CHAPTER XVI 



SECONDARY CAUSES 



BUT granted, what perhaps no one seriously disputes, 

 that evolution is due to intelligent design, the diffi- 

 cult question arises : Has all been brought about by 

 unalterable secondary laws, imposed on matter at the 

 creation of the universe ? Or can we recognise any 

 evidence of guidance in a particular direction , without 

 which the design would have failed? 



When we think of the whole work that has been 

 accomplished by evolution, we are overwhelmed by 

 its vastness. The results of organic evolution , par- 

 ticularly, are so marvellous, that, to our limited in- 

 telligence, the forces to which they are due seem to 

 have been constantly directed in their course. The 

 human mind is more disposed to accept the idea of 

 guidance than that of predetermination, as it seems 

 to us to be the less impossible of the two, and the 

 more easy to understand. We ourselves wait upon 

 circumstances, see how things are going to shape 

 before we move, and we fancy that the world must 

 have been made, and must be carried on, on the 

 same principle. But the study of nature gradually 

 causes this belief to fade away. The more we learn, 

 the more we see that secondary law extends much 



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