8&8 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
draw was that the design shown in nature argued 
clearly for a Designer above nature; in other words, 
that nature was unintelligible without God. Every- 
one in the class believed in God without this prelim- 
inary, and consequently the book was unnecessary, so 
far as we were concerned. We started with the con- 
dition of mind which the author hoped to produce. 
One effect the book did have; in the absence of any 
other reputable course in zodlogy, it gave us an as- 
tonishing collection of interesting facts about animals. 
Some of Paley’s statements were certainly peculiar. 
His Malay pig with its upper teeth wonderfully 
curved was said to be in the habit of hanging its head 
upon a bush while it slept, in order to save the strain 
upon its porcine neck. This was too much even for 
our credulity. None the less the impression made 
upon some of us by the evidence for design in nature 
has never left us. 
Among many scientists to-day it is supposed to be 
crude to speak of purpose in nature, and there is rea- 
son for their attitude. But the statement that there is 
no such plan conveys to the ordinary thinker a mean- 
ing that is far more erroneous than could possibly ex- 
ist in his mind should he believe implicitly in design 
and purpose. As between design in the universe in 
the usual sense of the word, and a purely accidental 
connection of events in the universe, there can be no 
