192 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



and spiritual faculties, and in teaching him to 

 reverence and adore the Almighty Designer and 

 Creator of all we see around us. 



We are quite accustomed now to the idea that 

 every structure in a plant or in an animal has a 

 special object ; else it would not be there. But it is 

 generally supposed that that object must be a useful 

 one to its possessor, for that is the teaching of 

 natural selection. Now, why should we limit our- 

 selves to so narrow a view? We know that many 

 structures exist which are not, and never have been, 

 of use to their owner. Is it therefore necessary to 

 believe that they are of no use at all ? If we allow 

 that the ultimate object of organic evolution is the 

 development of man, not only physically, but also 

 mentally and morally, I do not see how we can 

 escape from the conclusion that all these so-called 

 useless structures, all that give us beauty and variety, 

 have been specially designed for his education. 



Three hundred years ago geologists argued that 

 fossils could not have been either simple freaks of 

 nature , or the outcome of fermentation in the rocks 

 as had been previously supposed because that 

 would imply that the Creator had laid traps for man's 

 intelligence and had caused him to use his intellect 

 for the purpose of leading him astray. Thirty years 

 ago the same line of argument was used by zoologists, 

 with reference to degenerate organs, and to the sin- 

 gular vagaries seen during the development of 

 animals. It was urged that there must be some 

 reason for these things, and that that reason could 

 not have been to deceive man. In both cases the 



