22 INTERPRETATIONS OF NATURE. 
either the whole or only a part of the series of trans- 
forming views as the grand pageant of life moves by. 
Hence it is that our ideas of final causes have been 
modified as knowledge has increased, and hence, also, 
our convictions concerniog desigu in nature have been 
shaken by the facts upon which the theory of natural: 
selection rests. 
Laplace thought that there was no room for final 
causes in the presence of data which enable us to explain 
problems scientifically, and Dr. Whewell, the champion 
of design, thinks it is no longer applicable to the inor- 
ganic world. 
I confess I do not understand the logic which denies 
design to physical phenomena, simply because the in- 
herent properties of matter, and the laws of energy con- 
struct a universe without need of special interference. 
A broader view will see the design far back of that 
which is incident to our mental vision, at creation’s 
dawn when steadfastness was first given to the atoms 
from whose combinations the universe was built, and 
‘ which, amidst the crash and ruin of worlds, shall ‘‘re- 
main unbroken and unworn.’’ 
Nevertheless, since its own champions have withdrawn 
design from the domain of inorganic nature and placed 
it in the keeping of organic forms, let us examine 
some of the evidence used for and against its retention 
in the evolution of life. For it, and constituting its 
strength, is the evidence of adaptation and utility of 
special organs, for special purposes. 
So profound has been the conviction that an intelli- 
gent, designing mind is necessary ‘‘for the contriving 
and determining of the forms which organized bodies 
bear,” and that each organ has been specially and di- 
rectly created for a definite function, that Paley unre- 
servedly rested the entire question of design upon the 
facts of human anatomy. 
