CHAP. XXII.] CONSTITUTION OF THE INTELLECT. 399 



CHAPTER XXII. 



ON THE NATURE OF SCIENCE, AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 

 INTELLECT. 



.! T.TTHAT I mean by the constitution of a system is the 

 ^ * aggregate of those causes and tendencies which pro- 

 duce its observed character, when operating, without interference, 

 under those conditions to which the system is conceived to be 

 adapted. Our judgment of such adaptation must be founded 

 upon a study of the circumstances in which the system attains its 

 freest action, produces its most harmonious results, -or fulfils in 

 some other way the apparent design of its construction. There 

 are cases in which we know distinctly the causes upon which the 

 operation of a system depends, as well as its conditions and its 

 end. This is the most perfect kind of knowledge relatively to 

 the subject under consideration. There are also cases in which 

 we know only imperfectly or partially the causes which are at 

 work, but are able, nevertheless, to determine to some extent 

 the laws of their action, and, beyond this, to discover general 

 tendencies, and to infer ulterior purpose. It has thus, I think 

 rightly, been concluded that there is a moral faculty in our na- 

 ture, not because we can understand the special instruments by 

 which it works, as we connect the organ with the faculty of sight, 

 nor upon the ground that men agree in the adoption of universal 

 rules of conduct ; but because while, in some form or other, the 

 sentiment of moral approbation or disapprobation manifests itself 

 in all, it tends, wherever human progress is observable, wherever 

 society is not either stationary or hastening to decay, to attach 

 itself to certain classes of actions, consentaneously, and after a 

 manner indicative both of permanency and of law. Always and 

 everywhere the manifestation of Order affords a presumption, not 

 measurable indeed, but real (XX. 22), of the fulfilment of an end 

 or purpose-, and the existence of a ground of orderly causation. 



