130 Instinct and its Lessons 



They play their part, and a supremely important part, 

 in sustaining those laws of nature, the investigation of 

 which is the whole object of science, as their harmony 

 is her boast. Was such a work achieved without a 

 plan? Did Nature grope her way blindfold to its ac- 

 complishment, unconscious of the reign of law she was 

 herself establishing ? That order of the universe which, 

 when recognized, overpowers our minds with admiration, 

 was it no more esteemed than chaos till our minds 

 recognized it? As in a looking-glass there can be no 

 image till there be an eye to see it, was the idea of 

 harmony unsuggested by the facts of Nature till the 

 natural philosopher arose upon the world? So must 

 it have been unless there was a purpose that saw itself 

 reflected in their accomplishment: it would appear to 

 be as imaginable a proposition that two and two did 

 not make four till the first multiplication table was 

 constructed, or that the properties of triangles were non- 

 existent till geometric man was developed. 



Science, moreover, looks confidently forward, as well 

 as back. She counts on the discovery of new laws, 

 and the disclosure of marvels in Nature as yet unknown. 

 The principal organ in this country announces itself 

 as destined to set forth from week to week "the grand 

 results of scientific research." What are the elements 

 of the calculation by which these are prognosticated? 

 Can we assume that we shall find in Nature fresh proofs 

 of order, unless we be assured that order has been 

 there before us, and that all the phenomena we discover 

 are traces of a power that has made a weight for the 

 winds and weighed the waters in measure, given a law 

 to the rains and appointed a way to the sounding 

 storms ? 



