THE LIMITS OF EVOLUTION 33 



of the great genera within these kingdoms. And 

 when we take the still larger view of cosmic evolu- 

 tion, this element of progression or ascent becomes 

 the central one in the conception. 



(3) Causation. — This would be better described as 

 natural causation or physical causation, in order to 

 distinguish it, by an apt term, from another element 

 which, we shall presently see, enters into evolution, 

 and which we should correspondingly name metaphys- 

 ical or supernatural^ causation. The causation we 

 are considering now is directly involved in evolution 

 by the preceding elements — Change and Progres- 

 sion. We should mean by it the Mechanism, the 

 Chemism, or the Association, involved in the changes 

 of phenomena. The habit of popular speech and 

 surface thought is to regard and describe causa- 

 tion as a process by which one phenomenon " pro- 

 duces " another. But an exacter thought states the 

 two as simply in a certain relation, the relation of 

 Cause and Effect. To such thought, causation holds 

 both in physical and psychical succession, and means 

 a peculiar connexion, or nexus, between phenomena. 



The philosophy of evolution most current, based on 

 the dogma of the sense-origin of all knowledge, and 

 on the sole and final efficiency of the method of 



1 The reader is warned that in interpreting this word in the present 

 volume, he must divest himself of ;ill its magical and ihaumaturgical 

 associations. It means nothing hut supersensible, rational, or ideal. 



U 



