52 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



which it was trying to master, nor yet how great were 

 the resources of that art. A person, who knew all about 

 swimming, if from some bank he could watch our sup- 

 posed bird's first attempt to scramble over a short space 

 of deep water, would at once declare that the bird was 

 trying to swim if not actually swimming. Provided 

 then that there is a very little perception of, and pre- 

 science concerning, the means whereby the next desired 

 end may be attained, it matters not how little in advance 

 that end may be of present desires or faculties ; it is 

 still reached through purpose, and must be called pur- 

 posive. Again, no matter how many of these small 

 steps be taken, nor how absolute was the want of 

 purpose or prescience concerning any but the one being 

 actually taken at any given moment, this does not bar 

 the result from having been arrived at through design 

 and purpose. If each one of the small steps is pur- 

 posive the result is purposive, though there was never 

 purpose extended over more than one, two, or perhaps 

 at most three, steps at a time. 



Returning to the art of painting for an example, are 

 we to say that the proficiency which such a student as 

 was supposed above will certainly attain, is not due to 

 design, merely because it was not until he had already 

 become three parts excellent that he knew the full pur- 

 port of all that he had been doing ? When he began 

 he had but vague notions of what he would do. He 

 had a wish to learn to represent nature, but the line into 

 which he has settled down has probably proved very dif- 

 ferent from that which he proposed to himself originally. 

 Because he has taken advantage of his accidents, is it, 



