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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Failed to understand "I should hardly think of the answer"
The answer is that a watch must have a maker or makers. It is an answer easy enough to think of. Now the author says "I should hardly think of the answer"? What is so hard?
Context:
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever. Nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer, which I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there . . . 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 compre-hended its construction, and designed its use. . .
Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in
the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a
1 degree which exceeds all computation.
Context:
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever. Nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer, which I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there . . . 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 compre-hended its construction, and designed its use. . .
Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in
the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a
1 degree which exceeds all computation.
Top answer
I should hardly think of the answer ... that .... the watch might have always been there.
- I should hardly think of the answer ...
- that ....
- the watch might have always been there.
- He would be very unlikely to consider that as an answer.
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6 Answers
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I should hardly think of the answer ... that .... the watch might have always been there.
He would be very unlikely to consider that as an answer.
He would be very unlikely to consider that as an answer.
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NL888 ... were asked how the stone came to be there ...... were I asked how the stone came to be there ...
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Thank you guys.
I find hard to grasp the meaning of "who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer" in that context. "we find it actually to answer"? What purpose? Is the purpose to leave it in the heath for us to guess?
I find hard to grasp the meaning of "who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer" in that context. "we find it actually to answer"? What purpose? Is the purpose to leave it in the heath for us to guess?
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NL888I find hard to grasp the meaning of "who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer" in that context. "we find it actually to answer"? What purpose? Is the purpose to leave it in the heath for us to guess?No, the purpose is the usual purpose of a watch, which is to tell the time.
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Why not just has used "which is to tell the time"? Instead, the author used "which we find it actually to answer" - which creates a mysterious atmosphere that is not necessary.
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NL888Why not just has used "which is to tell the time"? Instead, the author used "which we find it actually to answer" - which creates a mysterious atmosphere that is not necessary.The whole passage is written in flowery style that seems rather old-fashioned to us now. I see it was actually written over 200 years ago. It is less likely that a modern author wo
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