On tlte Mechanical Conception of Nature. 717 



complete mechanism conceivable is likewise the 

 most completely conceivable teleology." We 

 may thus represent the phenomenal universe 

 as such a completely conceivable mechanism. 

 With this conception vanish all apprehensions 

 that the new views would cause man to lose 

 the best that he possesses morality and purely 

 human spiritual culture. He who, with Von 

 Baer, considers the laws of nature as the " per- 

 manent expressions of the will of a creative prin- 

 ciple," will clearly perceive that a further advance 

 in the knowledge of these laws need not divert 

 man from the path of increasing improvement, but 

 must further him in this course that the know- 

 ledge of truth, whatever may be its purport, cannot 

 possibly be considered a backward step. Let us 

 take our stand boldly on the ground of new 

 knowledge, and accept the direct consequences 

 thereof, and we shall not be obliged to give up 

 either morality or the comforting conviction of 

 being part of an harmonious world, as a necessary 

 member capable of development and perfection. 



Any other mode of interference by a directive 

 teleological power in the processes of the universe 

 than by the appointment of the forces producing 

 them, is however, at least to the naturalist, inad- 

 missible. We are still far removed from com- 

 pletely understanding the mechanism by means of 

 which the organic world is evoked we still find 

 ourselves at the very beginning of knowledge. 



3 A 2 



