358 LESSONS FEOM NATUEE. [CHAP. XII. 



by something external to them ; i.e., by something dis 

 tinct from the phenomenal series itself. But if the phe 

 nomenal universe be eternal, this cause must also be 

 eternal. It must be absolute, as the cause of everything 

 phenomenal and relative. It must be orderly and intelligent, 

 as the first and absolute cause of an orderly series of phe 

 nomena which reveals to us an objective intelligence in the 

 Bee and the Ant, which is not that of the animals them 

 selves, and which harmonizes with and is recognised by our 

 own intellect. It must be adequate to produce all the phe 

 nomena which our powers of observation and introspection 

 tell us have been produced, such as power, intelligence, 

 morality, and will. We thus, as it seems, arrive necessarily 

 at the conception of an absolute First Cause, and an accept 

 ance of that conception as a truth demonstrated to us by 

 Reason. But an absolute First Cause, which amongst its 

 attributes has power, intelligence, goodness, and volition, 

 such as find their faint and inadequate types in our own 

 faculties, necessarily involves another and second kind of 

 causation. It must, as &quot;Will,&quot; have such an intensity of 

 &quot; purpose &quot; that no human purpose can be comparable with 

 Together it. Hence necessarily follows the second kind of 



with final . i /? 7 7 / 



causation. causation just referred to, namely, final causality 

 the enchainment of all phenomena and their adapta 

 tion to ends in a hierarchy of augmenting activities from 

 celestial revolutions and the attractions and cohesions of 

 sidereal masses through vegetable life and animal sen- 

 tiency up to self-consciousness and free volition ; so that 

 from kingdom to kingdom (mineral, vegetable, animal and 

 rational) the creation may rise towards an ideal, by suc 

 cessively higher degrees of participation in the perfection of 

 the First Cause itself. 



Whether this teleological conception, this idea of final 

 causation, can be gathered from mere irrational nature 

 directly or not, it can most certainly be obtained from a 

 consideration of nature in its broadest sense nature of 

 \\hich our own self-consciousness forms a part. This, then, 



