The Theory of Sexual Selection. 413 



done nothing in the way of negativing that belief in a 

 Supreme Being which it was the object of these 

 authors to substantiate. If it has demonstrated the 

 futility of their proof, it has furnished nothing in the 

 way of disproof. It has shown, indeed, that their line 

 of argument was misjudged when they thus sought 

 to separate organic nature from inorganic as a theatre 

 for the special or peculiar display of supernatural 

 design ; but further than this it has not shown anything. 

 The change in question therefore, although greater in 

 degree, is the same in kind as all its predecessors : like 

 all previous advances in cosmological theory which 

 have been wrought by the advance of science, this 

 latest and greatest advance has been that of revealing 

 the constitution of nature, or the method of causation, 

 as everywhere the same. But it is evident that this 

 change, vast and to all appearance final though it be, 

 must end within the limits of natural causation itself. 

 The whole world of life and mind may now have been 

 annexed to that of matter and energy as together 

 constituting one magnificent dominion, which is 

 everywhere subject to the same rule, or method of 

 government. But the ulterior and ultimate question 

 touching the nature of this government as mental or 

 non-mental, personal or impersonal, remains exactly 

 where it was. Indeed, this is a question which cannot 

 be affected by any advance of science, further than 

 science has proved herself able to dispose of erroneous 

 arguments based upon ignorance of nature. For while 

 the sphere of science is necessarily restricted to that 

 of natural causation which it is her office to explore, 

 the question touching the nature of this natural 

 causation is one which as necessarily lies without the 



