28 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



deed providing for them was found to work in practice ; 

 and after this, if he were to discover that the deed, by 

 whomsoever drawn, had nevertheless been drafted upon 

 principles which at first seemed very foreign to any 

 according to which he was in the habit of drafting 

 deeds himself, as for example, that the draftsman had 

 begun to draft a will as a marriage settlement, and so 

 forth — yet an observer would not, I take it, do either of 

 two things. He would not in the face of the result 

 deny the design, making himself judge rather of the 

 method of procedure than of the achievement. Nor yet 

 after insisting in the manner of Paley, on the wonderful 

 proofs of intention and on the exquisite provisions 

 which were to be found in every syllable — thus leadiug 

 us up to the highest pitch of expectation — would he 

 present us with such an impotent conclusion as that 

 the designer, though a living person and a true designer, 

 was yet immaterial and intangible, a something, in fact, 

 which proves to be a nothing : an omniscient and 

 omnipotent vacuum. 



Our observer would feel he need not have been at 

 such pains to establish his design if this was to be the 

 upshot of his reasoning. He would therefore admit the 

 design, and by consequence the designer, but would 

 probably ask a little time for reflection before he 

 ventured to say who, or what, or where the designer 

 was. Then gaining some insight into the manner in 

 which the deed had been drawn, he would conclude 

 that the draftsman was a specialist who had had long 

 practice in this particular kind of work, but who now 

 worked almost as it might be said automatically and 



