114 THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 



is the real essence of the teleological argument for the 

 existence of a divine intelligence, of a personal God. 

 It needs, however, for completeness of argument, to 

 be connected with other considerations, such, for 

 instance, as are formulated in the cosmo logical, moral 

 and ontological arguments of theistic treatises; but the 

 intelligibility of nature cannot be explained except 

 by the supposition that its Author is intelligent. 



The sign language of nature is very rich in its vocabu- 

 lary, and its signification is exceedingly manifold and 

 complex. One result of this is that, although the 

 theistic implication of the whole is very evident to 

 those who do not miss the woods in considering the 

 trees, the attempts to formulate this implication in a 

 theistic argument have taken various hnes; and have 

 been determined, and limited in value as well, by the 

 existing state of scientific knowledge. Thus when 

 Darwin pubHshed his theory of evolution, theistic 

 writers were apt to rest their argument for design 

 somewhat exclusively upon particular instances of 

 adaptation of means to ends. These adaptations are 

 multitudinous and are especially striking in the organic 

 world, although discoverable in the other parts of the 

 physical order. This form of argument in Paley's 

 hands was made cumulative by his emphasis upon the 

 vast number of adaptations which nature exhibits; 

 but its defect lay in a failure to bring out the teleologi- 

 cal significance of nature as a whole. Induction from 

 particular instances is open to challenge so long as it is 

 not universal; and the objection was sure to be raised 



