Scientific Sophisms. 251 



least important of the three What forces, and 

 what laws operated in their construction ? 



That the final form of the pyramid expresses 

 the thought of the " invisible master," whether 

 Cheops or Cephrenes, is, on all hands, admitted. 

 How then can it be denied as it is denied 

 that the crystal expresses the thought of any 

 intelligence whatever ? 



3. But, in the crystal, " the molecular blocks 

 are j^-posited." And, in like manner, the 

 valves of a steam-engine are said to be " self- 

 adjusting." But the self-adjustment of the 

 valves, like the self-positing of the molecules, 

 must ultimately be referred to Mind. Except 

 as the result of the operations of a designing 

 mind, there are no valves "self-adjusting," and 

 no molecular blocks "self-posited." 



Are we asked to dispense with Mind, because 

 "the agencies by which the crystals are built, 

 are incomparably superior to the agencies em- 

 ployed in the building of the pyramids " ? To 

 take this ground is to assume that the more 

 exquisite the agency employed, the less mani- 

 fest, or the less certain, are the evidences of 

 the operation of mind : an assumption directly 

 contrary to the fact. 



4. The human mind, as Professor Tyndall 

 himself describes it, refuses to rest satisfied with 



