24 INTERPRETATIONS OF NATURE. 
ronment which are necessary and modifying agencies in 
the teleology of life. 
In the interpretation of these silent powers Darwin be- 
came the seer of the age. The facts gathered by his pa- 
tient toil have revolutionized thought, and substituted, in 
the place of special creation and immediate design, the 
conception of necessity through the operation of natural 
laws, whereby ends are attained of which no prophetic 
utterance can be made. This excludes ‘‘ the agency of 
an intelligence in which the image or idea of the end 
precedes the use of means,’’ and is, therefore, in seeming 
conflict with the view commonly entertained. 
The doctrine of design, as commonly understood, fails, 
however, to explain too many things to justify us in 
longer accepting the narrow limits of its application, or 
to believe that human anatomy alone proves its truth. 
It fails to explain the progressive stages of human 
anatomy during its embryological period, and its devia- 
tions from the common bodily construction, or to tell 
why it is that deformities, imperfections, monstrosities 
or reversions occur. 
Where is the purpose, or what is the design in those 
human monsters, those brute-appearing forms, which 
come from some arrested development during embryonic 
life? Or in those anomalous conditions—existing even 
in adult life—wherein bodily organs betray their lowly 
origin? Where is the purpose and what is the design 
in those abortive or rudimentary, or homologous or- 
gans found throughout the vegetable and animal king- 
dom, whose apparent uselessness makes them strong 
witnesses against ‘‘design’’ in their existence? If 
‘“‘adaptation and utility are the marks of design,’ what 
shall be said in relation to those organs of human anatomy 
which are entirely useless in man, although of use in 
some lower animals? What is the purpose or design in 
the extravagant waste of seed, eggs and germs—from 
