APPARENT EXCEPTIONS. 207 



have laid down and followed for ourselves, they 

 are now seen to be in strict subordination to a 

 larger rule which it would never have entered into 

 our imagination to conceive. These useless mem- 

 bers, these rudimentary or aborted limbs which 

 puzzled us so much, are parts of an universal Plan. 

 On this plan the bony skeletons of all living ani- 

 mals have been put together. The forces which 

 have been combined for the moulding of Organic 

 Forms have been so combined as to mould them 

 after certain types or patterns. And when Com- 

 parative Anatomy has revealed this fact as affect- 

 ing all the animals of the existing world, another 

 branch of the same science comes in to conform 

 the generalisation, and extend it over the innumer- 

 able creatures which have existed and have passed 

 away. This one Plan of Organic Life has never 

 been departed from since Time began. 



When we have grasped this great fact, all the 

 lesser facts which are subordinate to it assume a 

 new significance. In the first place a Plan of this 

 kind is in itself a Purpose. An Order so vast as 

 this, including within itself such variety of detail, 

 and maintained through such periods of Time, im- 



