Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1859-02-01
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lIspEoe
What is Il 70 be Philosophical.


tiou~, or editorials Whichever. entitled Physso-
ievica! Letters, which are having place in your
columns. ibeugh not put forth controv ersally. do
vet suggest many questions; and 1t has seemed
TO NE that i. viii only be an honorable recom-
pense. If among your readers, now aud then. one
offers his criticism upon them, in testimony, at
any rate, Of attention.
In Letter No. ). the discussion of the matter,
Of the priru3a nlo5ilc-tl.e first cause. {" final
and etFective Causes" as the language of the ar
tIcie has it.l is declined as being one side o,
it. the Development hypothesis is summa-
rily dismissed. FOR Ike cause.
The formula Of associated events as shown
IN diagram; not. the philosophy of their hap
Pening Is for the eye Of the man Of Science
This, IS the writers dictum.
There is I wholesome bi, of wisdom here, be-
yond doubt and yet | think it evident that
it is impossible for minds to refuse ~ recog-
nize a mysterious. and infinite generative pow
err, as coursing through events, somehow rela-
tive them, superaddng to the attributed
circumstance Of sequence, the further attribute
causatlon raisiIi conseeutveness, to conea. en-
alton chaBce-happening, to disiae order.
The familiar illustration viii suggest itself to
many OF your readers, how that the chirping OF
she lark preceding sunrise, chow iIvarable so
ever that antecedence may be supposed to be, }
could not by our minds be taken for the relation
of cause and eifecs. Something more than the
thought of invariable sequence enters into the
idea of power, or causation.
-,
;he writer of the Letters allows, for be defines
cause and effect to be, those phenomena between
which there subsists the relationship of invari-
bic, and unconditional sequence The thought
OF there being philosophical necessity in the
case, IS here brought in An effect" the wri-
ter says, =" is necessary consequence" Of what
we accept as the cause.
Now here our diagram-naturalst if he will
excuse the appellation, falls into tue way Of
speaking of the philosophers IN spite of him
self:-It must not only be al invariable se-
qnencc TO constitute the relation Of cause and ef-
/ feet, but it must be " a necessary " sequence.
! How Is any one TO Judge of this necessity
1t being and ayove invariablen ess, except bv
/ bringing into comparison preconceieed notions
about the drift OF nature, or the seeming plan OF
+ It, 50 to speak,-by license. but not in any an
/ thropomorphic sense If, indeed, we attached
no more idea of system to natural phenomena
than to the phantasmagoric displays of magic
lantern, inyariabieness OF sequence would be the
closest relationship we could predicate of events.
/ The relation of cause and effect could mean
nothing closer, than that one particular show al
ways follows another particular show. But il
Is IN US TO discern more than this in nature
Our minds will have it, that events do come
about generativcly, that is to say, creatively-
in virtue of developing force The direcl ion
of this developing force, call the drift, or de
sign, or providence observable in the course OF
events. The Development Hypothesis is, that
its direction Is onward from the less elaborated
to the more elaborated displays of life.
Now 1 am apprehensive If the writer of the
letters sets out to treat of psychological phenom-
ens. resolved to ignore all philosophical specula-
ton about the indwelling iatuitige divine in
stlnct Of the animal economy; watching its
displays simply as he would watch a magic Ian :
tern he viii fail of approaching much that
ought to be marked. The us mei:catri1 naturac
I Will instance "a one thing. Aspiration, OF
tentative pushing Of faculty, seemingly in sport,
/ for another thing Examples prodigies, such
as the mathematician-bo Sanford and that
other, now filling the admiring gaze of two con-
tnents, Morphy. Fitfulness, for another thing.
how that all life is Paroxysmal all nature
moves by impulse, and at climacterics-all con-
structiye nature that is 10 say.
These viii not be reducible to feet and inch
es ; they viii have to be inferred and l am
fearful that if the writer OF the Letters deter
mines to stick with utmost rigidness TO what he
can pat in dagranl-what his lantern projects
on his wall, he will not have anything to say of
these physiological tendencies habits and
that, IN physiological treatise would be- in my
/ judgment, Hamlet with the part of Hamlet omit
/ ted.
The author Of the yestiges of the Nat. Hist.
OF Creation has SO forcibly rebuked the sterile
way of thinking Of the mere phan;asnagora-
watchers among men of Science (Explana-
TONS SEXUAL to Vest. Nat Hist. Of Great,
page 292, Collyers Ed. 1860 that l beg leave
to commend it as corroboratIye OF what have
bad TO say. Y