Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/387

Rh aside from these one can speak of Nature's purposes, of purposes which general Nature is pursuing, only if he regards Nature as a thinking and volitional being, or as the creature of such a being. A teleological view of the world thus of necessity always includes some kind of a theological view; and it seems to be decidedly a non-sequitur to entertain the one without holding to the other.

We men actually make our continued existence an object of fundamental importance, because, without realizing it, no other object is attainable. We are thus justified in calling all our properties that contribute to the maintenance of life adapted to that purpose. And, as we refer this same relation to the animal and the whole organic world, we are accustomed also to designate all their life-maintaining properties as likewise adapted. But life is never a purpose to animals. The idea of preserving life does not arise in their consciousness, and can not therefore be the object of a volition; while the lower animals have no ideas, but only sensations and perceptions. They have, therefore, no purposes. Still less can we speak of the purposes of plants, for plants have no consciousness. It is thus clear that, so far as the sub-human world is concerned, the designation of the life-preserving attributes of existence as designed, unless we are speaking in a theological sense, is only metaphorical. For this designation implies the premise that life is an object; and this, in a proper, untheological sense, is true only as respects human consciousness. Thus, a speaker who would avoid transcendental implications and metaphorical modes of speech should always avoid the word "designed," and this can be done without leaving any fact undetermined.

But, if we, regarding our belief in God as a justification for the introduction of the divine idea into science, and not heeding the many difficulties which ethics has hitherto encountered in basing its precepts on the presumed will of God, endeavor to determine what his will is, we shall have very little, if any, success in convincing the faithful that it is for the most prolonged existence of the greatest number.

Even as relating to men, these persons will not believe that self-preservation as such is the highest good. Bare existence is no good, much less the highest good; but it may be, if it is a bad existence, the highest evil, and this according to the perfectionist doctrine as well as according to the utilitarian theory of happiness. There is said to be existence, yes, eternal existence, even in hell; and, according to the ancient fathers of the Church, "the most prolonged existence for the greatest number."

Evolutionists, who recognize that life is valuable only as it is good, have occasionally fallen into the mistake of considering among the consequences of conduct only the effects on the condition of soundness, and of disregarding the pain that may be immediately produced by it; and they have not always been mindful that, according to their own