xj OKGANIZATION. 123 



sical causation, though working in connexion with ordinary 

 physical causation, and through it. 



It is certainly a most remarkable result of the scientific Purpose 

 study of nature, that so long as we confine ourselves to the coverable 

 study of the inorganic world, science has nothing whatever in the in- 



T 1 1 T 1 .organic 



to tell of creative purpose. We may no doubt believe that creation, 

 the laws of gravitation and heat, and the chemical proper- 

 ties of substances, have been created with the special pur- 

 pose of giving origin and constitution to this universe of 

 ours, and of ministering to the life that it sustains. "We 

 may believe that the sun has been created for the purpose 

 of o-iving light and heat to the planets ; that the planets 

 have been created for the purpose of supporting life on 

 their surfaces ; and that coal, iron, and other minerals have 

 been stored for the service of man. All this may be true : 

 science does not contradict it : but it forms no part of 

 science. The purpose of any physical or chemical law is a 

 question on which science has no light to throw — a ques- 

 tion with which science has nothing to do. Nor does 

 science answer any question as to the purpose of any 

 cosmical arrangement : such as, for instance, the forms of 

 the planetary orbits, or the distribution of minerals in the 

 crust of the earth. All the questions that science can 

 answer about these concern not purpose, but cause, law, 

 and origin : it can explain the dynamical laws of the 

 planetary motions, but not the purpose for which they have 

 been set in motion : it can explain the origin of geological 

 strata, but not the purpose of their formation. We may 

 believe that every planet and every rock-stratum has its 

 divinely-appointed purpose, but no such opinion ought to, 

 or can, modify our conclusions as to the laws of their 

 formation. 



But in biological science it is totally different. There 

 half the questions that arise concern the purpose, or 

 special function, of organic structures in relation one to 

 another ; and every physiologist is aware that the most 

 important question concerning any organ is, what is its 

 function, or purpose, in relation to the whole organism. 

 What, for instance, would our knowledge of the eye be 



