278 CREATION BY LAW. 



to the action of forces which are demonstrably self- 

 adjusting. 



Moreover, when he had sufficiently extended his 

 inquiries, he would find, that every evil effect which 

 he would imagine must be the result of non-adjust- 

 ment does somewhere or other occur, only it is not 

 always evil. Looking on a fertile valley, he would 

 perhaps say " If the channel of this river were not 

 well adjusted, if for a few miles it sloped the wrong 

 way, the water could not escape, and all this luxuri- 

 ant valley, full of human beings, would become a 

 waste of waters." Well, there are hundreds of such 

 cases. Every lake is a valley " wasted by water," 

 and in some cases (as the Dead Sea) it is a positive 

 evil, a blot upon the harmony and adaptation of the 

 surface of the earth. Again, he might say " If rain 

 did not fall here, but the clouds passed over us to some 

 other regions, this verdant and highly cultivated plain 

 would become a desert." And there are such deserts 

 over a large part of the earth, which abundant rains 

 would convert into pleasant dwelling-places for man. 

 Or he might observe some great navigable river, 

 and reflect how easily rocks, or a steeper channel 

 in places, might render it useless to man; and a 

 little inquiry would show him hundreds of rivers in 

 every part of the world, which are thus rendered 

 useless for navigation. 



Exactly the same thing occurs in organic nature. 

 We see some one wonderful case of adjustment, some 

 unusual development of an organ, but we pass over the 



