THE MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OP NATURE . 231 



ceivable Teleology"; and adds Von Baer's definition of the 

 laws of Nature, as " the permanent expression of the will of 

 a creative principle." Charles Darwin's letter to Asa Gray, 

 written in 1860, agrees with these views and with the stricter 

 theology, though he knew it not. He wrote : " I am inclined 

 to look at everything as resulting from designed laws — with 

 the details left to the working out of what we call chance." 

 The theologians say that under Divine Providence things 

 " fall out according to the nature of second causes, either 

 necessarily, freely, or contingently."* Darwin would save his 

 use of the term chance, as only so relatively to our knowledge, 

 and the theologians would explain that neither free will nor 

 contingency is independent of the Divine bounding. The 

 aritlnnetic of expectations and probabilities, as applied by ca- 

 tuaries to mattei's depending alike on free will and fortuity, 

 seems to show that these things are somehow imder law, 

 though not in a fatalistic Avay, and that Darwin and the divines 

 are at one with each other and with the truth : nor ought this 

 argument to lose its value, if it appear that in letter years 

 Darwin's difficulties rather increased, for he was often be- 

 wildered, so that he could not see his way. As to his chief 

 difficulty, of there being too much misery in theAvorld, Bishop 

 Temple has remarked that Darwinism itself has rather helped 

 us to meet it, by showing that we are looking on a work not 

 yet finished ; and besides this there is no evidence that misery 

 was the end in view for any part of nature's machinery. W. 

 Thistleton Dyer briefly gives the verdict in which all these 

 witnesses are agreed, when he writes to the Duke of Argyll 

 thus: "No scientific man is so foolish as to suppose that, 

 however completely mechanical may be our conception of" 

 nature, he is in any way competent to account for its exis- 

 tence. The real problem of all is only pushed farther back." 

 (Dyer, Letter in Nature, Jan. 16, 1890.) 



The bearing of the mechanical conception of the universe 

 may thus be summarised : 1. It is actually or provisionally 

 established, save as to the origin of matter, of energy, of 

 life, animal intelligence, and the body and soul of man. 2. It 

 will not weaken, but rather fortify the evidence for design in 

 nature, for theism, and for universal providence. Thus it is 

 not materialistic, though it is' accepted by some in a material- 

 istic sense. 3. It will not invalidate the Divine claims of 



* West. Conf. Faith, v. 2 ; discussed in Cunninf^ham's Reformers and 

 Th. of Reformation, p. 493. 



