Chauncey Wright. 99 



Wright primd facie evidence of its unscientific 

 character. The events of the universe have no 

 orderly progression like the scenes of a well-con 

 structed plot, but in the manner of their coming 

 and going they constitute simply a &quot; cosmical 

 \veather.&quot; 



Without pausing over the question whether 

 dramatic completeness belongs properly to meta 

 physical theories only, or may sometimes also be 

 found in doctrines that rightly lay claim to scien 

 tific competence, we may call attention to the in 

 teresting fact that Mr. Wright s objection reveals 

 a grave misunderstanding of the true import of 

 the doctrine of evolution in general, as well as of 

 the nebular hypothesis in particular. The objec 

 tion if it be admitted as an objection applies 

 only to the crude popular notion of the doctrine 

 of evolution, that it is all an affair of progress, 

 wherein a better state of things (that is, better 

 from a human point of view) keeps continually 

 supplanting a less excellent state, and so on for 

 ever, or at least without definite limit. That Mr. 

 Wright understood the doctrine in this crude way 

 was evident from the manner in which he was 

 wont to urge his anti-teleological objection both in 

 his writings and in conversation. In criticizing the 

 nebular hypothesis, for instance, he was sure to 



