IX 
LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 
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of nature, are another thing, given or added to matter, or else 
its necessary properties, — and that mind is yet another thing, 
either a product of this matter and its supposed inherent 
forces, or distinct from and co-existent with it; — and to be 
able to substitute for this complicated theory, which leads to 
endless dilemmas and contradictions, the far simpler and 
more consistent belief, that matter, as an entity distinct from 
force, does not exist ; and that force is a product of MIND. 
Philosophy had long demonstrated our incapacity to prove 
the existence of matter, as usually conceived ; while it ad- 
mitted the demonstration to each of us of our own self-con- 
scious, spiritual existence. Science has now worked its way 
up to the same result, and this agreement between them 
should give us some confidence in their combined teaching. 
The view we have now arrived at seems to me more grand 
and sublime, as well as far simpler, than any other. It ex- 
hibits the universe as a universe of intelligence and will- 
power ; and by enabling us to rid ourselves of the impossi- 
bility of thinking of mind, but as connected with our old 
notions of matter, opens up infinite possibilities of existence, 
connected with infinitely varied manifestations of force, totally 
distinct from, yet as real as, what we term matter. 
The grand law of continuity which we see pervading our 
universe would lead us to infer infinite gradations of existence, 
and to people all space with intelligence and will-power ; and, 
if so, we shall have no difficulty in believing that for so noble 
a purpose as the progressive development of higher and higher 
intelligences, those primal and general will-forces, which have 
sufficed for the production of the lower animals, should have 
been guided into new channels and made to converge in 
definite directions. And if, as seems to me probable, this 
has been done, I cannot admit that it in any degree affects 
the truth or generality of Mr. Darwin’s great discovery. It 
merely shows that the laws of organic development have 
been occasionally used for a special end, just as man uses 
them for his special ends; and I do not see that the law 
of natural selection can be said to be disproved, if it can 
be shown that man does not owe his entire physical and 
mental development to its unaided action, any more than 
it is disproved by the existence of the poodle or tbe pouter 
