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 " cosmical 

 weather." 



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 



