'■^^S PROFES.SOB K. f,. DABNEY^ b.l>., LL.I). 



anarcliy. The instances are so illusti-ious^ from Harvey's 

 inference by the valvular membranes in the arteries to a circu- 

 lation of the bloodj down to the last researches of zoology and 

 botany, that citation is needless for the learned. But this pos- 

 tulate is precisely the doctrine of final cause. 



26. Belief in final cause is the essential counterpart to^ and 

 immediate inference from, the belief in causation. But this is 

 the very foundation of inductive logic. There is no physicist 

 who does not concur with us in saying, that all induction from 

 instances observed to laws of nature is grounded in the "uni- 

 formity of nature. ■'' But has this nature any stable uniformity? 

 Is not her attribute variation and fickleness ? The first aspect 

 of her realm is mutation, boundless mutation. Or, if she is 

 found to have, in another aspect, that stability of causation 

 necessaiy to found all induction; how comes she, amidst her 

 mutabilities, to have this uniformity ? Her own attributes are 

 endless change, and blindness. Her forces are absolutely 

 unintelligent and unremembering. No one of them is able to 

 know for itself whether it is conforming to any previous uni- 

 formity or not : no one is competent to remember any rule 

 to which it ought to conform. Plainly, then, were material 

 nature left to the control of physical laws alone, she must 

 exhibit either a chaotic anarchy or the rigidity of a mechanical 

 fate. Either condition, if dominant in nature, would equally 

 unfit her to be the home of rational free agents, and the subject 

 of inductive science. Let the hearer think and see. Nature is 

 uniform, neither chaotic nor fatalistic, because she is directed 

 by a Mind, because intelligence directs her unintelligent 

 physical causes to preconceived, rational purposes. Her uni- 

 formities are but the expressions of these purposes, which are 

 stable, because they are the volitions of an infinite, immutable 

 Mind, " whose purposes shall stand, and who doeth all His 

 good pleasure,^' because all His volitions are guided, from the 

 first, by absolute knowledge and wisdom, perfect rectitude, 

 and full benevolence. Nature is stable, only because the 

 counsels of the God, who uses her for His ends, are stable. 



None but theists can consistently use induction. 



The Chairman (D. Howard, Esq., Vice-President Chemical Society). — 

 We have to thank the author, and also the reader of this paper : we would 

 gladly have welcomed Dr. Dabney among us, had he been able to leave his 

 distant home. Having been a quarter of a century ago a very distinguished 

 soldier, he has since added to that distinction the further claim upon our recog- 

 nition which belongs to his position as a professor and deep thinker. It may 

 seein strange that after all these years of discussion we should still have to 



