NATURAL SELECTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY 26$ 



each day upon the accuracy of the ship's chronometer or on that 

 of the watch of the railway engineer. 



The Duke of Argyll tells us (" Reign of Law " p. 35) the method 

 of creation by means of which the purpose of the serpent's poison 

 is carried into effect, is utterly unknown. 



"Take one instance out of a million. The poison of a deadly 

 snake let us for a moment consider what this is. It is a secre- 

 tion of definite chemical properties which have reference, not only 

 not even mainly to the organism of the animal in which it 

 is developed, but specially to the organism of another animal 

 which it is intended to destroy. Some naturalists have a vague 

 notion that, as regards merely mechanical weapons or organs of 

 attack, they may be developed by use, that legs may become 

 longer by fast running, teeth sharper and longer by much biting. 

 Be it so ; this law of growth, if it exist, is but itself an instru- 

 ment whereby purpose is fulfilled. But how will this law of 

 growth adjust a poison in one animal with such subtle know- 

 ledge of the organization of another that the deadly virus shall in 

 a few minutes curdle the blood, benumb the limbs, and rush in 

 upon the citadel of life? There is but one explanation, a Mind 

 having minute and perfect knowledge of the organization of both, 

 has designed the one to be capable of inflicting death upon the 

 other. The mode of secretion by which this purpose is carried 

 into effect is utterly unknown." 



Belief that this adjustment, and others like it, have been 

 produced by the inheritance of the effects of use, is, as the Duke 

 of Argyll points out, a notion too vague to have any value ; but since 

 natural selection is discovered, no one can assert that there is no 

 scientific explanation ; for the snake which has power to destroy 

 its enemies has such an advantage in the struggle for existence 

 that its survival is no harder to understand than any other natural 

 phenomenon. 



The question that faces the modern teleologist is not whether 

 the contrivances of man and the adjustments of living nature are 

 useful, for this all must admit ; but whether the snare of the 

 fowler gives any clearer or any different evidence of contriv- 

 ance than that given by the bird in whose sight it is spread in 

 vain. 



