Suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place... The inference, we think, is inevitable; that the watch must have had a maker, that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.

William Paley

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Paley, William. Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature. London: R. Faulder/Philadelphia: John Morgan, 1802, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Paley, WIlliam. Natural Theology, edited by Matthew D. Eddy and David Knight. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 1.