MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 297 



mah, it may be very difficult to say at what point intelligence begins 

 to manifest itself; our attention is concentrated, therefore, upon those 

 functions which appear to be the result of purely mechanical arrange- 

 ments, acted upon by external stimuli. The animal becomes to our 

 pei-ception an automaton, and in fact, by excising some of the nervous 

 organs last developed in its growth, we can render an adult animal 

 an automaton, capable of performing only those habitual actions to 

 which its brain, when in perfect condition, had educated the muscles 

 of voluntary motion. On the other hand, commencing with the high- 

 est group in each type, and going downward, either in striictural com- 

 plication, or in age of individual, it is impossible to fix the limit at 

 which intelligence ceases to be apparent. 



I have in this subject, as in that of tracing the past history of our 

 insects, in the first part of this address, preferred the latter mode of 

 investigation ; taking those things which are nearest to us in time or 

 structure as a basis for the study of those more remote. 



The second consideration is, since it is so difficult for us to under- 

 stand the mental processes, whether rational or instinctive (I care 

 not by wliat name they are called), of beings more or less similar but 

 inferior to ourselves, we should exercise great caution when we have 

 occasion to speak of the designs of one who is infinitely greater. Let 

 us give no place to the crude speculations of would-be teleologists, 

 who are, indeed, in great part, refuted already by the progress of 

 science, which continually exhibits to us higher and more beautiful 

 relations between the phenomena of Nature " than it liath entered 

 into the mind of man to conceive." Let not our vanity lead us to be- 

 lieve that, because God has deigned to guide our steps a few paces 

 on the road of truth, we are justified in speaking as if he had taken 

 us into intimate companionship, and informed us of all his counsels. 



If I have exposed my views on these subjects to you in an accept- 

 able manner, you will perceive that, in minds capable of receiving such 

 impressions, biology can indicate the existence of a creative or direc- 

 tive power, possessing attributes some of which resemble our own, 

 and controlling operations which we may feebly comprehend. Thus 

 far natural theology, and no further. 



What, then, is the strict relation of natural liistory or biology to 

 that great mass of learning and influence which is commonly called 

 theology ; and to that smaller mass of belief and action which is called 

 religion ? 



Some express the relation very briefly, by saying that science and 

 religion are opposed to each other ; others, again, that they have 

 nothing in common. These expressions are true of certain classes of 

 minds ; but the greater number of thinking and educated persons see 

 that, though the ultimate truths taught by each are of quite distinct 

 nature, and can by no means come in conflict, inasmuch as they have 

 no point in common, yet so far as these truths are embodied in hu- 



