234 E VOL U TION A ND D OGMA . 



accustomed to regard as most free and independent, 

 the expressions of the human will, appear as subject 

 to fixed laws as any other natural phenomenon. In- 

 deed, each unprejudiced and searching test applied 

 to the action of our free will, shows that the latter is 

 never really free, but is always determined by pre- 

 vious causal conditions, which are eventually refera- 

 ble either to heredity or to adaptation. Accordingly, 

 we cannot assent to the popular distinction between 

 nature and spirit. Spirit exists everywhere in nature, 

 and we know of no spirit outside of nature." Else- 

 where, he tells us that " unitary philosophy, or Mon- 

 ism, is neither extremely materialistic, nor extremely 

 spiritualistic, but resembles rather a union and com- 

 bination of these opposed principles, in that it con- 

 ceives all nature as one whole, and nowhere recog- 

 nizes any but mechanical causes. Binary philosophy, 

 on the other hand, or Dualism, regards nature and 

 spirit, matter and force, inorganic and organic na- 

 ture, as distinct and independent existences." ' 



Again, he assures us that the theory of develop- 

 ment of Darwin must, " if carried out logically, lead 

 us to the monistic, or mechanical, causal, conception 

 of the universe. In opposition to the dualistic, or 

 teleological conception of nature, our theory con- 

 siders organic, as well as inorganic bodies, to be the 

 necessary products of natural forces. It does not 

 see in every species of animal and plant the em- 

 bodied thought of a personal Creator, but the ex- 

 pression, for the time being, of a necessarily active 

 cause, that is, of a mechanical cause, causa efficiens. 



1 Op. cit, vol. II, p 461. 



