THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHAUSEY. 55 



general tendency. It might be argued that the 

 wonderful laws revealed by Kepler and Newton^* 

 have demonstrated, even more strongly than was 

 before conjectured, that necessity was the sole 

 determining cause of the movements of the planetary 

 worlds ; and what need, it is asked, can there be of 

 a superior intelligence to regulate that which is 

 necessary ? Thus we find some of the names which 

 have become glorious in astronomy, inscribed among 

 the ranks of atheism. On the other hand, those 

 who study living beings are every moment encoun- 

 tering such a vast accumulation of unexpected facts, 

 that they may perhaps at first sight be tempted to 

 believe in the absence of order. But the further 

 they advance on this path of inquiry, in which nature 

 so frequently presents herself under the aspect of 

 the marvellous, the less frequently these apparent 

 deviations from order will arrest their attention^ 

 while mutual relations which before were not even 

 suspected will be ever presenting themselves to 

 view, and contrasts of the most striking character will 

 give way to harmony and obvious unity of purpose. 

 Although some facts may indeed seem to militate 

 against general opinion, and the most rational 

 theories may appear to crumble into dust before a 

 reality which the observer was unable to foresee, he 

 will not be the less ready to trace the touch of that 

 all-wise and all-powerful hand, which has every- 

 where diffused life over the surface of our o-lobe, 



* [A brief sketch of the chief scientific discoveries of Kepler and 

 Newton is transferred to the Appendix, Note VI.] 

 £ 4 



