282 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



solitary cogitations. He considers 'the admirable Structure of the 

 Bodies of every Species of Animal' within his reach; is struck by 

 the detailed adaptations of their faculties to the various conditions of 

 their lives; and soon learns to appreciate their 'Art and Foresight' in 

 the preservation of self and young. "In fine," he declares — and by this 

 time we are, of course, fully aware of the drift of his thought, "I beheld 

 the marks of Wisdom wherever I cast my Eyes. An universal Harmony 

 and Dependence appeared through all the Parts of Creation, and the 

 most neglected Things, when duly examined, were not without their 

 manifest use; and I was everywhere surprised with an apparently wise 

 Design, where the least Design was expected." 



Had our young Natural Philosopher, we ask, been reading the 

 'Essay on Man' on the sly? His 'universal Harmony and Dependence' 

 is only the 'great chain of being 7 over again, and when he further 

 informs us that 'from the works of Nature and Providence' he was 

 inevitably led to the knowledge of the First Mover,' he is simply 

 explaining how he looked 'through Nature up to Nature's God.' In 

 fact, the religious development of Autonous, solitary and untaught, 

 furnishes us with an interesting illustration of the early eighteenth- 

 century argument from design. The familiar discussion follows of 

 'beauty' and 'fitness' as evidences of 'some intelligent Agent,' who is 

 easily shown to be at once all-wise, all-powerful and all-good. All this, 

 indeed, belongs to the 'mere Light of Nature.' But we have only to 

 remember the common eighteenth-century view of the relation of 

 natural and revealed religion to appreciate the importance of the step 

 which the lonely youth had now taken. 



We may observe, in passing, that the conditions of life on the island 

 are highly favorable to an optimistic philosophy. Dwelling in a veri- 

 table little Garden of Eden, where general peace prevails and the red 

 tooth and claw of nature are seldom shown, Autonous has no difficulty 

 in believing in a Providence both omnipotent and benign. This is 

 surely the best of all possible worlds, he might have said, with Leibnitz 

 and Dr. Pangloss; and there is no rude fact to meet him at the first 

 turning of the eye and shake his whole scheme to its foundations. But 

 what if Autonous had been thrown among birds and beasts of prey? 

 Our author has simplified his task by not raising that question. 



Meanwhile the youth is gaining ground in other directions. From 

 what, in the true style of his time, he calls 'the harmonious Chanting 

 of the feathered Tribes,' he infers that speech is the 'method used 

 among men to communicate their minds in conversing one with an- 

 other'; and from the ignis fatuas and the glow-worm he learns some- 

 thing, though not as yet much, of fire and light. He also gets a little 

 practical experience well worth recording. A couple of bottles, saved 

 by his father from the wreck, have been standing all these years 



