CHAPTER XXII. 



THE DOCTEINE OF PEOGBESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 



ONE important object of this treatise, as doubtless has been 

 observed, is to exhibit the connection of nature with her in- 

 terior, producing Cause, and pervading Life-force. The reader 

 who has attentively followed us in the previous discussions 

 having a bearing upon this subject, has observed that our 

 philosophy has uniformly tended to the idea of an intelligent, 

 voluntative DIVINE AGENCY, as concerned in the origin and 

 government of the outer system of things. But as our object 

 should be to discover truth for the sake of truth, irrespective 

 of its character or consequences, it would be manifestly in- 

 consistent to ignore any facts or manifest principles of nature 

 which have been thought by any party in philosophy to 

 militate against conclusions such as those exhibited in our 

 previous reasonings. As the next natural step t beyond the 

 foregoing investigations, therefore, we proceed to briefly 

 notice the merits of a pending controversy, embracing, sub- 

 stantially, the questions, whether the system of nature is the 

 result of the operation of an inherent force or law of progressive 

 development ? or whether it is the result of a series of special 

 and independent exertions of Divine Power, with little or nn 

 regard to law ? Though these questions suggest two opposite 

 views, neither of which we are able to adopt without some 

 important qualifications, it is proper that they should here be 

 exhibited, together with the main features of the discussions 



