  Ward’s account might be profitably compared with a similar one provided by Charles Sanders Peirce in his important essay of 1891, ‘The Architecture of Theories.’ Here, Peirce advocates the view that “the only intelligible theory of the universe is that of objective idealism, that matter is effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws” (153). Furthermore, he contends that “the only possible way of accounting for the laws of nature and for uniformity in general is to suppose them results of evolution. This supposes them not to be absolute, not to be obeyed precisely. It makes an element of indeterminacy, spontaneity, or absolute chance in nature” (148).