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MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER IX 



MAN IN NATURE 



FEW words arc used among us more loosely than 

 nature. Sometimes it stands for the material uni 

 verse as a whole. Sometimes it is personified as a 

 sort of goddess, working her o\vn sweet will with 

 material things. Sometimes it expresses the forces 

 which act on matter, and again it stands for material 

 things themselves. It is spoken of as subject to law, 

 but just as often natural law is referred to in terms 

 which imply that nature itself is the lawgiver. It is 

 supposed to be opposed to the equally vague term 

 supernatural ; but this term is used not merely to 

 denote things above and beyond nature, if there are 

 such, but certain opinions held respecting natural 

 things. On the other hand, the natural is contrasted 

 with the artificial, though this is always the outcome 

 of natural powers and is certainly not supernatural. 

 Again, it is applied to the inherent properties of beings 

 for which we are unable to account, and which we are 

 content to say constitute their nature. We cannot 

 look into the works of any of the more speculative 

 1 The substance of this chapter was first published in the Princeton 

 Review* 



