ix LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 218 



of nature, are another thing, given or added to matter, or else 

 its necessary properties, and that mind is yet another thing, 

 either a product of this matter and its supposed inherent 

 forces, or distinct from and co- existent with it; and to be 

 able to substitute for this complicated theory, which leads to 

 endless dilemmas and contradictions, the far simpler and 

 more consistent belief, that matter, as an entity distinct from 

 force, does not exist ; and that FORCE is a product of MIND. 

 Philosophy had long demonstrated our incapacity to prove 

 the existence of matter, as usually conceived ; while it ad- 

 mitted the demonstration to each of us of our own self-con- 

 scious, spiritual existence. Science has now worked its way 

 up to the same result, and this agreement between them 

 should give us some confidence in their combined teaching. 



The view we have now arrived at seems to me more grand 

 and sublime, as well as far simpler, than any other. It ex- 

 hibits the universe as a universe of intelligence and will- 

 power ; and by enabling us to rid ourselves of the impossi- 

 bility of thinking of mind, but as connected with our old 

 notions of matter, opens up infinite possibilities of existence, 

 connected with infinitely varied manifestations of force, totally 

 distinct from, yet as real as, what we term matter. 



The grand law of continuity which we see pervading our 

 universe would lead us to infer infinite gradations of existence, 

 and to people all space with intelligence and will-power ; and, 

 if so, we shall have no difficulty in believing that for so noble 

 a purpose as the progressive development of higher and higher 

 intelligences, those primal and general will-forces, which have 

 sufficed for the production of the lower animals, should have 

 been guided into new channels and made to converge in 

 definite directions. And if, as seems to me probable, this 

 has been done, I cannot admit that it in any degree affects 

 the truth or generality of Mr. Darwin's great discovery. It 

 merely shows that the laws of organic development have 

 been occasionally used for a special end, just as man uses 

 them for his special ends ; and I do not see that the law 

 of natural selection can be said to be disproved, if it can 

 be shown that man does not owe his entire physical and 

 mental development to its unaided action, any more than 

 it is disproved by the existence of the poodle or the pouter 



