380 DARWINIANA. 



adaptations could continue, runs counter to such anal- 

 ogies as we have to guide us, and leads to a conclu- 

 sion which few men ever rested in. It need not much 

 trouble us that we are incapable of drawing clear 

 lines of demarkation between mere utilities, contin- 

 gent adaptations, and designed contrivances in Na- 

 ture ; for we are in much the same condition as re- 

 spects human affairs and those of lower animals. 

 What results are comprehended in a plan, and what 

 are incidental, is often more than we can readily de- 

 termine in matters open to observation. And in plans 

 executed mediately or indirectly, and for ends com- 

 prehensive and far-reaching, many purposed steps 

 must appear to us incidental or meaningless. But the 

 higher the intelligence, the more fully will the inci- 

 dents enter into the plan, and the more universal 

 and interconnected may the ends be. Trite as the 

 remark is, it would seem still needful to insist that 

 the failure of a finite being to compass the designs of 

 an infinite mind should not invalidate its conclusions 

 respecting proximate ends which he can understand. 

 It is just as in physical science, where, as our knowl- 

 edge and grasp increase, and happy discoveries are 

 made, wider generalizations are formed, which com- 

 monly comprehend, rather than destroy, the earlier 

 and partial ones. So, too, the " sterility " of the 

 old doctrine of final causes in science, and the pre- 

 sumptuous uses made of them, when it was sup- 

 posed that every adapted arrangement or structure 

 existed for this or that direct and special end, and 

 for no other, can hardly be pressed to the conclusion 

 that there are no final causes, i. e., ultimate reasons 



