148 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



on mechanical principles. Granted the existence of 

 matter, he felt capable of tracing the cosmic evolu- 

 tion, but at the same time he maintained and strength- 

 ened his religious position, and did not assume (like 

 Democritus and Epicurus) eternal motion without a 

 Creator or the coming together of atoms by accident 

 or haphazard. 



It might be objected, he says, that Nature is suffi- 

 cient unto itself; but universal laws of the action of 

 matter serve the plan of the Supreme Wisdom. There 

 is convincing proof of the existence of God in the 

 very fact that Nature, even in chaos, cannot proceed 

 otherwise than regularly and according to law. Even 

 in the essential properties of the elements that consti- 

 tuted the chaos, there could be traced the mark of 

 that perfection which they have derived from their 

 origin, their essential character being a consequence 

 of the eternal idea of the Divine Intelligence. Mat- 

 ter, which appears to be merely passive and wanting 

 in form and arrangement, has in its simplest state a 

 tendency to fashion itself by a natural development 

 into a more perfect constitution. Matter must be con- 

 sidered as created by God in accordance with law and 

 as ever obedient to law, not as an independent or hos- 

 tile force needing occasional correction. To suppose 

 the material world not under law would be to believe 

 in a blind fate rather than in Providence. It is Nature's 

 harmony and order revealed to our understanding that 

 give us a clue to its creation by an understanding of 

 the highest order. 



In a work written eight years later Kant sought to 

 furnish people of ordinary intelligence with a proof 

 of the existence of God. It might seem irrelevant in 



