It was my habit to make full notes of the actual facts stated
by him in the more formal parts of these evening recitals, and sometimes
even of his comments; and I regret that I did not do so at the
particular moment to which I am now alluding. It was not until the
following morning that I made a few memoranda of the closing incident of
the evening. With the help of these notes and a fairly good memory, I
hope to be able at this late day to describe for the reader an episode
that I should dislike entirely to omit from this narrative.
He spoke for several minutes of the wonderful power of nature to
accomplish certain ends--the force that accomplishes which, he termed a
_purpose_ in nature; and he made some remarks along the line of a
contention, that the development of all matter into higher forms was
what he called an unconscious intention, explaining that there was no
paradox in the expression "unconscious intention"; for, he said, even
men, individual men, are constantly performing a thousand acts that have
an unconscious purpose or intention--as, for instance, the automatic
action of winding a watch without the slightest exercise of will, and
without remembering the action.
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