December 23, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



887 



fall is necessary or predetermined ; for most 

 thoughtful students assure us that the in- 

 ductive study of nature tells us nothing 

 about it, except that, so far as we know, all 

 stones so placed have fallen according to 

 Newton's laws, and that we have not the 

 smallest reason to expect that any stone so 

 placed will act differently ; nor, so far as I 

 can see, would prove that all nature is me- 

 chanical, from beginning to end, be incon- 

 sistent with belief that everything in nature 

 is immediately sustained by Providence ; 

 nor am I able to see how it would be incon- 

 sistent with my conviction that my volition 

 counts for something as a condition of the 

 course of events. 



I have tried to show that, while the re- 

 sponsive activities of living things do 

 not take place unless they are called forth 

 by a stimulus, the things which they do 

 under a stimulus are no more than their 

 organic mechanism would lead one to ex- 

 pect, and that there is no necessary antag- 

 onism between those who attribute the 

 development of the germ to mechanical 

 conditions and those who attribute it to the 

 inherent potency of the germ itself. 



I have also tried to show that there need 

 be no more antagonism between those who 

 attribute knowledge to experience and those 

 who attribute it to our innate reason ; for, 

 while knowledge does not arise in our minds 

 without a sensible occasion, the knowledge 

 which does thus arise may be no more than 

 one who knew the whole natural history of 

 our minds might have expected. 



We must now ask whether proof that all 

 nature was latent in the cosmic vapor would 

 be inconsistent with the belief that every- 

 thing in nature is immediately intended 

 rather than predetermined. 



Certaiii monists tell us that the scientific 

 doctrine of evolution is the same as Panthe- 

 ism, for " since the simpler occurrences of 

 inorganic nature and the more complicated 

 phenomena of organic life are alike reduci- 



ble to the same natural forces, and since, fur- 

 thermore, these in their turn have their com- 

 mon foundation in a simple primal principle 

 pervading infinite space, we can regard this 

 last [the cosmic ether] as all-comprehend- 

 ing divinity, and upon this found the thesis: 

 Belief in God is reconcilable with science."* 



They who agree with Haeckel may wor- 

 ship stones, if they see fit ; but they seem 

 to me to fail as completely as any South 

 Sea Islander to understand the nature of 

 scientific evidence ; for it is one thing to 

 find sermons in stones, and quite another 

 to see a divinity in the stone itself, ' which, 

 if with reason, we may do, then let our 

 hammers rise up and boast they have built 

 our houses, and our pens receive the honor 

 of our writings.' But everything must be 

 determinate, says the pious evolutionist, or 

 what would become of the fixed order of 

 nature ? Among the things that occupy the 

 biologist are such aspects of nature as life, 

 and consciousness, and volition, and reason, 

 and right and wrong. Whatever these 

 things mean,, they are part of nature, and 

 the zoologist cannot push them out of sight 

 if others may. He does not know what 

 their places in the system of nature are, but 

 he would like to find out ; and he knows 

 no way to find out except to discover. 



When they who worship at the shrine of 

 evolution tell him there can be no sponta- 

 neity in nature, because the order of nature 

 is fixed and unchangeable, he asks what 

 reason there is for thinking that proof that 

 everything in nature is mechanical, and no 

 more than might have been expected, would 

 show that anything is fixed, or predeter- 

 mined, or necessary. 



Science has nothing to do with the notion 

 of ' necessity,' and is quite content to leave 

 it in the hands of its originators, the meta- 

 physicians and theologians and ' philoso- 

 phers,' who alone are responsible for all the 

 mental confusion it has brought about. 



* Haeckel, 'Monism.' 



