310 WALKS AND TALKS. 



represent Being. This reasoning is so simple and so sponta- 

 neous that it has been held in high esteem ever since the epoch 

 of Aristotle. 



But there are some persons who tell us that the design in a 

 pump is obvious, because we can fathom the mind which made 

 it; but the design of the pump in us, which does the same 

 work, can not be granted^ because we neither know who made 

 it, nor for what purpose it was made, nor whether there was 

 any purpose. This language seems very strange to an un- 

 sophisticated intelligence ; but human intuitions are not to be 

 balked by any such studied and presumptuous nonsense. I 

 set it down as a first principle of intelligence, that coordina- 

 tion in structure or action, implies intention. Finding things 

 so coordinated in nature for instance, the ball and socket of 

 a joint we feel inclined to affirm that they were intended to 

 serve as a joint ; and I believe they were. But suppose they 

 were not so intended ; these are structures most accurately 

 adjusted to each other that is not the result of chance. 

 There are not only the fitting shapes, but the ligament which 

 holds them together ; the investing membrane which incloses the 

 joint in a bag ; the sinovial fluid which lubricates it ; the solid 

 bosses on the bones, suitable for the attachment of muscles ; 

 the muscles capable of working the joint, and no end of other 

 structures all tributary to the action of the joint. If now, 

 after all, we pretend to complete ignorance of any use or ac- 

 tion designed in these structures, we can not possibly resist the 

 conviction that these various things came together through some 

 intention. Coordination of parts simply and alone regard- 

 less too, of the authorship implies intention. That is a prin- 

 ciple of the universal reason. To question it is to dispute 

 with the "multiplication table." 



Glance next, at the prevalence of plans in the world. 

 There is the plan of vertebrate structure ; I have often made 

 mention of it. In the modification of the plan for beings so 

 diverse, with such different homes and native elements, and 

 instincts and functions, as those which have been formed, it 

 is wonderful that a simple conception should persist through all 



