388 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. iil 



such as the firing of a pistol, the antecedent resembles the 

 consequent, since both are physical events. When an in- 

 tellectual event, such as the rising into consciousness of the 

 idea of Hamlet, is followed by another intellectual event, 

 such as the ideal representation of a crowded theatre, the 

 antecedent resembles the consequent, since both are intel- 

 lectual events. When a moral event, such as a fit of un- 

 governable passion, is followed by another moral event, such 

 as a bitter sense of remorse, the antecedent is like the 

 consequent, since both are moral events. Therefore the 

 primal Cause, antecedent to the whole compound series of 

 intellectual and moral events, must be intellectual and 

 moral in its nature. 



Underneath this whole argument there lies an ill-concealed 

 petitio principii. Three parallel lines of causal sequence 

 being set up, it is unwarrantably assumed that causal rela- 

 tions hold only between the successive members of each 

 separate series, or in other words, that there are no causal 

 relations between the members of one series and the members 

 of another. A single instance of causal relation between a 

 material event and an intellectual or emotional event — 

 such as the relation between certain atmospheric undulations 

 communicated from violin -strings to the auditory nerve, and 

 the consequent recognition of the triad of A- minor, with 

 the accompanying pleasurable feeling — is fatal to the argu- 

 ment. Waiving this objection, however, and for the moment 

 admitting that the universe, as containing intellectual and 

 moral phenomena, requires an intellectual and moral Cause ; 

 we may note that the argument proves altogether too much. 

 Since the universe contains material, as well as psychical 

 phenomena, its First Cause, according to Mr. Adam's argu- 

 ment, must partake of all the differential qualities of those 

 phenomena. If it reasons and wills, like the higher animals, 

 it must also, like minerals, plants, and the lowest animals, be 

 unintelligent and unendowed with the power of volition,— 



