226 



Thoughts on Causality. 



In a limited number of initial cases, as the antecedent and 

 cause of the series of organized beings. Darwin, our author 

 thinks, should speak with clearness at this juncture, and 

 assume the responsibility of carrying derivative develop- 

 ment back, not only to one primitive stock, but to unor- 

 ganized matter itself. At the same time, he admits that 

 the doctrine of spontaneous generation is not yet proven ; 

 though he seems to regard that achievement as not very 

 remote. 



We stand now in the presence of that matter so uni- 

 formly defined as dead. We have traced life from its 

 highest manifestations, through all its gradations to granu- 

 lated, vivified protoplasm. Life is everywhere associated 

 with matter. We kuow nothing of life save as associated 

 with matter. Is there any terrestrial life which does not 

 depend for its maintenance and its origin, upon matter ? 

 " Here the vision of the mind authoritatively supplements 

 the vision of the eye. B} r an intellectual necessity," he says, 

 M I cross the boundary of the experimental evidence, and 

 discern in that matter which we, in our ignorance of its 

 latent powers, and notwithstanding our professed reverence 

 for its creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, 

 the promise and potency of all terrestrial life." 



Here then, he reaches the goal toward which recent 

 theories in science seemed to impel him. This, indeed, is a 

 sort of materialism ; but we must have the candor to per- 

 mit the distinguished physicist to explain the sense in 

 which he embraces materialism. In harmony with Spencer, 

 and in opposition to Mill, Fichte, Berkeley and Hume, 

 Professor Tyndall entertains no question as to the existence 

 of an external world ; though we have no evidence that 

 it is as it seems to be. 44 Our states of consciousness," he 

 says, 44 are symbols of an outside entity which produces 

 them and determines the order of their succession, but the 

 real nature of which we can never know. In fact, the 

 whole process of evolution is the manifestation of a power 



