From Paley's premises, it is the clearest of all inferences.

Design must have a designer, because whatever we know of designers has taught us that a designer is a person.

All analogy is in favor of this inference.

This is Paley's reasoning upon the subject, and it is too _natural_, too _rigid_, and too _cogent_ to be escaped from."[280] Here we have an _apparent_ admission of the principle on which the argument of _design_ is based, but it is _apparent_ only, and is afterwards withdrawn.

It was used to serve a temporary purpose, and as soon as that purpose was served, it was thrown aside, although it had been described as "so natural, so easy, and so plausible, that it invites one to admit it," as "too _natural_, too _rigid_, and too _cogent_ to be escaped from." "When I made the admission, I was going in the footsteps of Paley, and adopting his own phraseology: then I came to the conclusion to see whether it was right, and then _I gave it up_; when I found it led me to a contrary result, then I gave it up; what I supposed to be _design_ in the opening of my argument is _no longer design_.