376 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



reciprocated by the action of another part. Isolating the 

 question of design from these customaiy entanglements, 

 it is apparent that, when a case of mechanical coadjust- 

 ment is presented, it is not pertinent to consider whether 

 it is a product of man or of nature. It either implies 

 design absolutely, or it does not imply design at all. The 

 same combination cannot imply design when viewed as a 

 human product, and have no significance or allowable in- 

 terpretation when viewed as a natural product. The con- 

 sideration that it has come into existence. by a method of 

 evolution, or by any other method, is as alien from the 

 question as if the method had been by an envelope-making 

 machine, or by carpentry, or smithery. It does not add 

 to the conclusiveness of the statement to suggest that a 

 method of evolution may and must have been established 

 by design, and that consequently the ends which it at- 

 tained may and must have been designed, both in general 

 and in particular. The suggestion, however, is valid, and 

 is perfectly in parallelism with the inference of design 

 directly from adjustment. If the recognition of design, 

 therefore, is legitimate, without any regard to the teleo- 

 logical significance of the products of adjustment, the 

 most radical profession of nescience of the " designs of 

 Nature" may admit that some design is revealed in the 

 simple fact of structural adjustment, even if it were not 

 designed to produce what it produces. 



This is not that remote and hypothetical admission of 

 design which recognizes simply the possibility that the 

 whole system of nature may exist for some design; but 

 it is an affirmative and necessary recognition of design 

 as the logical antecedent of all coordinations interpreta- 

 ble in terms of intelligence. 



