TELEOLOGY OF PALEY, ETC. 23 



" are but the spontaneous mental coming together of 

 facts, which have combined with one another by virtue 

 only of their own natural affinity." * 



When a number of isolated facts, says Fontenelle, 

 take form, group themselves together coherently, and 

 present the mind so vividly with an idea of their inter- 

 dependence and mutual bearing upon each other, that 

 no matter how violently we tear them asunder they 

 insist on coming together again; then, and not till 

 then, have we a theory. 



Now I submit that there is hardly one of my readers 

 who can be considered as free from bias or prejudice, 

 who will not feel that the idea of design — or perception 

 by an intelligent living being, of ends to be obtained 

 and of the means of obtaining them — and the idea of 

 the tendons of the foot and of the ligament which binds 

 them down, come together so forcibly, that no matter 

 how strongly Professors Haeckel and Clifford and Mr. 

 Darwin may try to separate them, they are no sooner 

 pulled asunder than they straightway fly together again 

 of themselves. 



I shall argue, therefore, no further upon this head, 

 but shall assume it as settled, and shall proceed at 

 once to the consideration that next suggests itself. 



* " La -vraie thdorie n'est que renohainement natnrel des faits, qui 

 d^s qu'ils sont assez nombreuz, Be touchent, et se lieni, les uns aux 

 autres par leur seule vertu propre." — Flourens, ' Buffon, Hist, de ees 

 Travaux.' Paris, 1844, p. 82. 



