374 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



all right thinking recognizes it as sophistical. It is im- 

 possible to grasp the meaning of law with the whole 

 breadth of the intelligence, without apprehending it both 

 as a rule and as an expression of ordaining will. 



VI. As law, in its existence, proclaims necessarily a 

 purposive ordination, so the correlation of events under 

 law must necessarily be regarded as a result purposed in 

 law. If law exists as the result of purpose, there must 

 be a reason why it has been purposed ; and the reason 

 why can exist nowhere but in the results impressed by 

 the law, that is, in the results which take place accord- 

 ing to the .law. The coordination of results, therefore, is 

 as much the expression of purpose as the law which em- 

 bodies the principle of coordination. The fact that events 

 take place according to law, instead of proving their dis- 

 connection with purpose, is the very circumstance which 

 demonstrates their dependence on purpose. Caprice and 

 confusion are not the marks of intelligence ; high con- 

 trolling intelligence always seeks its ends by fixed methods 

 of action. The more clearly we discern the reign of uni- 

 versal law, the more clearly we discern the evidence of 

 general design in the phenomena of the universe. The 

 question whether events take place through law or through 

 design is destitute of rational meaning ; because, first, 

 events are produced neither by law nor by design ; and, 

 secondly, if they are produced by design, it is, as we see, 

 according to law; and if they are produced by law, it is 

 according to design in the law. Law and design are so 

 far from being mutually exclusive that, in truth, they 

 are mutually inclusive. There is no law without design; 

 and in nature the design of the law is worked out un- 

 der the law. 



