LETTER XX. 



217 



from us most of the secrets of His power, lest we 

 should ourselves become as Gods, and work like Him. 

 In the hands of Cuvier, a single fossil-bone, the only 

 remains he had of an extinct animal, disclosed to that 

 physiologist the entire animal — its structure and func- 

 tions, its instincts and habits, the object of its existence 

 — the whole purpose (one may say) of the Creator 

 regarding it — a disclosure afterwards verified by the 

 discovery of the complete remains of another specimen 

 of the same anim.al. But it did not and could not dis- 

 close to him the power by which it was made, and by 

 the knowledge of which he might himself make and 

 put life into such an animal. In like manner, the fall- 

 ing of an apple (at least so the story goes) led Newton 

 to the discovery of the great law of gravitation, in 

 obedience to which the movements of the heavenly 

 bodies take place. But it taught him nothing as to the 

 efficient power of gravitation itself. The key which 

 laid open to Newton and Cuvier the repository of 

 laws — of plans, patterns, and specifications — was not 

 the key that answer to the stronger lock which bars 

 the tool-house and the work-shop of Nature. 



6. What now is the law written upon trees ? What 

 the language which they speak ? This : That though 

 constructed to last for ages and generations, and to 

 grow to an enormous size — without set limit to their 

 asfe or size, they are vet fashioned after the same 

 model with other plants — modified only with express 

 reference and in manifest adaptation to a special end. 



