314 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



generations, except upon grounds which will in equity 

 involve its being shorn between consecutive seconds^ 

 and fractions of seconds. On the other hand, it can- 

 not be left unshorn between consecutive seconds with- 

 out necessitating that it should be left unshorn also 

 beyond the grave, as well as in successive generations. 

 Death is as salient a feature in what we call our life 

 as birth was, but it is no more than this. As a salient 

 feature, it is a convenient epoch for the drawing of a 

 defining line, by the help of which we may better 

 grasp the conception of life, and think it more effectu- 

 ally, but it is a fagon de parler only ; it is, as I said in 

 " Life and Habit," * " the most inexorable of all con- 

 ventions," but our idea of it has no correspondence 

 with eternal underlying realities. 



Finally, we must have evolution; consent is too 

 spontaneous, instinctive, and universal among those 

 most able to form an opinion, to admit of further 

 doubt about this. We must also have mind and 

 design. The attempt to eliminate intelligence from 

 among the main agencies of the universe has broken 

 down too signally to be again ventured upon — not 

 until the recent rout has been forgotten. Neverthe- 

 less the old, far-foreseeing Devs ex machind design as 

 from a point outside the universe, which indeed it 

 directs, but of which it is no part, is negatived by the 

 facts of organism. What, then, remains, but the view 

 that I have again in this book endeavoured to uphold — 

 I mean, the supposition that the mind or cunning of 

 which we see such abundant evidence all round us, is, 



* Page S3. 



