122 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. LXiii. 



In this sense, and in this sense alone, the word chance, 

 or fortuitous vari'Uion, is eniployed by Darwin. 



This is the only rational meaning of the word chance. 

 It was the meaning given by Auaxagoras, who called 

 chance, " a cause unperceived by human logic." 



T'/)r Ti'xip' uSj^Aov (liTLav uvOeojirivoj Xoyixrjiu). 



It is tlie same sense in which I employ the word 

 when I say, " I met a man on the street, by chance." My 

 only idea is, that I do not know what was the cause of my 

 meeting him. In old times, similar objections were made to 

 the use of the word law ; but all educated men now use 

 the words, law of gravitation, law of surface tension, etc. 



In the same way, all educated men should use the word 

 chance, in tlie sense of an effect, the cause of which is 

 unknow^n to the collective human race. 



It follows, of course, that there is no evidence of design 

 in anytliing done by chance, — design, there no doubt is in 

 mind of the Deity ; but evidence of design, to the mind of 

 man, there can be none. 



]\Ien see evidence of design in the government of the 

 universe, in the rotation of the planets, in tiie ebb and 

 How of the tide, and wherever they liave been aide to 

 formulate any law. 



If there was evidence of design in the variation of 

 organisms, it would leave the realm of chance, and enter 

 that of law. There is, therefore, no difficulty in under- 

 standing Darwin, if we use the word chance in its true 

 sense, and never in any other. Chance is an effect whose 

 cause is not known to us. 



The glory of Darwin is, tliat he lias not only adih'd 

 many fair fields to the reahn of knowledge, but he has 

 also shown us tlie nature of the Ijoundary wall that limits 

 our kingdom. 



That wall, we may never be able to pass ; but it is 

 son)ethiiig to know where it stands, and what sort of a 

 wall it is ; and this knowledge we owe to Darwin. 



Darwin's laws were formulated princi[)ally _ from his 

 studies of animals, and of flowering plants, ferns, and mosses, 

 — three groups of sexual plants. We may ask, Ifow far 

 do his laws api)ly to alga; and fungi, many of which are 

 asexual ? 



