46 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



proboscis as far as possible in order to drain the 



last drop of nectar We can thus," says Mr 



Darwin, "partially understand how the astonishing 

 length of the nectary may have been acquired by 

 successive modifications." 



It is indeed but a " partial " understanding. 

 How different from the clearness and the certainty 

 with which Mr Darwin is able to explain to us the 

 use and intention of the various organs ! or the 

 primal idea of numerical order and arrangement 

 which governs the whole structure of the flower ! 

 It is the same through all Nature. Purpose and 

 intention, or ideas of order based on numerical 

 relations, are what meet us at every turn, and are 

 more or less readily recognised by our own intelli- 

 gence as corresponding to conceptions familiar to 

 our own minds. We know, too, that these pur- 

 poses and ideas are not our own, but the ideas 

 and purposes of Another — of One whose manifest- 

 ations are indeed superhuman and supermaterial, 

 but are not " supernatural," in the sense of being 

 strange to Nature, or in violation of it. 



The truth is, that there is no such distinction 

 between what we find in Nature, and what we are 



