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" claw," " the contrivance in her wing," turns out, we see, to be a thumb ! 

 The supposed deviation from Universal order proves to be perfect uniformity. 

 The narrow notion of quasi-miraculous adaptation disappears in the perception 

 )f the harmonious plan which answers every end at once. Yet, shall we say 

 the view is false which sees in the provision for the dusky little creature a 

 purpose as dear to God, as plain a revelation, as in that boundless plan of 

 Nature which fills and masters the Imagination of Philosophers 1 Are these 

 humble, beneficent utilities indeed beneath His scope 1 Surely there is a wiser 

 way than this of looking at it. Just as, in some masterpiece of Literature, 

 sense and sound, aiding each other, are alike complete and satisfying, and use 

 and beauty, in perfection, are attained together ; so is it in the Universe of 

 things, though on a transcendent scale which beggars all comparison. None 

 ?an say which is there supreme, Utility or Beauty ; for both seem ends, and 

 both seem perfectly achieved. They are, indeed, but different aspects of the 

 same perfection. In the work of human art, one mind prefers to dwell on the 

 harmony and grandeur of the language, another on the pregnant meaning of 

 this or that particular verse or sentence. Both estimates, in their way, are 

 just, and both inadequate. And thus it is with those diverse views of Nature 

 which we have been considering. Some men are wholly taken up with admira- 

 tion of the majestic uniformity of Natural law ; others, taking a view at 

 once humbler and higher, simpler and more devout, rather delight to trace the 

 apparent purpose in some particular portion of God's works ; but none can 

 reach the meaning of the whole. Yet seeing, as we do, how He, in Nature, 

 seems to combine harmoniously His general and particular purposes, are we 

 not encouraged to believe, that in the higher region of His spiritual action, 

 (however dark to us the method,) the like consistency obtains; and that the 

 wide design which enchains Ages and Nations, and conducts the Education of 

 the World, yet leaves room for special dealing, adapted to its wants, with the 

 humblest human soul that turns towards him 1 



To return once more to Physics ; no one can fail to see, that in putting a 

 new face on Science, the great resource has been the study of Development. 

 Following this path, the modern Naturalist has solved a host of questions, 

 having reference not merely to the nature of particular organs, but to the true 

 relation between different groups of living beings. This fruitful method was 

 first applied in Botany. In this department the gradual metamorphosis of all 

 the organs from a common form is most distinctly traceable in the life of indi- 

 vidual plants ; and here, accordingly, was made the earliest application of the 

 modern principle. Goethe showed that the various parts of plants are trans- 

 formations of the axis and its appendages : the axis consisting, in its upward 

 development, of the stem and branches ; in its downward development of the 

 root : the axial appendages, in their simple form, being leaves. All organs 

 not parts of the axis itself, whether bracts, sepals, petals, stamens, or pistils, 

 are now known to be modified leaves. The gradational passage from leaf to 

 bract, from bract to sepal, from sepal to petal, from petal to stamen, is traceable 

 in various plants. The same principle of research was soon extended to the 

 Animal Kingdom. The metamorphosis of some creatures, Insects, for example, 

 and Tadpoles, to the forms of maturity, takes place after birth. Amongst the 

 higher animals each creature goes through its most striking transformations 

 before it enters on a separate existence. Embryology, therefore, is the science 

 which has thrown most light on Animal metamorphosis. It is the astonishing 

 revelation of this department of enquiry that every organ of every animal is 

 evolved from a common starting point — the simple cell — -by a gradual passage 

 from that primal integer of life to forms more special and complex. Pursuing 

 the same line of thought and observation, in reference to the bony structure of 



