Chauncey Wright. 97 



yet, if ouv words are rightly weighed, this does 

 not imply a striving after "systematic omnis- 

 cience," nor can any theistic conception which 

 confines itself within these limits of inference be 

 properly stigmatized as contrary to the spirit of 

 science. 



One of the most marked features of Mr. 

 Wright's style of thinking was his insuperable 

 aversion to all forms of teleology. As an able 

 critic in " The Nation " observes, to Mr. Wright 

 " such ideas as optimism or pessimism were alike 

 irrelevant. Whereas most men's interest in a 

 thought is proportional to its possible relation to 

 human destiny, with him it was almost the re- 

 verse." But the antagonism went even deeper 

 than this. Not only did he condemn the shallow 

 teleology of Paley and the Biidgewater Treatises, 

 but any theory which seemed to imply a discern- 

 ible direction or tendency in the career of the 

 universe became to him at once an object of sus- 

 picion. As he was inclined to doubt or deny any 

 ultimate coherency among cosmical events, he 

 was of course indisposed to admit that such events 

 are working together toward any assignable re- 

 sult whatever. From his peculiar point of view 

 it seemed more appropriate to look upon phe- 

 nomena as drifting and eddying about in an 



