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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
chance pure and simple which accounts for all order and regularity in the world; but it seems impossible to hold that reason is satisfied with the explanation; for, while it is certain that the universe is not the result of a direct and purposive creation by a man-like architect, it is equally certain that chance could not be the cause of its existence by any means. An accident may be defined to be an exception to the general rule, but never as the general rule itself. The systematic and orderly working of the various laws of nature could not be termed accidental by any possibility. With chance at the helm there would be no certainty of verification, nor could we rely upon the recurrence of any phenomenon in Nature. The theory of an accidental spontaneity of the existence of all things, which might account for the forms and modifications of certain purely material things is, at best, a pure speculation of reason, and not a law of universal applicability. Chance and law are incompatible by nature. As Hudson somewhere points out, a series of accidents, however numerous or important, can neither cause nor adequately explain the orderly, progressive development of anything, much less the evolution of a universe, or a planet, or humanity; it requires a law to do that.
Again, if the evolutionary progress is the effect of a mere random commingling of atoms or elements, what is the causation of the accident itself due to? Thus, if we go back, step by step, we must ultimately halt at an inherent, irresistible inclination in the very nature of things themselves. This we take to be the very function of substances, which none of them may refuse to per
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