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Full Idea
Many worlds might have been botched and bungled, throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out; many fruitless trials made, and a slow but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making.
Gist of Idea
This excellent world may be the result of a huge sequence of trial-and-error
Source
David Hume (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [1751], Part 5)
Book Ref
'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.106
A Reaction
Lee Smolin, a modern cosmographer, suggests that this evolution may have led to the current universe, after a long train of selective creations. The idea of natural selection was waiting to happen in 1760.