The Universe. 41 



thing shall be neither the laws of nature nor the 

 imagination of man can foretell. Whether a fond 

 father shall have a son or a daughter is solely a 

 matter of chance. This absence of causal intention 

 in natural fundamentals is the position which the 

 New Materialism assumes and maintains ; while it 

 practically constitutes the chief bone of contention 

 between past and present philosophy and science. 

 Thus the orthodox, on the one hand, strive to show 

 by mere assumption, that the universe has been made 

 and sustained in its transformations by a Creator ; 

 while the evolutionist affirms from evidence — the only 

 truth-finder — that the eternally transitional condition 

 of things is solely owing to the accidental working of 

 fixed laws in eternally moving substance. The lives 

 of conscious and intelligent organisms are indeed per- 

 meated by intentional as well as by accidental inci- 

 dents ; but the eternal duration of an eternal existence 

 represents in its daily fruition only the chance outcome 

 of unguided (yet not erratic) automatic laws. Whether 

 arguments resting on assumption or on evidence 

 shall ultimately prevail in this enlightened age is not 

 open to question. 



The preliminary principles of natural causation are 

 thus as follows : — 



(1) Nothing happens without a physical cause, 

 though not necessarily an intentional cause. 



(2) Every occurrence or consequent is preceded by 

 a physical cause or antecedent condition and occur- 

 rence, or series of conditions and occurrences, from 



