"The more man inquires into the laws which regulate the material universe, the more he is convinced that all its varied forms arise from the action of a few simple principles. These principles themselves converge, with accelerating force, towards some still more comprehensive law to which all matter seems to be submitted. Simple as that law may possibly be, it must be remembered that it is only one amongst an infinite number of simple laws: that each of these laws has consequences at least as extensive as the existing one, and therefore that the Creator who selected the present law must have foreseen the consequences of all other laws."
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Charles Babbage, "The Belief In The Creator From His Works" Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) p. 402
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_science
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History of science
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