194 



Contemporary Evolution. 



up and included within a larger one, which will then 

 assume the part of " form " to the " matter " provided 

 for us by Mr. Spencer. 



Mr. Spencer's law is, that everything in the material 

 universe is proceeding from an indefinite, incoherent ho- 

 mogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity. But he 

 supplies us with no explanatory basis for this law. We 

 can see, by his system, neither its origin, its ultimate 

 future, nor the principle of its continuity. Our philo- 

 sophy, however, shows us (by means of our self-conscious 

 substantial Ego, endowed with the power of knowing 

 objective truth) a necessary First Cause which amongst 

 its attributes must have an intelligence and a will, such 

 as find their faint and inadequate type in the corre- 

 sponding faculties of the human soul. Such a Cause, as 

 intelligent, cannot be self-contradictory, and hence neces- 

 sarily follows the continuity of cosmical evolution. It 

 must, as Will, have such an intensity of " purpose," that 

 no human purpose can be comparable with it. " Hence 

 necessarily follows 'final causality' the enchainment t)f 

 all phenomena and their adaptation to ends in a heri- 

 archy of augmenting activities, from celestial revolutions 

 and the attractions and cohesions of sidereal masses, 

 through vegetative life and animal sentiency up to 

 self-consciousness and free volition ; so that, from king- 

 dom to kingdom, the creation may rise towards an 

 ideal by successively higher degrees of participation in 



