EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY. 373 



one of a tliousand or of a million acliieves its destiny. 

 Those that Ml into fitting places and in fitting num- 

 bers find beneficent provision, and, if they were to 

 wake to consciousness, might argue design from the 

 adaptation of their surroundings to their well-being. 

 But what of the vast majority that perish ? As of 

 the light of the sun, sent forth in all directions, only 

 a minute portion is intercepted by the earth or other 

 planets where some of" it may be utilized for present 

 or future life, so of potential organisms, or organisms 

 begun, no larger proportion attain the presumed end 

 of their creation. 



" Destruction, therefore, is the rule ; life is the exception. 

 We notice chiefly the exception — namely, the lucky prize-win- 

 ner in the lottery — and take but little thought about the losers, 

 who vanish from our field of observation, and whose number 

 it is often impossible to estimate. But, in this question of de- 

 sign, the losers are important witnesses. If the maxim '■audi 

 alteram i)artem ' is applicable anywhere, it is applicable here. 

 We must hear both sides, and the testimony of the seed fallen 

 on good ground must be corrected by the testimony of that 

 which falls by the wayside, or on the rocks. When we find, as 

 we have seen above, that the sowing is a scattering at random, 

 and that, for one being provided for and living, ten thousand 

 perish unprovided for, we must allow that the existing order 

 would be accounted as the worst disorder in any human sphere 

 of action." 



It is urged, moreover, that all this and nnicli more 

 applies equally to the past stages of our earth and its 

 immensely long and varied succession of former in- 

 habitants, different from, yet intimately connected 

 with, the present. It is not one specific creation tliat 

 the question has to deal with — as was thought not very 



