60 Some Wayside Problems 



logical Universal Cause and to materialism, and I hope 

 thereby to have cleared the way for this doctrine, the 

 importance of which it is scarcely possible to over- 

 estimate. Many, and not the most ill-formed, do not 

 get so far as to make an unbiassed examination into the 

 facts, because they are at the outset alarmed by the, to 

 them, inevitable consequences of the materialistic con- 

 ception of the universe. Mechanism and teleology do not 

 exclude one another, they are rather in mutual agreement. 

 Without teleology there would be no mechanism, but 

 only a confusion of crude forces; and without mechanism 

 there would be no teleology, for how could the latter 

 otherwise effect its purpose. 



It is well to insist on this truth, obvious though it be. 

 Scientists too often are so overcome by the wonders they 

 meet in nature as to make the mechanism itself the 

 object of their homage. But this, under the style and 

 title of science, is thinly disguised Fetishism. The idea 

 of mechanism is altogether unmeaning, without that of 

 the end which it subserves, and of the Designer who 

 contrived it, and it is to Him that the universe bears 

 witness. 



These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good, 



Almighty ; Thine this universal frame 



Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous then ! 



