-ASO Creation by L [Oct., 



of nature to be self-adjusting and capable of endless development, 

 it would even then be an unworthy idea of a Creator to impute the 

 incapacity of our minds to him ; but when many human minds can 

 conceive and can even trace out in detail some of the adaptations in 

 nature as the necessary results of unvarying law, it seems strange 

 that in the interests ;: religion any one should seek to prove that 

 the System o± Xature instead of being above, is far below our 

 highest conceptions of it. I, for one, cannot believe that the 

 world would come to chaos if left to Law alone. I cannot believe 

 that there is in it no inherent power of developing beauty or variety, 

 and that the direct action of the Deity is required to produce each 

 : or streak on every insect, each detail of structure in every one 

 of the millions of organisms that live or have lived upon the earth. 

 For it is impossible to draw a line. If any modifications of structure 

 could be the result of law, why not all ? If some self-adaptations 

 could arise, why not others : If any varieties of colour, why not 

 all the variety we see ? Xo attempt is made to explain this except 

 by reference to the fact that K pifcrj nd •''contrivance*'' are 



everywhere visible, and by the illogical deduction that they could 

 only have arisen from the direct action mind, because the 



direct action of our minds produces similar '' contrivances ; '" but it 

 is forgotten that adaptation, however produced, must have the 

 appearance of design. The channel of a river looks as if wade for 

 river although it is made b?/ it : the fine layers and beds in a 

 deposit of sand often look as if they had been sorted and sifted and 

 levelled designedly ; the - 1 angles of a crystal exactly 



: 1 by man : but we do not therefore 

 conclude that these effects have, in each individual case, required 

 the directing action of a creative mind, or see any difficulty in their 

 being produced by natural Law. 



Lrt us, however, leave this general argniment for a while, and 

 turn to another special case which our author appeals to as con- 

 dusive against Mr. Darwin's views. "' Beauty ;: is as great a 



ibling-block to the Duke of Argyll as :; contrivance."' He 

 cannot conceive a system of the Universe so perfect as necessarily 

 to develope every form of Beauty, but supposes that when anything 

 specially beautiful occurs, it is a step beyond what that system 

 could have produced, something which the Creator has added for his 

 own delectation. 



Speaking of the Hunrming Birds, the Duke of Argyll says: 

 " In the first place, it is to be observed of the whole group that 

 there is no connection whi:h can be traced or conceived between 

 the splendour of the humming birds and any function essential to 

 then life. If there were any such connection, that splendour could 

 not be con fi ned, as it almost exclusively is, to only one sex. The 



