1892 FORECAST OF THE ROMANES LECTURE 219 



seems to me far more important than all the theorems of 

 speculative theology. If, further, the doctrine is held to 

 imply that, in some indefinitely remote past aeon, the 

 cosmic process was set going by some entity possessed of 

 intelligence and foresight, similar to our own in kind, 

 however superior in degree, if, consequently, it is held 

 that every event, not merely in our planetary speck, but 

 in untold millions of other worlds, was foreknown before 

 these worlds were, scientific thought, so far as I know 

 anything about it, has nothing to say against that 

 hypothesis. It is, in fact, an anthropomorphic rendering 

 of the doctrine of evolution. 



It may be so, but the evidence accessible to us is, to 

 my mind, wholly insufficient to warrant either a positive 

 or a negative conclusion. 



He remarks in passing upon the entire exclusion of 

 "special" providences by this conception of a universal 

 " Providence." As for " moral " providence : — 



So far as mankind has acquired the conviction that 

 the observance of certain rules of conduct is essential to 

 the maintenance of social existence, it may be proper to 

 say that " Providence," operating through men, has 

 generated morality. Within the limits of a fraction of a 

 fraction of the living world, therefore, there is a " moral " 

 providence. Through this small plot of an infinitesimal 

 fragment of the universe there runs a " stream of tendency 

 towards righteousness." But outside the very rudimentary 

 germ of a garden of Eden, thus watered, I am unable to 

 discover any " moral " purpose, or anything but a stream 

 of purpose towards the consummation of the cosmic 

 process, chiefly by means of the struggle for existence, 

 which is no more righteous or unrighteous than the 

 operation of any other mechanism. 



This, of course, is the underlying principle of the 



