MR. MARTINEAU ON EVOLUTION. 319 



This seems to be an unmistakable assertion that, whenever evolution 

 is going on, mind is then and there behind it. At the close of the argu- 

 ment, however, a quite different conception is implied. Mr. Martineau 



says : 



" If the Divine Idea will not retire at the bidding of our speculative science, 

 but retain its place, it is natural to ask, What is its relation to the series of so- 

 called Forces in the world? But the question is too large and deep to be 

 answered here. Let it suffice to say, that there need not be any overruling of 

 these forces by the Will of God, so that the supernatural should disturb the 

 natural ; or any supplementing of them, so that He should fill up their deficien- 

 cies. Rather is His thought related to them as, in Man, the mental force is 

 related to all below it." 



It would take too much space to deal fully with the various ques- 

 tions which this passage raises. There is the question, Whence come 

 these " Forces," spoken of as separate from the " Will of God " did 

 they preexist ? Then what becomes of the divine power ? Do they exist 

 by the divine Will? Then what kind of nature is that by which they 

 act on the divine Will ? Again, there is the question, how do these 

 deputy-forces cooperate in each particular phenomenon, if the presid- 

 ing Will is not there present to control them ? Either an organ which 

 develops into fitness for its function, develops by the cooperation of 

 these forces only under the direction of Mind there present, or they do 

 it in the absence of Mind ? If they do it in the absence of Mind, the 

 hypothesis is given up ; and if the " originating mind " is required to 

 be then and there present, it must be regarded as universally present. 

 Once more there is the question, If " His thought " is related to them 

 [these forces] as, in Man, the mental force is related to all below it, 

 how can " His thought " be regarded as the cause of evolution ? In 

 man the mental force is related to the forces below it neither as a creator 

 of them, nor as a regulator of them, save in a very limited way : the 

 greater part of the forces present in man, both structural and function- 

 al, defy the mental force absolutely. Not dwelling on these questions, 

 however, it will suffice to point out the entire incongruity of this 

 conception with the previous conception which I have quoted. Assum- 

 ing that, when the choice is pressed on him, Mr. Martineau will choose 

 the first, which alone has any thing like defensibility, let us go on to ask 

 how far Evolution is made comprehensible by postulating Mind, uni- 

 versally immanent, as its cause. 



In metaphysical controversy, many of the propositions propounded 

 and accepted as quite believable are absolutely inconceivable. There 

 is a perpetual confusing of actual ideas with what are nothing but 

 pseud-ideas. No distinction is made between propositions that contain 

 real thoughts, and propositions that are only the forms of thoughts. 

 A thinkable proposition is one of which the two terms can be brought 

 together in consciousness under the relation said to exist between 



