334 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



its rules, and can interpret right, they may be said to be knowing 

 in nature." ^ 



I see no incompatibility between Darwin's view of fitness and 

 belief that nature is a language and that mechanical principles "may 

 be very naturally explained, and have a very proper and obvious 

 use assigned to them when they are considered only as marks or 

 signs for our information " ; although I cannot see how this proves 

 that they are necessary for this purpose, or that this is their only 

 or chief use; for if natural selection casts doubt on the opinion that 

 the language of nature is an instrument, I fail to see how it shows 

 that nature is not a language. 



Since the zoologist must ask whether the realistic teleology of 

 Berkeley's " Siris " furnishes any evidence of the use of instruments 

 which is not itself instrumental or mechanical, is it not exposed 

 to all the difficulty which we find in all instrumental teleology ? 

 It is, assuredly, very different from that earlier teleology which is 

 said to be so independent of "any laborious research into the 

 sciences " that we are told one need only open his eyes to see it. 



" In vain do we extend our view into the heavens and pry 

 into the entrails of the earth, in vain do we consult the writings 

 of learned men, and trace the dark footsteps of antiquity — we 

 need only draw the curtain of words to behold the fairest tree 

 of knowledge, whose fruit is excellent, and within the reach of 

 our hand. 



"That, setting aside all help of astronomy and natural philos- 

 ophy, all contemplation of the contrivance, order, and adjustment 

 of things, an infinite mind should be necessarily [logically] inferred 

 from the bare existence of the sensible world, is an advantage to 

 those only who have made this easy reflection : that the sensible 

 world is " instructive, af}d entertaining, and delightful. 



May not one who, being no philosopher, has no opinion, either 

 positive or negative, about any physical universe except that which 

 he perceives, or has perceived, or might perceive if he had time 

 and opportunity, by means of his senses, make this "easy reflec- 

 tion " just as easily as one who believes nature is necessary, either 

 to assist the governed or for any other purpose ? 



The same Berkeley who was led into the philosophy of evolution 



1 Berkeley, " Siris," 253, 254. 



