[28] _i.e._, illegitimate in a _relative_ sense. The conclusion is
legitimate enough in a _formal_ sense, and as establishing a probability of
some _unassignable_ degree of value. But it would be illegitimate if this
quality of indefiniteness were disregarded, and the conclusion supposed to
possess the same character of actual probability as it has of formal
definition.
[29] In order not to burden the text with details, I have presented these
reflections in their most general terms. Thus, if it be granted that cosmic
harmony results from the combined action of general laws, and that these
laws are the necessary result of the primary qualities of force and matter,
this the most general statement of the atheistic position includes all more
special considerations as a genus includes its species; and therefore it
would not signify, for the purposes of the atheistic argument, whether or
not any such more special considerations are possible. Nevertheless, for
the sake of completeness, I may here observe that we are not wholly without
indications in nature of the physical causation whereby the effect of
cosmic harmony is produced. The universal tendency of motion to become
rhythmical--itself, as Mr. Spencer was the first to show, a necessary
consequence of the persistence of force--is, so to speak, a conservative
tendency: it sets a premium against natural cataclysms. But a more
important consideration is this,--that during the evolution of natural law
in the way suggested in Chapter IV.
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