161 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Depths 

 Design 



there are adhesive plasters nicely adjusted 

 to fit their proboscides, or to catch their 

 brows; there are hair-triggers carefully 

 set in their necessary path, communicating 

 with explosive shells, which project the pol- 

 len-stalks with unerring aim upon their 

 bodies. There are, in short, an infinitude of 

 adjustments, for an idea of which I must 

 refer my readers to Mr. Darwin's inimitable 

 powers of observation and description ad- 

 justments all contrived so as to secure the 

 accurate conveyance of the pollen of the one 

 flow T er to its precise destination in the struc- 

 ture of another. ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 

 1, p. 22. (Burt.) 



785. DESIGN IN EVOLUTION Plan 

 Extended through Ages Development of 

 Bird. So, if we go back in thought to the 

 origin of the race, as we can by actual ob- 

 servation to that of the individual, the old 

 conception of " design " which was based on 

 the idea of an original bird-creation does 

 not lose any of its applicability, if we find 

 reason to believe that the original progenitor 

 was a protoplasmic " jelly-speck," certain of 

 whose descendants have passed through a 

 series of forms progressively improving in 

 structure and capacity, and culminating in 

 the perfected bird. We merely substitute for 

 the idea of continuous uniform descent, that 

 of the " progressive development " of the 

 race, as representing the mode in which our 

 present bird has come to be; deeming the 

 latter the more probable, because we find it 

 correspond with the embryonic history of 

 every bird now existing. The original pro- 

 genitor was just as " potentially " the race, 

 whether called into existence as a proto- 

 plasmic "jelly-speck," or as a fully devel- 

 oped bird. And the evidences of " design," 

 which on the doctrine of " special creations " 

 we find in the construction of the original 

 bird, and in the provision for the continu- 

 ous propagation of its own type, we equally 

 find in the production of the original " jelly- 

 speck," and in the evolutionary process by 

 which the very lowest type of organization 

 has been progressively elevated to one of the 

 highest. The marvelous succession of 

 changes by which a chick is evolved from the 

 germ-spot of the fowl's egg in the short 

 period of two-and-twenty days assuredly 

 does not become less worthy of our admira- 

 tion if looked at as the abbreviated repeti- 

 tion of one which has extended continuously 

 over millions of years. CARPENTER Nature 

 and Man, lect. 15, p. 432. (A., 1889.) 



786. DESIGN IN NATURE Difficul- 

 ties Unsolvable when We Attribute Our 

 Thoughts to Cod Limits of Human Intelli- 

 gence (Is. Iv, 8-9). We do not only ac- 

 knowledge the impossibility of grasping the 

 management of this divine wisdom on our 

 part, but we also gladly acknowledge that 

 when we speak of divine wisdom, of reason 

 in Nature, of having an end in view, of a 

 world-plan, or of an object in the world's 

 development, we are speaking in human 



terms of that which, after all, is high above 

 everything human, that we are anthropo- 

 morphizing. Whether we speak of what is 

 conformable to a design or the part of a 

 highest reason, or of a divine wisdom in Na- 

 ture, we are in both instances speaking ac- 

 cording to human intuitions and power of 

 thought, of that of which we have no cor- 

 responding form, have absolutely no anal- 

 ogy. And he who thinks of the divine 

 wisdom as so human that it first decides 

 upon an object and an aim and then makes 

 a plan, and afterwards considers the means 

 for the attainment of this aim, and finally 

 applies the required means, is dragging the 

 power of the Eternal down within the limits 

 and the changes of time. Or he who repre- 

 sents to himself God's management as if he 

 were enthroned in some high place from 

 whence he invades the world for specific pur- 

 poses, now here, now there, in order to remove 

 some disturbance, or to repair something 

 that human beings have spoiled, he who 

 draws the Infinite Spirit into the limits of 

 space gets himself involved in unsolvable 

 difficulties, into contradictions from which 

 there is no escape. GRAUE Darwinismus 

 und Sittlichkeit, p. 65, in Deutsche Zeit- und 

 Streit-Fragen, vol. viii, p. 505. (Translated 

 for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



787. DESIGN IN THE SEA-ANEMONE 



Coordination of Parts for Result. Look, 

 for example, at a sea-anemone in the act of 

 feeding, and see how its multiple tentacles 

 attach themselves to a piece of fish, or to the 

 shell of a mussel or periwinkle, and draw it 

 by their united contraction into the crea- 

 ture's stomach. The adaptation is not less 

 perfect because the action is so simple; 

 nothing could be conceived more suitable to 

 the conditions under which the sea-anemone 

 lives; and the multiplication of similar 

 parts so disposed as to enable them to work 

 together to a common end seems to me as 

 clear an evidence of " designed " adaptation 

 in the sea-anemone as it is admitted to be 

 in the " flint implement " [see DESIGN 

 PROVES DESIGNER, 789-90], CARPENTER Na- 

 ture and Man, lect. 15, p. 421. (A., 1889.) 



788. DESIGN IN WORK OF MEN OR 

 BEAVER.S Evidence of Purpose in Higher or 

 Lower Mind. A dam across a stream, and 

 the appearance of the stumps of trees which 

 entered into its formation, would suggest 

 design quite irrespective of and antecedent 

 to the considerable knowledge or experience 

 which would enable the beholder to decide 

 whether this was the work of men or of 

 beavers. Why, then, should the judgment 

 that any particular structure is a designed 

 work be thought illegitimate when attrib- 

 uted to a higher instead of a lower intelli- 

 gence than that of man? GRAY Darwini- 

 ana, art. 13, p. 364. (A., 1889.) 



789. DESIGN PROVES DESIGNER 



Flint Implements Accident Once Assigned 

 as Their Cause Human Origin Now Un- 

 questioned. About thirty years ago [i. e., 



