INTRODUCTION. 



How came these adaptations about, is a question coeval, we may be 

 sure, with the first recognition of the adaptations themselves. The 

 answers to it fell of old, as ever since, into two m ain divisionsj One"*; 

 group of philosophers there was, who fancied that they found an J- , 

 adequat e £ause for the phenomena io^he necessary operations of the\ 

 inherent properties of matter ; while-^bther sought a s olution in thdv n 

 intelligent action of a benevolent and foreseeing agent, whom theyj 

 called God, or Nature, as the case might be. Look, for instance, sai^ 

 these latter, at the back-bone. See how marvellously it has been con- 

 structed to suit the animal's requirements ; not made of one solid mass, 

 as is the femur or the humerus, but subdivided into small pieces, so as 

 to allow of the animal making such motions and bendings as it may 

 require ; while at the same time, in spite of its subdivision, so firmly 

 bound together are its parts, as to supply a rigid support to the frame.' 

 Or look again at the alimentary canal and at the blood-vessels. Eac h) 

 part requires a supply of matter for its due nourishment. What but 

 foresight and intelligent purpose can have made these channels through- 

 out the body to meet that necessity ? Or see again your hand. Notice 

 how admirably it is made ; what an exquisite instrument for the purposes 

 of an intelligent animal, and how useless for one without such mental 

 capacity; and then consider that it is man, and man alone, that has 

 been endowed with it. Is it possible not to discern a foreseeing 

 intention in this limitation of the organ to the creature that alone can 

 use it with advantage ? In all this, said the materialist, you are mis- 

 taken. The foetus in its mother's womb is straitened for space, and 

 forced to lie in a bent attitude. Its backbone gives way to the bendings, 

 and is necessarily broken up into a series of short pieces.^ The animal 

 then makes the best use of it it may. As for the stomach, the intestines, 

 and the blood-vessels,' they are simply formed by the fluid in the animal 

 substance, driven hither and thither by the motions of that substance, 



1 D. P. ii. 9, 4. 2 D. P. i. I, 16. 3 D, p, j. j^ 21. 



