rm COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pi. in 



tongue — hy calling an effect a cause. Any combination 

 of laws would produce its own proper results : hence under 

 any constitution of the universe, good or bad, possible or 

 impossible, as it may seem to us, it would always be true 

 that 'whatever is, is right.' To give an instance — the 

 particular laws of our present universe bring about night, 

 they also cause the phenomenon sleep in animated creatures : 

 these two naturally suit each other, being different results of 

 the same laws — just as any two propositions in Euclid agree 

 together. But to say that either is the final cause of the 

 other is to transfer an idea derived from one part of ourselves, 

 our motives to action, to an entirely different part of our- 

 selves, our primary laws of sensation. The earth is suited to 

 its inhabitants because it has produced them, and only such as 

 suit it live." ^ This last statement, which I have italicized, is 

 the triumphant answer with which science meets the challenge 

 of natural theology. It is not that the environment has 

 been adapted to the organism by an exercise of creative 

 intelligence and beneficence, but it is that the organism is 

 necessarily fitted to the environment because the fittest 

 survive. In no way can the contrast between theology and 

 science, between Anthropomorphism and Cosmism, be more 

 clearly illustrated than in this antithesis. Let us now pursue 

 the argument somewhat farther into detail, but slightly 

 changing for a moment the point of view, in order that we 

 may not only show the superiority of the scientific explana- 

 tion, but may also show how the anthropomorphic theory 

 finds its apparent justification. A theory may be shattered 

 by refutation ; but in order to demolish it utterly it must be 

 accounted for. We shall see that from the very constitution 

 of the human mind, and by reason of the process whereby 

 intelligence has arisen, we are likely everywhere to meet 

 with apparent results of creative forethought ; and that thiu 

 * Physical Ethics, p. 83. 



