manifested and its reality _as existing in the immutably connected order
of objects examined_, independently of the mind of the investigator.'
This argument from the universal _Kosmos_ has the advantage of being
wholly independent of the method by which things came to be what they
are. It is unaffected by the acceptance of evolution. Till quite
recently it seemed irrefutable[12].

'But nevertheless we are constrained to acknowledge that its apparent
power dwindles to nothing in view of the indisputable fact that, if
force and matter have been eternal, all and every natural law must have
resulted by way of necessary consequence.... It does not admit of one
moment's questioning that it is as certainly true that all the exquisite
beauty and melodious harmony of nature follows necessarily as inevitably
from the persistence of force and the primary qualities of matter as it
is certainly true that force is persistent or that matter is extended or
impenetrable[13].... It will be remembered that I dwelt at considerable
length and with much earnestness upon this truth, not only because of
its enormous importance in its bearing upon our subject, but also
because no one has hitherto considered it in that relation.' It was also
pointed out that the coherence and correspondence of the macrocosm of
the universe with the microcosm of the human mind can be accounted for
by the fact that the human mind is only one of the products of general
evolution, its subjective relations necessarily reflecting those
external relations of which they themselves are the product[14].

'§ 5. The next step, however, was to mitigate the severity of the
conclusion that was liable to be formed upon the utter and hopeless
collapse of all the possible arguments in favour of Theism. Having fully
demonstrated that there is no shadow of a positive argument in support
of the theistic theory, there arose the danger that some persons might