84 THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES OF 



can only express dissent from it on my own. 

 But although I cannot affect your sentiments in 

 this matter, I may be permitted to point out that, 

 as they are only sentiments, they are quite worth- 

 less as arguments or guides to truth. I have yet 

 to learn that the " dignity of man " is a matter 

 of any concern to our Mother Nature, who in all 

 her dealings appears, to say the least, to treat 

 us in rather a matter-of-fact sort of way. Indeed, 

 so far is she from respecting our ideas of "dignity," 

 that whenever these ideas have been applied to 

 any of her processes, the progress of science has 

 been destined rudely to dispel them. Thus, for 

 instance, when the sun-spots were first observed 

 they were indignantly denied by the Aristotelians, 

 on the ground of its being ''• impossible that the 

 eye of the universe could suffer from ophthalmia ; " 

 and when Kepler made his great discovery of 

 the accelerated and retarded motion of the planets 

 in different parts of their orbits, many persons 



