general conceptions, gathered from nature, must be ideas in the Divine Intellect also-such human conceptions being but faint and obscure adumbrations of corresponding ideas which must exist in their perfection and fulness in the mind of God. But our ideas are ideas derived from material things, while the Divine ideas are ideas whence material things have been themselves derived. Human ideas are true in so far as they correspond with really existing things external to the human mind. But really existing things are themselves "true" in so far as they correspond with the eternal, archetypal, or prototypal ideas of God which are their exemplar cause. Thus, all the facts of nature, from inorganic substances and the lowest vegetal and animal forms up to the most complex organizations of human society, have a reason for their existence in that they are external manifestations and embodiments of Divine ideas, and therefore objects of complacent regard to that Divine Being who is their source and life. There may be, as we have just recalled to the reader's mind, also other ends and aims known to God but hidden from us, as different from what we have known as truth, beauty, and goodness, as these are from mechanical motion or chemical affinity. We can but recognize this possibility in silent awe. All speculation is useless, though we may recognize with certainty that such ends cannot contradict the rule of right, or right would cease to be that which it is seen by our intellect evidently to be. We may, however, before concluding, venture to ask whether there is not one more aim and object dimly perceptible to us as a relation between God and His creation apart from our supreme rule of right. God has gradually revealed to man, man's own dignity. Savages hold their humanity in low esteem, and many of them, like some modern sophists, deem the brutes nearly or quite as good as themselves, or even as more highly gifted and meriting worship. It is a question whether the irrational gods of Egypt were not originally, or for a time, much more than symbols. Even Greece and Rome had far less perception of man's dignity than arose in subsequent ages. Modern philosophy (which, as we have seen, brings home to us the altogether distinctive nature of our powers of intellect and will, compared with the powers of all other organisms) enables us more perfectly than ever before to recognize our dignity and responsibility, while more and more increasing the perception of our utter nothingness compared with God. At the very same time it shows us how true, though remote, is the analogy between that relative nothingness of ours and God Himself. Animated with this reflection, we may look within and venture to apprehend yet another cause and motive-another reason "why"-for the existence of the world through God's creative action. It is a conception which seems to bring to us a ray from God's essence more profound in its source than even the conception of "right." What is that energy in ourselves which makes actual all that is noblest, most self-sacrificing, most tender, yet most energetic and unflinching? What is it which attracts the will towards all that is most beautiful in nature and in art, all that is most admirable in character and conduct? It is that which is expressed by the sweetest yet sublimest of all words, the word which denotes energy in its highest and purest form conceivable by us, namely, "love." It is the "love" whence all love proceeds; which is at once the source as it is the only absolutely fitting object of a love without limits on the part of man; which seems to us to be-though perhaps not the absolutely highest-the highest Divine motive conceivable by us, and, as such, the ultimate reason or "why" of creation, so far as motives and purposes of the Divine First Cause are perceptible to us by means of those certain and evident intuitions through which He has deigned to illuminate the human intellect. Thus the study of nature in all its forms, inorganic, organic, and rational, is shown by science, or the study of causes, to clearly point to a great First Cause not only adequate to the production of all that It has caused, but inconceivably exceeding all our powers of thought as well as of imagination. Interesting as are the studies of the zoologist, the physiologist, the geographer, the geologist, the astronomer, and the psychologist, they are most interesting to the man of science par excellence, that is, the philosopher. The true philosopher will never rest satisfied with a knowledge of the coexistences and sequences of phenomena, but will ever seek to obtain what glimpses he can of all degrees and orders of causation. Only at last will he rest satisfied, when, having traced as far as he may the series of secondary causes, he is able confidently to refer them to the evident though hidden action of the great Author of nature. Reason exhibits to us the whole cosmos as proceeding from Him, and only when the study of His creatures ends by leading the student back to Him from whom they proceeded, can that study be said to be "rational" in the highest sense of that word. Then only is it truly worthy of that admirable human intellect which sees in the concordance between subjective reason and the rational laws of the objective universe, evidence that the human intellect itself bears a real analogy to, and has been created in the likeness of the intellect of God. Having thus completed such an examination as we have been able to make of the Cause and reasons for the existence of the universe, we must next proceed to study the mode and process by which the creation has been developed, or evolved, to that degree of harmony and perfection with which it offers itself to our investigations now. Having considered what things are and why they are, we must next examine how they have become what they now are. A the word. CHAPTER XXVII, EVOLUTION. The analogy of individual development points to the evolution of species according to definite, preordained laws. The evolution of the world has been brought about by the interaction of immaterial principles, in accordance with Divine appointment, for an end beyond itself and in relation to the moral powers of mankind. Meaning of the word-Ontogeny and phyllogeny-A familiar example of ontogeny-Other processes-Explanatory cosmical hypotheses— Psychogenesis of the individual-Phyllogenetic hypotheses-Heredity and environment-Action of natural selection-Independent origin of similar structures-Psychogenesis of species-Origin of man-Conclusion as to evolution-Religion and philosophy. WE may now, in conclusion, consider the question, "How things have become what they are;" but it has been already recognized that the physical sciences show the Meaning of process to have been a gradual one. The word "evolution" has been employed in various senses, but is now generally used to denote that process by which the universe in general, and our world with its inhabitants in particular, are supposed to have grown to be such as now they are. Amongst the facts which point in that direction are, the intimate connection which exists between the physical forces and also the similarity in the chemical composition of cosmical bodies.t It is very generally believed that the earth, with its moon and the whole solar system, have been gradually formed either in a manner more or less similar to what * See above, p. 384. † See above, p. 494. See above, p. 301. we have noticed as the nebular theory,* or by some other operation of ordinary physical laws. The general harmony in the movements of our planetary system seem to indicate this. The world having assumed the form of a separate planet, is further supposed to have gradually cooled, till at last aqueous vapour could become water, and till the various seas, oceans, and rivers, with their waves and currents, could begin their eroding and redepositing action, after which with further cooling and various atmospheric changes, the earth became a possible dwelling-place for organic life. The slow evolution of the present state of our globe is show by its successive strata.‡ Although every experiment which has been made to originate life from nonliving matter-even though organic matter-has utterly failed,§ yet it is very generally assumed (and with probable truth) that in some early physical condition of the world, which has not yet been reproduced by experiment, living organisms did spontaneously come into being. The uniformity of nature || compels us to believe, if life ever arose spontaneously through the formation of certain non-living compounds under certain primordial conditions, and if such compounds are formed by us hereafter under conditions sufficiently similar to such primordial conditions, that then life will again spontaneously appear. The hypothesis of spontaneous generation is slightly favoured by the fact that a number of highly complex substances are now produced in our laboratories, which substances long resisted all our attempts at their artificial production, and were therefore supposed to be the products of living beings only. Such substances are eg. lactic acid, indigo, alcohol, and urea. The close connection between the living and non-living worlds is shown by the process of osmosis, and the presence of crystalloids and colloids in both, and the instability of their nitrogenous compounds.** If we may conclude that in some earlier stage of the earth's history living creatures appeared spontaneously, we may also conclude that such creatures must have been * See above, p. 404. § See above, p. 330. † See above, p. 301. See above, p. 65. **See pp. 306 and 325. See p. 310. |