14 



further consideration led me to the conclusion that there were incon- 

 veniences attached to this course, and public opinion in Ireland, I can 

 assure you, would not sanction the shooting of a landlord for the pur- 

 pose of determining the coefficient of muscular force. 



In conclusion, I would wish to say a word as to the principle I have 

 adopted. I have shown you that the planet moves in its orbit as a lazy 

 intelligent creature would who was anxious to perform an allotted task 

 with the least trouble to itself ; that a ray of light describes its path by 

 the same sort of apparently instinctive action ; that the poor old oyster- 

 woman, ignorant of what she is doing, instinctively walks across the 

 varying road she has to travel in the path of the least action ; that the 

 bee constructs its wonderful cell so as to produce a given amount of 

 storage for its honey with the least possible amount of trouble to itself ; 

 and in a case that I was not able to bring before you for want of time, 

 of the tendons of the legs and arms of animals, I could show that these 

 are constructed with a wonderful economy of the same kind as 

 that with which the bee constructs its cell ; and I hope to show, in a 

 future lecture, that the limbs or muscular organs of every animal are 

 also constructed on this strange principle ; as if each one of these things 

 was itself instinct with life and reason, as Kepler really and from his 

 heart believed. Is it by the intelligence of the planet that it moves in 

 its orbit ? Does the light travel in its path by its intelligence ? Does 

 the poor oyster-woman calculate the road by which she goes as she 

 instinctively walks across the strand ? Who has weighed out and 

 regulated the weight of the tendons of our arms and hands? And by 

 what force or by what intelligence do the limbs of animals describe 

 their proper path ? Who places the socket of each joint in the exact 

 position (which can be calculated with unerring certainty by mathe- 

 matics) which enables the muscle to perform its allotted task with the 

 least amount of trouble to itself? It is not by their intelligence, by 

 their instinct : it is not the instinct of the planet, or of the oyster-woman, 

 or of the bee, that guides them in their path. There is instinct ; there 

 is knowledge ; there is foresight ; there is calculation : it is the know- 

 ledge, the foresight, the wisdom, and the calculation, of the Great 

 Architect and Geometrician of the Universe. 



