PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OP THE AEGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 197 



The fact of organic life seems to be the conspicuous fact 

 which helps us to unite in one great conception the pheno- 

 mena of mind and the phenomena of matter, to all appear- 

 ance so contrasted. And the root of teleology is the principle 

 that nature is not blind mechanism, but that it is the develop- 

 ment of freedom, that it is the field of operation of One of 

 whom it was said : " Of Him and through Him and to Him 

 are all things." 



The President (Sir G-. G. Stokes, Bart., LL.D., D.Sc, 

 V.P.R.S.). — I will ask you to return your thanks to Professor 

 Bernard for this very learned and valuable Paper, and invite dis- 

 cussion thereupon. 



Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S. — Before any discussion com- 

 mences I should think some of us would very much like to have 

 the views of the President. I do not know whether it would 

 be agreeable to him to make some observations at the outset ? 



The President. — I would rather hear observations from others. 

 The fact is, my own mind is not of a metaphysical cast, my atten- 

 tion having been rather directed to other subjects. 



Professor Hull. — First, I may, I am sure, say for all here that 

 we have listened with great interest to this very logical Paper. I 

 think that as most of us are accustomed to deal with physical or 

 biological subjects, rather than with metaphysical speculations, 

 we must find it salutary to our minds to have to look at questions 

 from a metaphysical point of view. We have heard metaphysics 

 described as " an attempt to explain to another a subject which we 

 ourselves do not understand "; but I am sure you will all agree 

 with me this evening that Dr. Bernard does not come within that 

 category. He has thoroughly grasped the subject with which he 

 deals, and he has treated it in a very convincing manner from his 

 point of view. Now I am afraid that most Physicists, Biologists, 

 Geologists and others of that school, have been accustomed to 

 regard evidence of design in Nature mainly from a physical point 

 of view based upon the consideration of the wonderful adaptation 

 throughout the whole of natural phenomena whether physical or 



