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draw some conclusions as to the nature of that Power. The 
most obvious of these “ manifestations ” is the existence of 
Design in Creation. Paley's famous argument of the watch has 
been much derided of late, and Mr. Herbert Spencer has given 
us a most extraordinary version of it ; but the common- sense 
of mankind will never be brought to deny that the phenomena 
of creation, as science presents them to us, most clearly point to 
what we understand as the workings of Mind. 
25. The next point to which we would refer is the existence 
of Force. No satisfactory explanation of Force has been given 
save that which regards it as the expression of Will.* But surely 
it must strike every one that if Force is the expression of the 
Will of the Undefinable Power, we cannot escape from knowing 
a good deal of the character of that Power, if we only take the 
trouble to look at nature. In nature we see the results of that 
Will. As discovery advances we know more and more about 
the methods of that Will. With such a multiplicity of facts 
before us, is it quite reasonable to say, as Mr. Spencer does, 
that the more thought advances, the less we know of God ? 
Is not Science a progressive Revelation of Him ? 
26. A similar argument may be drawn from the purpose of 
creation. The world literally swarms with life, and life, in the 
main, is enjoyment. Is it unfair to draw from hence an inference 
thatthe purpose of creation is happiness? Pessimist philosophers 
may endeavour to persuade the world that the miseries of life 
outweigh its joys ; but the way in which the vast majority of 
men cling to life contradicts them. Nor is the argument drawn 
from the miseries of life a very strong one at the best. One 
of the most clearly established facts among visible phenomena 
is the existence of a malevolent Power, thwarting the bene- 
ficent Will of the Creator. And a long observation of human 
history is bringing us ever more clearly to the conclusion that 
this very existence of evil is destined in the end to augment 
the sum of happiness which for the time it has poisoned. 
27. This consideration is strengthened when we look at 
* This is Sir John Herschell’s view, stated in his Astronomy. It is 
beginning to be once more accepted by men of science, even those who are 
not believers in Christianity. Once more the point of attack is shifting, as 
the assailants have been beaten back. Mr. Spencer defines Force, which he 
terms the “ ultimate of ultimates” (p. 169), as “a certain conditioned effect 
of the Unconditioned Cause — the relative reality indicating to us an Absolute 
Reality by which it is immediately produced.” In other words, it is and 
is not the “ ultimate of ultimates.” Nor is it easy to see how either that 
which cannot exist without relation (for force cannot be conceived of except 
as acting on something or other) can indicate to us a Reality whose essence 
consists in independence of relation, or how what is independent of all 
relation can possibly “ produce ” anything, since production involves relation, 
