CONCLUSION 163 



conditions and laws of their action revealed by science, 

 we see them, in their every individual, radiant with signs 

 of mind. In themselves they are material, but on them, in 

 their form and characteristics, the image and superscrip- 

 tion of mind are unmistakably stamped, show themselves 

 not dimly, not as on a coin old and worn, but as on one 

 fresh from the mint, as on one ever new, and that never, 

 by any amount of use, loses its brilliancy or clearness of 

 outline. It is impossible therefore to ascribe them to any 

 unintelligent principle. It is impossible to find a ground 

 of their being, as they are in a blind physical necessity. 



The idea of relationship between separate entities 

 excludes the idea of necessity, and implies the operation 

 of chance or mind. A relationship is a correspondence, 

 or state of adaptation, between the qualities and powers 

 of two distinct objects. There is nothing in the idea of 

 necessity as a cause to make them correspond with each 

 other, to produce a state of adaptation between them. 

 There is nothing in the idea of necessity to create 

 relationship, or any reference to each other. Take an 

 atom of carbon and one of oxygen. Both suppose have 

 existed from eternity. They exist of themselves. It 

 cannot be said that they made themselves, but simply 

 that they exist of themselves and have their character- 

 istics of themselves, each independently of any external 

 entity. In this ground of their being there was nothing 

 necessarily making them different from each other, and 

 necessarily adapting them for each other. A blind 

 physical necessity could not, being blind, necessarily 

 establish relationship between them. If relationship 

 exist, it must on the supposition of eternity be due to 

 chance. If only a small number of atoms thus related 

 to each other existed, we might be unable to draw any 

 other conclusion. But if the relationships are so many, 



