340 



BLIND NA TURE. 



Looking from his stand-point, the philosopher thinks he 

 detects many imperfections in naturally constructed ap- 

 paratus, faulty designs, faulty construction. Materials, he 

 thinks, might have been made use of that would have been 

 more lasting and less likely to have been damaged by use. 

 Arrangements differing from those adopted might have 

 worked better. The would-be constructer points out end- 

 less serious defects, arrangements more complex than need 

 be, or that are useless, or redundant, and that might have 

 been omitted altogether with advantage to the organism. 

 All this he argues renders it impossible for him to accept as 

 reasonable or true the ideas of Design and Omnipotence. 



But after all, does not the mechanical philosopher con- 

 vict himself of being more blind than the blind nature of 

 his imagination ? Does he not draw conclusions without 

 thorough enquiry ? Has he had the patience to examine with 

 sufficient minuteness and care the arrangements he so 

 severely criticises ? He accepts generalizations without ac- 

 quainting himself with all the facts, and acts as if he were an 

 infallible teacher of certain facts of knowledge before he has 

 acquired as much information upon some points as an hour's 

 really intelligent observation might have furnished. In his 

 philosophy he enunciates half truths and is but too skilful in 

 the selection and arrangement of facts and arguments which, 

 upon superficial examination, seem to point to that particular 

 goal which he has determined to reach. 



Some, perhaps, think it probable that if the several parts 

 of a living being had been made like the parts of a me- 

 chanism and then put together, the resulting creature might 

 have been more perfect than any being in existence ; but 

 there are so many difficulties in the way of realising the sug- 



