ON FINAL CAUSE. 261 



12. We look, then, at these combinations of means to results 

 or functions, which unintelligent physical causes could not 

 account for ; and we perceive this farther fact. Adjustments 

 or coordinations arc regularly made, in order to certain ends. 

 The nature of the end proposed has determined the nature of 

 the physical means selected, and the combination thereof. 

 Thus : as the ship is evidently designed and purposed for 

 sailing, so is the ear for hearing, and the eye for seeing. The 

 function of sailing has determined the materials and structure 

 of the ship : the function of hearing those of the ear : the 

 function of seeing those of the eye. But the ship-building 

 must be before the sailing : the ear and eye must exist before 

 the hearing and seeing. The facts which we have, then, are 

 these : Here are ends, coming after their means, which yet 

 have acted causatively on their own precedent means ! But 

 every physical cause precedes its own effect. No physical 

 cause can act until it exists. Here, however, are ends, which 

 exercise the influence of causes, and yet, against all physical 

 nature, are causes before they have existence, and act back- 

 wards up the stream of time ! Here is the function of sailing, 

 which has effectively caused a given structure iu a ship-yard, 

 befoi'O this function was. 



13. To solve this paradox, there is only one way possible for 

 the human mind. There must have been prescience of that 

 future function. It is impossible that it can have acted 

 causall}^, as we see it act in fact, except as it is foreseen. 

 But foresight is cognition ; it is a function of intelligence ; it 

 cannot be less. A mind has been at work, pre-conceiving 

 that function and the things requisite to it, choosing the 

 appropriate means, purposing the effective coordinations 

 therefor, and thus shaping the work of the physical causes. 

 Thi.9 is "final cause." 



14. There is one sphere, within which the mind has intuitive 

 and absolute knowledge of the working of final causes, as 

 every atheist admits. This is the sphere of one's own con- 

 sciousness and will. The man knows that he himself pursues 

 final causes, when he conceives and elects future ends, selects 

 means, and adapts them to his own purposed results. But 

 is he not equally certain that his fellow-man also pursues 

 final causes ? Doubtless. It is instructive to inquire how he 

 comes to that certainty as to his fellow's soul. He has no 

 actual vision of that other's subjective states ! Men have no 

 windows in their breasts into which their neighbours peep, 

 and actually see the machinery of mind and will moving. 

 But this man knows that his fellow is pursuing fiual causes 

 generically like those he consciously pursues himself; because 



