X.] ORGANIZATION. 121 



general principle, as the relation of cause and effect. I 

 will here only remark, as a presumption against the theory 

 in question, that as we ascend in the scale of nature to 

 higher and higher vital functions, and higher and higher 

 organic forms, we find the relation of cause and effect 

 becoming less traceable by our faculties (though no doubt 

 it exists all through nature) ; while at the same time the 

 relation of means and purpose becomes at once more Purpose is 

 traceable and more definite. Nowhere in the universe as able, and 

 known to us, is the relation of means to purpose more ^^^^^ ^^^ 



so, as we 



clearly traceable and more perfectly definite, than in the ascend in 

 organs of special sense in the higher animals, especially in ^^^^'■'^^ 

 the eye and the ear ; and nowhere is it more difficult (I 

 would say, utterly impossible) to assign any physical cause 

 for the facts, as when we inquire by what cause, or by 

 what agency, such wonderful organs have been formed. 

 And as we ascend in nature, not only do the separate 

 functions become more traceable, but their mutual relations 

 become more definite. The trunk, the leaves, and the 

 flowers of a tree, for instance, have each their function, 

 but it would be unmeaning to ask whether the tree exists 

 for the leaves or the leaves for the tree. But in aU the 

 higher animals, the parts manifestly exist for the whole, 

 not the whole for the parts. 



This truth, that purpose is most clearly discoverable 

 where cause is least so, has not received the attention it 

 deserves. 



But all the purposes that biological science reveals to us Purposes 

 are only relative purposes — that is to say, purposes which zationTre 

 are means to other purposes : we learn nothing of any ab- °P^y ^^^^" 

 solute, ultimate purpose, which is an end in itself, and not 

 a means to some other end. Thus, the purpose of the eye 

 is to see, of the ear to hear, of the lungs to aerate the 

 blood, of the heart to circulate it, &c. : every organ 

 ministers to the life of the whole organism. As Kant 

 acutely remarked, in an organism all the parts are mutually 

 means and ends : meaning, that all the parts mutually 

 minister to each other. But if we ask what absolute end 

 is served by this wondrous play of means and relative 



