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unity, which may or may not be decently tolerable, But
while we wait?
‘There now arises the question of freewill. Causality
is probably not fully extended in its own category, a
circumstance which gives room for a fractional amount
of freewill. If this be not so, it matters little; for if I
find myself in a good state, that merely proves that my
destiny took me there, We are, as Herbert Spencer
observes, self-deluded with the idea of freewill; but if
this is so, norhing matters at all. If, however, Herbert
Spencer is mistaken (unlikely as it must appear), then
our reason is valid, and we should seek out the right
path and pursue it. The question therefore need not
trouble us at all.
Here, then wesee the use of morals and of religion, and
all the rest of the bag of tricks. All these are methods,
bad or good, for extricating ourselves from the universe.
Closely connected with this question is that of the
will of God. People argue that an Infinite intelligence
must have been at work on this cosmos. I reply No!
‘There is no intelligence at work worthy of the name.
The Laws of Nature may be generalized in one—the Law
of Inertia. Everything moves in the direction determined
by the path of least resistance; species arise, develop,
and die as their collective inertia determines; to this
Law there is no exception but the doubtful one of
Freewill; the Law of Destiny itself is formally and
really identical with it.
‘As to an infinite intelligence,
any standing are agreed that all-love an
all philosophers of
d all-power are