THE MECHANISM OF NATURE 289 



should be any the less real or any the less valuable even if a skil- 

 ful physiologist should some time succeed in imitating all the 

 manifestations of rational life by playing on a human brain with 

 electrodes. 



Knowledge of nature corrects our judgment by showing us 

 the conditions under which it is trustworthy, and by revealing 

 errors which rest upon imperfect experience ; but I cannot con- 

 ceive how any one should suppose that this fact has any bearing 

 upon the reality or the value of reason. 



Centuries of discussion warn us that the establishment of 

 mechanical explanations of the phenomena of human life would, 

 in the opinion of many, destroy volition, and right and wrong, 

 and duty, and moral responsibility ; and while I do not suppose 

 my own inability to see why any of these dreadful things should 

 happen will count for much, this inability is real. 



So far as I can see, the reduction of all nature to mechanical 

 principles would mean nothing more than that all the phenomena 

 of nature are orderly and such as might have been expected; 

 and I am quite unable to discover what bearing the fact that 

 an event may be counted on with confidence has on the ques- 

 tion whether it is "necessary" or "spontaneous," for the dis- 

 covery that phenomena are orderly tells us nothing about their 

 origin. 



I cannot see, for example, how the man who is unstable in 

 all his ways furnishes any better evidence of freedom than the 

 man who may be counted on with confidence ; nor can I see 

 how the vagaries of a lunatic give better proof of moral accounta- 

 bility than the actions of the man who does what all his fellow- 

 men expect from him. 



In a word, I do not see why the ultimate establishment of a 

 mechanical explanation of all the phenomena of nature should 

 destroy or set aside any one thing we know now. 



"The notions of guilt and merit, justice and reward, are in 

 the minds of men antecedent to all metaphysical disquisitions ; 

 and according to these received notions, it is not doubted that 

 man is accountable." 



Huxley, who like Sir Isaac Newton tells us that he lives in 

 the hope that all the phenomena of nature will be reduced to 



