English
For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." — Bacon, "Our Morphology ought not to prejudice our Teleology." — Whtwell. " You have not forgotten I hope," said WolflF, as there was here a slight pause in Blancombe's speech, "your promise to explain, why the argument from design, which you still hold by, does not appear to me so satisfactory as you think it ought." " Perliaps," answered Blancombe, " this will be as convenient a time as any for me to do so. The first impression, I suppose you will allow with people in general, which we derive from the varieties of animal life, is, that they are designed so as to carry out some purpose, or that their structure is full of means applied to ends. The wings of birds, for example, seem intended for flying: just as the webbed feet of water-fowl and the fins of fishes are for swimming; our own hands, with our thumb, as you sec, placed conveniently opposite the fingers, appear designed on purpose for us to have the power of grasping, and certainly if our thumb with its complicated arrangement of joint and muscle had been differently placed where our little finger is, we should have been comparatively helpless; and much more so, if the hand liad ended, as on any principle of chance it might, like a serpent's tail ; just so the claws of fowl in general are arranged with an eye to convenience of walking, or of clinging to their perch ; while the solid hoof of the horse, and indeed liis whole shape, points him out as fitted for the purposes upon which men actually employ him. Nor is it only the general varieties of FINAL CAUSES. 203 animals which wc find adapted to their abodes in air, earth, or water, whether they are beast, bird, reptile, or fish ; but there seems to be even special provision for cases of a peculiar kind. The double stomach of the camel, and its power of enduring privation for a length of time are not only wonderful in them- selves, but appear particularly adapted to the deserts which the creature has to traverse, and have often stirred the admiring gratitude of men who must have perished but for what they hence considered as signs of a providential care. So the long neck which enables the Giraffe to reach its food from branches of trees, and the bodily organisation which enables the Sloth to live on trees, have been remarked as instances of the same kind. But illustrations innumerable, or at least as numerous as the species of living things, might be mentioned. For it is scarcely possible to look at any of the more remarkable kinds of animals, without observing that each has some gift, which perhaps another has not at all, or has in a different form, while each has generally some fitness for its abode, and apparently some purpose to subserve, whether work to do, or only happiness to enjoy. " While however we are making reflexions of this kind, two diflBculties occur to disturb us, which though some persons may exaggerate their force, are not without reason. *' In the first place it turns out, as we look more closely at animals, that these differences, which seemed intended to adapt each for its special position, are variations or deflexions from something radically common to all. An ostrich or a flamingo, for example, is unlike enough to an elephant, or a man. But if you look as it were with an unifying eye at wliat they all have in common, you will find not only a great backbone running through them all, and serving as a channel for the nervous fluid which, as it culminates in the head, we call in each case the brain; but also the wings of one, and the arms of another, correspond in the idea of their outline to the fore legs of a third. Perhaps also something of the same kind may be observed of the fins of fishes. Certainly the web of waterfowl is the growing in a 204 GENERAL TYPES. particular way of animal fibre which is common to other creatures. So the formation of the human scull out of many- bones, which seem multiplied and consolidated into a joint-work of such a kind as to give the amplest room for the swelling of the brain, and the best protection for its delicate tissues, turns out to be on the very same principle which obtains also in fishes, which we should have thought would have no need of such special protection. The people indeed who cut up animals and observe their structure, appear to have agreed, that all living things come under four classes, such as firstly creatures with back-bones, and secondly soft pulpy animals, then thirdly the dwellers in jointed shells, which seem almost distributed over bodies half jointed ; and fourthly those which branch out like a wheel or a star, pretty much in the manner of a vegetable moss growing from a centre. Thus instead of infinitely numerous special forms among animals, we seem at most to have only four great outlines or types, according to the model of which the animal kingdom seems to be distributed ; and some persons even augur that these four classes will ultimately turn out to be mere modifications of one type of animal life; which for my own part I see nothing to prevent our acknowledging, if the facts should happen to turn out so. To all which it must be added, that there seems no wide leap between what we call animals and vegetables, but intermediate beings partake somewhat of the nature of each, drinking in moisture like mosses, yet stretching out their venous limbs, as if with an animal presentiment of nourishment. So that even modem science does to a considerable extent support the favourite theory among Hindd thinkers of life being everywhere one. I have barely indeed hinted at an argument on which much more might be said, if one were to consider professionally the processes of digestion, and respiration, and the circulation of the blood, with other things of the kind. " But now, since the mind of man is so limited in its range, that it is hardly able to consider both sides of a question at once, so on observing the primordial unity of type, out of which SPECIAL AND GENERAL. 205 all special provisions appear to have proceeded, many persons become so absorbed by the general, asto forget and overlook the specially distinctive, which does not, however, become any the less real. Not indeed, tliat they absolutely deny creatures to differ from each other ; but this difference no longer seems to them a substantial thing, as having its root in some Divine forethought, but only an accidental result from the circumstances into which the young life, or its seed, is cast. Things become such and such, they say, by habit, or by the effect of place, climate, or food, or even by the instinctive appetence of food, as any or all of these influences, and others such, may act over vast periods of time. Hence although such men are obliged to confess, if they speak truly, that the origin of life remains to them as mysterious as ever, yet they fancy they understand the processes by which life is adapted in its various manifestations. Hence possibly there may appear to them less need of a super- natural Being, either as Creator or Governor, when like the SAnkhya philosophers they find existing effects contained in causes which are close at hand, and which appear adequate. Or again, if from natural piety, and soundness of reason, they hold fast the belief in a providential Governor, they still apprehend but faintly the argument from design, as urged in application to special instances of what we term contrivance. The world becomes to such speculators a flux, rather than a creation. " So far I conceive myself to have stated fairly one reason why the argument from design may be obscured to your mind consciously, and perhaps also to our Hindii friends, without how- ever their being ready to give a distinct account of the process." "Yes," here said Wolff, "I think you have stated it well enough." "Then again I suppose," resumed Blancombe, "that there comes in simultan^usly the observation of many instances of failure as regards special provision. Desires, for example, the gratification of which is ordinarily attended with pleasure, and which so far we should allege as instances of the Divine goodness, are often frustrated, so as to cause in particular cases 206 SPECIAL, RELATIVE TO MAN. exceeding pain, and even madness or death.