NATURAL LAW AND MIRACLE. 



59 



philosophy, which for lack of space and time we cannot solve here. 

 Professor Orchard — an Englishman — treats the origin of the causal 

 principle in the German manner ; whereas I, a German, treat it in 

 the English manner — i.e., Professor Orchard represents rather Kant's 

 view — and I, on the other hand, Hume's view. Nevertheless, I do 

 not identify myself with Hume by any means. In my view the 

 causal principle is not innate in man ; the spirit of inquiry only is 

 innate and given to man before any experience. The causal 

 principle, on the other hand, is the scientific decision to which 

 civilized man has gradually worked his way in the course of history 

 as the result of that spirit of inquiry which he has in reality always 

 retained. The spirit of inquiry has exactly the same relation to 

 the causal principle as the innate moral instinct in man has to his 

 later moral maxims. The former is to be found in man before any 

 experience, but the latter is avowed as the principle of his moral 

 life at a later stage, as the result of the moral instinct together with 

 the experience of the individual. 



Professor Orchard cannot seriously assert that the properties of 

 radium or wireless telegraphy form an absolute exception to the 

 whole of our scientific experience. Both are rather to be judged in 

 accordance with the principles of chemistry and physics known to 

 us. I have, of course, no intention of placing the Kesurrection of 

 the Lord Jesus on the same plane as wireless telegraphy. Radium 

 always has the same properties, and wireless telegraphy always acts 

 when the natural conditions are supplied. On the other hand, no 

 man can supply the natural conditions which would cause every 

 dead body to return to life. 



Mr. Leslie forgets that I make a distinction in my statements, 

 as I have already shown in reply to Professor Orchard, between the 

 instinct of inquiry and the principle of causation. Mr. Leslie 

 confuses the two, or wrongly identifies the one with the other. The 

 instinct of inquiry is innate and precedes all experience. It is the 

 assumption of the possibility of knowledge. The instinct of 

 inquiry is a powerful mental impulse that impels us to seek for a 

 cause for every event. The principle of causation, on the other 

 hand, is a methodical principle, which the civilized man has 

 voluntarily accepted as the result of the instinct of inquiry that he 

 has in reality always retained. The principle of causation is the 

 offspring of the instinct of inquiry and of experience. The instinct 



