262 president's address — section j. 



a unifying basis for knowledge. We must not, however, allow ourselves 

 to be led by our craving for simplicity to disregard the facts. The 

 application of a law of continuity depends on the point from which 

 we start. If we begin with a supposed matter per se, allowing no breach 

 of continuity, we shall never be able to take the fatal leap from matter 

 to mind. And this result is an absurdity, since we are already safely 

 on the further side in our knowledge of our own minds. If, again, we 

 begin with the indubitable facts of mind, the argument from unity and 

 continuity may be used in favor of idealism. 



We may at least assume that the world is an intelligible system. 

 This assumption of intelligibility is made implicitly, if not explicitly, by 

 all science and all philosophy. It is impossible, within the physical 

 sphere, to dispense with the principle of mechanical causation. But 

 it is equally impossible, when we consider the mental life of man, ta 

 ignore the presence of purposes or ends, with the choice of means for 

 their attainment. May we not, from this higher standpoint, regard 

 the mechanical system of the material world as subservient to an end ? 

 While each of us is a centre to himself, he is allied to all the world beside. 

 The animal and vegetable kingdoms are full of subtle and far-reaching 

 adaptations, which the inquiries of evolutionists have brought more 

 fully to the light. Every organism, with its end of self-conservation, 

 is allied to the environment in which it lives and from which it draws 

 its nourishment. And so the idea of purpose may be extended through- 

 out the whole region which is covered by mechanical laws, backward to 

 the nebulous mists from which our solar system and myriads of other 

 systems have evolved. If this be so, the reign of purpose does not 

 conflict with the reign of mechanical law within its proper sphere, but 

 works in and through it. We can form no adequate idea of a tree 

 unless we take into consideration its flowers and fruit ; and so, in the 

 scheme of evolution, we must dwell not only on the humblest steps in 

 the process, but still more on the highest development which within 

 our knowledge has been attained. It is folly to restrict our attention. 

 to mechanical causation, setting aside mind and its purposes as 

 secondarv or irrelevant. If we are true to ourselves we must endeavor 

 to read the meaning of the universe in the light of the highest things 

 we know, and to which the course of evolution has been tending. Thus 

 regarded it is no longer a succession of aimless changes ; it is instinct 

 with purpose, shot through and through with thought. It is impossible 

 for us, beings with thought and purpose, to find an adequate explana- 

 tion of ourselves or of the world around us in mechanical laws. 



