368 THE LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION 



automatic organisms. If this were so, our apparent 

 WILL would be a delusion, and Professor Huxley's be- 

 lief " that our volition counts for something as a con- 

 dition of the course of events," would be fallacious, 

 since our volition would then be but one link in the 

 chain of events, counting for neither more nor less 

 than any other link whatever. 



If, therefore, we have traced one force, however mi- 

 nute, to an origin in our own WILL, while we have no 

 knowledge of any other primary cause of force, it does 

 not seem an improbable conclusion that all force may 

 be will-force ; and thus, that the whole universe, is not 

 merely dependent on, but actually is, the WILL of higher 

 intelligences or of one Supreme Intelligence. It has 

 been often said that the true poet is a seer : and in the 

 noble verse of an American poetess, we find expressed, 

 what may prove to be the highest fact of science, the 

 noblest truth of philosophy : 



God of the Granite and the Rose ! 



Soul of the Sparrow and the Bee ! 

 The mighty tide of Being flows 



Through countless channels, Lord, from thee. 

 It leaps to life in grass and flowers, 



Through every grade of being runs, 

 While from Creation's radiant towers 



Its glory flames in Stars and Suns. 



Conclusion. 



These speculations are usually held to be far beyond 

 the bounds of science ; but they appear to me to be 

 more legitimate deductions from the facts of science, 



