CREATION BY LAW. 269 
a negative, if we show that there are both facts and 
analogies in our favour. 
Mr. Darwin’s Metaphors liable to Misconception. 
Mr. Darwin has laid himself open to much miscon- 
ception, and has given to his opponents a powerful 
weapon against himself, by his continual use of meta- 
phor in describing the wonderful co-adaptations of 
organic beings. 
“Tt is curious,” says the Duke of Argyll, “to ob- 
serve the language which this most advanced disciple 
of pure naturalism instinctively uses, when he has to 
describe the complicated structure of this curious 
order of plants (the Orchids). ‘Caution in ascribing 
intentions to nature,’ does not seem to occur to him as 
possible. Intention is the one thing which he does see, 
and which, when he does not see, he seeks for diligently 
until he finds it. He exhausts every form of words and 
of illustration, by which intention or mental purpose 
can be described. ‘ Contrivance ’—‘ curious contriv- 
ance,’ —‘ beautiful contrivance,’—these are expressions 
which occur over and over again. Here is one sen- 
tence describing the parts of a particular species: ‘ the 
Labellum is developed into a long nectary, in order to 
attract Lepidoptera, and we shall presently give reason 
for suspecting that the nectar is purposely so lodged, 
that it can be sucked only slowly i order to give time 
for the curious chemical quality of the viscid matter 
setting hard and dry.’” Many other examples of 
similar expressions are quoted by the Duke, who 
