512 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



exclusion of them, as attempted by the school of 

 which we speak, is a fundamental and most mis- 

 chievous errour. 



3. Thus, though the physiologist may persuade 

 himself that he ought not to refer to final causes, 

 we find that, practicalfy, he cannot help doing this ; 

 and that the event shows that his practical habit is 

 right and well-founded. But he may still cling to 

 the speculative difficulties and doubts in which such 

 subjects may be involved by a priori considera- 

 tions. He may say, as Saint-Hilaire does say 17 , "I 

 ascribe no intention to God, for I mistrust the 

 feeble powers of my reason. I observe facts merely, 

 and go no further. I only pretend to the charac- 

 ter of the historian of what is." " I cannot make 

 nature an intelligent being who does nothing in 

 vain, who acts by the shortest mode, who does all 

 for the best." 



I am not going to enter at any length into this 

 subject, which, thus considered, is metaphysical and 

 theological, rather than physiological. If any one 

 maintain, as some have maintained, that no mani- 

 festation of means apparently used for ends in 

 nature, can prove the existence of design in the 

 Author of nature, this is not the place to refute 

 such an opinion in its general form. But I think it 

 may be worth while to show, that even those who 

 incline to such an opinion, still cannot resist the 

 necessity which compels men to assume, in organ- 

 ized beings, the existence of an end. 

 17 Phil Zool p. 10. 



