12 DARWINIANA. 



though simpler, and better adapted to illustrate natural 

 selection ; because the change of direction — your ne- 

 cessity — acts gradually or successively, instead of ab- 

 ruptly. 



Suppose I hit a man standing obliquely in my rear, 

 by throwing forward a crooked stick, called a boome- 

 rang. How could he know whether the blow was in- 

 tentional or not ? But suppose I had been known to 

 throw boomerangs before ; suppose that, on different 

 occasions, I had before wounded persons by the same, 

 or other indirect and apparently aimless actions ; and 

 suppose that an object appeared to be gained in the 

 result — that definite ends were attained — would it 

 not at length be inferred that my assault, though indi- 

 rect, or apparently indirect, was designed ? 



To make the case more nearly parallel with those 

 it is brought to illustrate, you have only to suppose 

 that, although the boomerang thrown by me went for- 

 ward to a definite place, and at least appeared to sub- 

 serve a purpose, and the bystanders, after a while, 

 could get traces of the mode or the empirical law of its 

 flight, yet they could not themselves do anything with 

 it. It was quite beyond their power to use it. Would 

 they doubt, or deny my intention, on that account? 

 No : they would insist that design on my part must 

 be presumed from the nature of the results; that, 

 though design may have been wanting in any one case, 

 yet the repetition of the result, and from different 

 positions and under varied circumstances, showed that 

 there must have been design. 



Moreover, in the way your case is stated, it seems 

 to concede the most important half of the question, 



