204 THE METAPHYSICS OF EVOLUTION. 



that could minister to the conceit of anthropocentric 

 teleology. On the contrary, we shall be disposed 

 to hold rather that the spiritual value of human 

 existence is no greater in the spiritual cosmos, than 

 is the physical imp07'tance of our earth in the 

 sidereal universe. 



And yet there is a grain of truth even in anthro- 

 pocentric teleology. For after all, man is the 

 highest of the beings we know, and the most highly 

 evolved, and so the nearest to the end of things, 

 and hence in a way entitled to regard the other 

 beings he knows, representing lower phases in the 

 process of Evolution, as means to his ends. 



And this teleology is not only true and inevitable, 

 but in no wise conflicts with the principle of scien- 

 tific mechanism. For it does not supersede, but 

 supplement it ; it permits, nay, requires, science to 

 carry its mechanical explanation to the furthest 

 possible point, because it desires to know the whole 

 mechanis7n of the teleology^ and because it is confi- 

 dent that only so it most easily and most clearly 

 displays the whole extent of the essential limitation 

 and insufficiency of the mechanical explanation. It 

 is only when the explanation of *' unmetaphysical " 

 science has reached the limit of its tether and ended 

 in perplexity, that the consciously metaphysical 

 explanation of teleology steps in and reinterprets 

 the facts in their proper order. But any attempt 

 to introduce teleological points of view in the 

 purely scientific explanation of things must be 

 resisted as fatal to the true interests both of science 

 and of philosophy. 



And in its reinterpretation of the scientific facts 

 teleology again comes into no conflict with mech- 

 anism. For It Is guided by the data amassed 



