THE MISSING FACTOR IN CURRENT THE^ilES. 25 



elation of self-will. To this extent the general cosmic 

 process begins to be checked by a rudimentary ethical 

 process, which is, strictly speaking, part of the former, 

 just as the 'governor' in a steam-engine is part of 

 the mechanism of the engine." 1 



Here the whole position is virtually conceded ; and 

 only the pre-conceptions of Darwinism and the lack 

 of a complete investigation into the nature and extent 

 of the " rudimentary ethical process " can have pre- 

 vailed in the face of such an admission. Follow out 

 the metaphor of the " governor," and, with one im- 

 portant modification, the true situation almost stands 

 disclosed. For what appears to be the " governor " in 

 the rudimentary ethical process becomes the " steam- 

 engine " in the later process. The mere fact that it 

 exists in the "general cosmic process" alters the 

 quality of that process ; and the fact that, as we hope 

 to show, it becomes the prime mover in the later 

 process, entirely changes our subsequent conception of 

 it. The beginning of a process is to be read from the 

 end and not from the beginning. And if even a rudi- 

 ment of a moral order be found in the beginnings of 

 this process it relates itself and that process to a final 

 end and a final unity. 



Philosophy reads end into the earlier process by a 

 necessity of reason. But how much stronger its posi- 

 tion if it could add to that a basis in the facts of 

 Nature ? "I ask the evolutionist," pertinently in- 

 quires Mr. Huxley's critic, who has no other basis 

 than the Struggle for existence how he accounts for 

 the intrusion of these moral ideas and standards 

 which presume to interfere with the cosmic process 

 Evolution and Ethics, note 19. 



