ON THE CREATION AND 



human nature. It wants only one thing, 

 important, the recognition of a purpose in this universal 

 spirit ; as otherwise we cannot conceive any explanation 

 of the past course of evolution save chance ; and we can 

 have no guarantee that the future course of development 

 will be controlled otherwise than by chance. Without 

 purpose in the inmost essence of Nature, or the spirit 

 diffused through Nature, there is only chance and me- 

 chanical necessity to determine what will take place 

 anywhere in the universe, and this conclusion never has 

 been accepted by the human mind and never can be 

 made acceptable to it. 



10. We repeat the fatal defect in Darwinism, and 

 in all the more or less systematic presentments that have 

 lately been given of the whole doctrine of Evolution, 

 whether by Spencer, Haeckel, Huxley, or Strauss,* is the 

 denial, express or by implication, of all and any Purpose 

 or Final Cause in the universe. For in purpose, in some 

 sense of the word, and, moreover, in a rational purpose, 

 however difficult it be to define the conception in human 

 language or to assimilate it to our notions of purpose, 

 the human mind, nevertheless, obstinately continues to 

 believe. All men believe in it the mass of mankind 

 guided by common sense, as well as the masters of 

 thought who have meditated most deeply on this all- 

 important question. The greatest names in philosophy 

 from Aristotle and Plato to Descartes- and Leibnitz, to 

 Kant and Hegel, even to Schopenhauer and Hartmann, 

 have believed in purpose in some sense of the word ; the 

 only thinkers opposed being Democritus and Epicurus 

 in ancient times, perhaps Spinoza and Hume in modern 

 times, together with the present representatives of these. 

 And apart from the balance of philosophical authority in 



* Strauss, The Neiu Faith and the Old. 



