144 Notes, i. i. 



certain inherent motor possibilities that chance can do the work of art. We may 

 suppose for instance a mechanical automaton, so constructed that on touching a spring 

 and starting the action, a series of connected motions shall ensue, leading to some pre- 

 arranged result. Now chance could never make such an automaton as this ; but when 

 such has been made by art, we can readily understand how chance might occasionally 

 touch the spring, and the series of motions ensue with their fixed result : irav ipxh 

 yfVTjTM Kivf)(rfUi, &ffirfp iv toIs avrondrois daifiatri, ffvyfiperai rh f<pe^7js {D. G. ii. 5» 9). 

 Now in every living organism analogous sequences of concatenated motions are present ; 

 established either by nature or by habit (De Mem. 2, i6), which is but a second nature, in 

 order to ensure certain desirable ends. Such for instance is the sequence of phenomena 

 which constitute the evolution of an organism from the germ (Z>. G. ii. 5, 9). This series 

 of consecutive motions can only be set going by fecundation. This and this alone 

 possesses the key of the mechanism. Another sequence is that by which the organism 

 is maintained in a state of health ; a sequence of which the final terms are health, 

 uniform bodily condition (i/uoXfJrijj), heat. Each link in this chain must be in constant 

 activity, if the final effect — health — is to be constantly maintained. Should the chain be 

 interrupted, by any cause whatsoever, at any point, the further dependent motions cease ; 

 health vanishes, and disease, which is no more than privation of health, makes its 

 appearance. In such a case what is wanted to restore health is that the series of move- 

 ments that terminate in it shall be again set going. To do this it will be enough to 

 reproduce any one of the antecedent links ; for they are all indissolubly connected with 

 each other. The man of art then, i.e. the physician, hunts about for a link in the chain 

 which may be within his range of action. Health, he says, is dependent on uniformity 

 of bodily condition, this again upon due warmth ; but heat can be produced by friction 

 of the body. Here, then, he has come to a link over which he has power. He 

 applies friction, and heat, uniformity, health, follow. Art, then, in such a case restores 

 health by using the machinery of nature, and using it moreover with the intention of 

 producing nature's result. But pure accident can plainly set the same sequence in 

 motion, acting blindly and without any intention whatsoever. By pure accident the 

 ailing body may be subjected to friction, and the whole chain of consequents will result 

 as before, and health be restored. The difference is that the physician acted with 

 definite intention, accident without such. The presence or absence however of intention 

 in the immediate agent is a matter of no importance. Both art and accident make 

 use of machinery constructed by nature with intention ; nor could they have brought 

 about the result without so doing. In all cases alike then there was intention, though 

 not in all cases intention on the part of the immediate agent. In all cases alike then 

 it is true that the process of production occurred for the sake of the thing produced. 



9. A. uses the term Spontaneity in two senses. In a limited sense, as opposed to 

 Chance ; and in a wider sense as including both of these (Phys. ii. 4 — 6). The 

 different ultimate forms of matter are endowed with different inherent properties. When 

 such different kinds of matter are jumbled together indiscriminately, and not so arranged, 

 as in nature's works, as to make their activities converge to one predesigned end, the 

 interaction of their conflicting properties will habitually result in incoordinate random 

 motions, quite beyond human calculation. Such motions are accidental, or spontaneous 

 in its wider sense. 



Sometimes however such accidental motions produce results, such as intelligence or 

 nature would have produced, and produce them by the same steps. In such a case 

 accident is either called chance, or is called spontaneity in its limited sense. It is called 

 chance when the accidental agent is an intelligent being acting with intention, though 



