SPECIAL EXDS IN CBEATION. 531 



which it may be sufficient to mention the following ; viz : "in regular 

 corollas the color is uniformly distributed, whatever be the number 

 of colors present " ; and, " different forms of corolla in the same in- 

 florescence often present differences of color, but all of the same form 

 also agree in color." 



We hare hitherto spoken of the principles of order and of adapt- 

 ation, as though they were perfectly distinct from one another ; yet 

 it is not to be understood that this is, strictly speaking, the case. 

 Our authors, while they have illustrated the two principles separately, 

 look upon order — and, we think correctly, — as nothing else than 

 adaptation of a higher and less obvious kind than is seen in the 

 arrangements popularly regarded as the best illustrations of design. 

 Their opinion — an opinion first advanced by Dr. McCosh in his 

 treatise on the Divine Government, physical and moral — is, that the 

 final cause of the typical forms of nature, is to aid the intelligent 

 creatures of God in their study of what he has made. "Were there 

 no uniformity of structure and appearance in the objects around us ; 

 were those typical characters wanting, on which natural classifica- 

 tion depends ; physical science would be impossible. In a world not 

 constructed on the principle of order, rational creatures would be 

 unable to make any thing beyond a very slight advancement in their 

 acquaintance with the works of Him who called them into being. 

 Confusion on this point is apt to arise from our failing to contemplate 

 the possibility of what may be termed non-mechanical purposes. 

 Professor Owen justly pronounces it absurd to suppose "that every 

 segment and almost every bone which is present in the human hand 

 and arm should exist in the fin of the whale, because they were re- 

 quired in such number and collocation for the movement of that 

 uudivided and inflexible paddle." AVould it be right to conclude, 

 however, that the instance of order here specified cannot be referred 

 to the principle of adaptation at all ? By no means. The correspon- 

 dence between the fiu of the whale and the human hand and arm is 

 not indeed necessary for the function which the fin has to perform : 

 but it aids the comparative anatomist in. his investigations ; and the 

 purpose of the Creator, in establishing this and similar homologies, 

 may just have been to simplify the task of the student of nature. 

 But we may quote the words of our authors : 



■ ; Without some such governing principle (as that of order,) nature 

 would be incomprehensible by human intelligence, and this because 

 of the very number and multiplicity of the objects which it presents, 

 each eager tocatcli our notice ; and the mind, in trying to apprehend 

 them, would have felt itself lost, as in a forest through which there is 



