192 
operating agencies for the accomplishment of the world- 
process, are we compelled to fall back upon the only remaining 
rational hypothesis, that, namely, of the ultimate ideality of 
force, in its origin and direction, if not also in its essential 
nature. So far from mechanism, truly understood, and the 
final cause being opposed to each other, the two are in intimate 
alliance, our claim being that the former serves the latter, that 
mechanism is, once for all, in the universe, as we know it, the 
instrument employed by the Idea (let us say, rather, by the 
all-wise Creator and Ruler) for the realization of ideal ends. 
Teleology is often charged with anthropomorphism. It is 
said that it transfers into a sphere entirely different from 
that of human action — into the sphere of nature’s activities 
— analogies which hold good only within the former. A 
work of human art, it is or may be urged, is formed through 
visible instruments, through the hand, whose skilful move- 
ments all can see, and with the aid of solid, palpable tools 
as means. The objector fails to discover in nature the 
analogue of these instrumentalities. And again, as regards 
the apprehension and statement of the ends of particular 
natural developments, it is urged that teleologists regard 
these too exclusively in their relation to human comfort and 
convenience, incorrectly regarding these latter as together 
constituting the great end, with reference to which all things 
are formed and adapted. 
The former of these objections arises from a misapprehen- 
sion of the point of analogy, which is to be sought, not in 
man’s production of works of art or skill distinct from himself, 
but in his control of his own body. The force that directs 
the motions of the hand or other organ subject to the human 
will, is invisible, immanent in the human organism. So, the 
agency which directs and combines the forces of nature to 
orderly ends, is invisible and works from within. The true 
stand-point of teleology, in this regard, was not misconceived 
by Aristotle of old (see Aristotle’s Physics , b. ii. ch. 8), and 
may be designated as that of immanent causation. The 
final cause, the Idea, identifies itself, so to speak, with the 
natural forces at work in any given case, or seizes bold upon 
them at the very centre whence they operate, guiding them 
to the realization of itself. And this is but a figurative way 
of expressing the truth that God, whom wo regard as the 
source of all existence, is present by His power and wisdom in 
all that exists. Or, looking at the case, not from the point of 
view of the divine causation, which must on metaphysical 
grounds be affirmed, but from the stand-point of human obser- 
vation and experimental description, we must say that the final 
