54 Life and Matter [chap, m 



no special purpose to be traced in it, there seems 

 to be no alternative but to leave everything to 

 1 blind chance.* 



" One group of philosophers affirms, in accord- 

 ance with its teleological conception, that the whole 

 cosmos is an orderly system, in which every 

 phenomenon has its aim and purpose ; there is no 

 such thing as chance. The other group, holding 

 a mechanical theory, expresses itself thus : The 

 development of the universe is a monistic 

 mechanical process, in which we discover no aim 

 or purpose whatever ; what we call design in the 

 organic world is a special result of biological 

 agencies ; neither in the evolution of the heavenly 

 bodies nor in that of the crust of our earth do we 

 find any trace of a controlling purpose all is the 

 result of chance. Each party is right according 

 to its definition of chance. The general law of 

 causality, taken in conjunction with the law of 

 substance, teaches us that every phenomenon has 

 a mechanical cause ; in this sense there is no such 

 thing as chance. Yet it is not only lawful, but 

 necessary, to retain the term for the purpose of 

 expressing the simultaneous occurrence of two 

 phenomena, which are not causally related to each 

 other, but of which each has its own mechanical 

 cause, independent of that of the other. 



" Everybody knows that chance, in this monistic 

 sense, plays an important part in the life of man 

 and in the universe at large. That, however, does 

 not prevent us from recognising in each c chance ' 

 event, as we do in the evolution of the entire 



