness. If he had so chosen, he might have made every breath a
sigh, every sensation a pang, and every utterance of man's spirit a groan;
but how differently has he constituted the world within us, and the
glorious world around us! Instead of swelling every sound with discord,
and clothing every object with deformity, he has made all nature music to
the ear and beauty to the eye. The full tide of his universal goodness
flows within us, and around us on all sides. In its eternal rounds, it
touches and blesses all things living with its power. We live, and move,
and have our very being in the goodness of God. Surely, then, we should
most joyfully cling to an hypothesis which is favourable to the character
of such a Being. Hence, we infinitely prefer the warm and generous theory
of the optimist, which regards the actual universe as the best possible,
to the dark and cold hypothesis of the sceptic, which calls in question
the boundless perfections of God.

In the foregoing remarks, we have concurred with Dr. Chalmers in viewing
the doctrine of Bayle as a mere unsupported hypothesis; but have we any
right to do so? It has not been proved, it is true; but there are some
thin