vi. j CHAUNCEY WRIGHT. 101 



necessary, universal, and perpetual, but always as 

 a contingent, local, and temporary phenomenon. 



But what better phrase could we desire than " cos- 

 mical weather " whereby tersely to describe the end- 

 lessly diversified and apparently capricious course of 

 Nature as it is thus set forth in the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion ? As the wind bloweth where it listeth, but we 

 know not whence it came, nor whither it goes, so in 

 the local condensations and rarefactions of cosmical 

 matter which make up the giant careers of stellar 

 systems we can detect neither source nor direction. 

 Not only is there no reference to any end which 

 humanity can recognise as good or evil, but there 

 is not the slightest indication of dramatic pro- 

 gress toward any dfrwtiment whatever. There is 

 simply the never-ending onward rush of events, 

 as undiscriminating, as ruthless, as irresistible as 

 the current of Niagara or the blast of the tropical 

 hurricane. 



This is a picture which ought to satisfy the most 

 inexorable opponent of teleology. For my own part, 

 I can see nothing very attractive in it, even from a 

 purely speculative point of view, though it is as 

 striking a statement as can well be made of the 

 meagreness of our knowledge when confronted with 

 the immensity of Nature. The phrase " cosmical 



