operation as real causes, are unwilling to
acknowledge any active powers in _matter_, and are anxious to show that
_mind_, and _mind only_, can be an efficient cause. We see no reason for
this extreme jealousy of "second causes" either in the mental or the
material world. In the mental world, they cannot be denied, as distinct,
although subordinate and dependent, agencies, without virtually making
God's will _the only cause_ in Nature, and thereby representing Him as
the _cause of sin_, if sin, indeed, could exist on that supposition, or
without destroying the distinct individuality and personal
responsibility of man. Man must be regarded as a distinct, though
dependent, _agent_, and, as such, a real, though subordinate, _cause_;
otherwise every action, whether good or evil, must be ascribed directly
and immediately to the efficiency of the Divine will, and _to that
alone_. And in the material world, "second causes" can as little be
dispensed with; for every theory, even the most meagre, must acknowledge
the existence of _some_ power or property in matter, were it only the
passive power or _vis inertiae_ on which all the laws of motion depend.
And if _this_ can be admitted as a power inherent in matter and
inseparable from it, we cannot see why the existence of _other_ powers,
not incompatible with this, should be deemed a whit more derogatory to
the dominion and providence of God. In a certain sense, indeed, God's
will may be said to be the First, the Supreme Cause of all, since
nothing can happen without His permission or appointment: but, in this
sense, the existence of "natural laws" and the operation of "second
causes" are by no means excluded; they are only held to have been
originated at first, and ever afterwards sustained by the Divine Will,
the latter being _supreme_, the former _subordinate_. It may also be
said, in a certain sense, that Mind only is active:[193] for all the
properties and powers of matter are the results of the Divine volition,
and their mode of action is regulated and determined by "laws" which God
has imposed; but it were unphilosophical, as well as unscriptural, to
infer from this that He is the only Agent in the Universe; it is enough
to say that He created the system of Nature, and that He still upholds
and governs it by His Providence.

It must be evident that the speculations to which we have referred have
a close connection with the argument, founded on natural evidence, for
the bein