By proving the existence of the causes that produce it, we have shown
the presence of a mechanical tendency in our social state; the same
thing may be done in another way, by proving the existence of effects
that flow from it. The truest index of a people's condition is found in
the meaning which they attach to certain, words. A history of the word
_virtus_, manhood, is a history of the social condition of the Roman
people. If, then, we find that the conceptions which we attach to such
words as God, man, and society are mechanical, then society must have
such a tendency, for these words lie at the foundation of all
government, all social movements, and all individual actions.
First, the meaning of the word God. We, as a people, neither deny nor
pretend to deny, in words, the existence of a Being, infinite in power
and wisdom, who governs the universe according to his will; yet
practically we have ignored His existence, and deified the laws of
nature instead, given up the idea of a free volition, worshipping a
mechanical necessity of cause and effect. The cause of this dates back
to Bacon's 'Novum Organum,' the introduction of the Inductive
Philosophy. He laid down the principle that nature must be interrogated
if she would be understood, that from a careful study of the effects we
must deduce the cause, instead of presuming the cause, and explaining
the effects on this hypothesis.
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