Q 



02 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [xm. 



which helped all variations in the direction of an accu- 

 rate time-keeper, and checked all those in other directions ; 

 then it is obvious that the force of Paley's argument 

 would be gone. For it would be demonstrated that an 

 apparatus thoroughly well adapted to a particular pur- 

 pose might be the result of a method of trial and error 

 worked by unintelligent agents, as well as of the direct 

 application of the means appropriate to that end, by an 

 intelligent agent. 



Now it appears to us that what we have here, for illus- 

 tration's sake, supposed to be done with the watch, is 

 exactly what the establishment of Darwin's Theory will 

 do for the organic world. For the notion that every 

 organism has been created as it is and launched straight 

 at a purpose, Mr. Darwin substitutes the conception of 

 something which may fairly be termed a method of trial 

 and error. Organisms vary incessantly ; of these varia- 

 tions the few meet with surrounding conditions which 

 suit them and thrive; the many are unsuited and be- 

 come extinguished. 



According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle 

 bullet fired straight at a mark ; according to Darwin, 

 organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits some- 

 thing and the rest fall wide. 



For the teleologist an organism exists because it was 

 made for the conditions in which it is found ; for the 

 Darwinian an organism exists because, out of many of 

 its kind, it is the only one which has been able to persist 

 in the conditions in which it is found. 



Teleology implies that the organs of every organism 

 are perfect and cannot be improved ; the Darwinian 

 theory simply affirms that they work well enough to 

 enable the organism to hold its own against such com- 

 petitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of 

 indefinite improvement. But an example may bring 



