Scientific Sophisms. 265 



consequences meet and fit into each other in endless 

 circles of Harmony and of Purpose. And this can only 

 be explained by the fact that what we call Natural Con- 

 sequence is always the conjoint effect of an infinite num- 

 ber of elementary Forces, whose action and reaction are 

 under direction of the Will which we see obeyed, and of 

 the Purposes which we see actually attained." 1 



12. The relation which an organic structure 

 bears to its purpose in Nature is not less capable 

 of certain recognition than the same relation 

 between a machine and its purpose in human 

 art " It is absurd to maintain, for example, 

 that the purpose of the cellular arrangement of 

 material in combining lightness with strength, 

 is a purpose legitimately cognisable by Science 

 in the Menai Bridge, but is not as legitimately 

 cognisable when it is seen in Nature, actually 

 serving the same use. The little Barnacles 

 which crust the rocks at low tide, and which 

 to live there at all must be able to resist the 

 surf, have the building of their shells con- 

 structed strictly with reference to this necessity. 

 It is a structure all hollowed and chambered on 

 the plan which engineers have so lately dis- 

 covered as an arrangement of material by which 

 the power of resisting strain or pressure is mul- 

 tiplied in an extraordinary degree. That shell 



1 The Duke of Argyll's "Reign of Law" (Sixth 

 Edition,), pp. 124 et seg. 



