ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 



mass of the water would prevent the cold from penetrating to the 

 bottom, where alone congelation could take place if ice were 

 heavier instead of lighter than water ; and, third, that instead of 

 water having been singled out as the only substance to be en- 

 dowed with this property, it is now found that many others possess 

 it, such as glass, bismuth, antimony, and even iron ; so that inde- 

 pendently of design the chances that water should possess it are 

 about the same as that it should not, while the property itself is 

 really of very doubtful advantage. 



Upon an enumeration, therefore, of such cases only as seem to 

 favor the anthropocentric theory it was maintained that the claim 

 was a weak one. Unless the theory of adaptation is wholly re- 

 jected, the greater part of the illustrations fall under that head. 

 A large share of the remainder are such as would be as likely to 

 occur in the manner that they do, as otherwise, under the operation 

 of the mathematical law of probabilities. The number of coinci- 

 dences that can be noted is not greater than ought to be expected, 

 or than are met with in other departments of human experience, 

 while a few cases turn out, when fully understood, to be of doubtful 

 advantage. 



The speaker next proceeded to enumerate cases of the opposite 

 general class, or such as seemed opposed to the doctrine of a special 

 beneficent agency in the interest of man. This, he stated, was a 

 much easier task than the preceding, which is itself a strong pre- 

 sumption against the optimistic view. 



The illustrations adduced were grouped under three general 

 heads, viz., i, such as exhibit a condition generally unfavorable to 

 life on the globe, either of men, animals, or plants — anti-biocentric 

 facts ; — 2, such as negative, in one form or another, the assumption 

 that the human race has been the special object of benevolent de- 

 sign — anti-anthropocentric facts ; — and, 3, those in consequence of 

 which social progress tends to defeat itself — anti-sociocentric facts. 



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