necessary to criticise certain objections raised by some evolu- 

 tionists, such as the Darwinians, that there is no design ; while 

 natural law, which plays so important a part in all views of 

 evolution, was scarcely alluded to. 



In taking up the third, or Darwinian view of creation, law, 

 therefore, is the only element which remains to be considered. 



Law, 



According to the views advocated in this paper, natural law 

 takes the place of a direct fiat in creation. It is necessary, 

 therefore, to point out clearly the meaning of the w ord law as 

 applied to nature. This the Duke of Argyll has done for us in 

 his Reign of Law, p. 64, where he maintains that " Law in its 

 original sense signifies ' an expression of human will enforced 

 by power,^ [a-^d] the instincts of mankind finding utterance in 

 their language, have not failed to see that the phenomena of 

 nature are only really conceivable to us, as in like manner the 

 expression of a will enforcing itself with power.^^ 



The word, however, is now retained even by those who deny 

 the analogy as well as by those who recognize it, and is used 

 merely to signify an observed order of facts, whether traceable 

 to causal forces or not, and whether the combination of forces 

 which, by their resultant, produce the order of facts, have any 

 reference to the fulfilment of purpose or not. 



Thus, if we dissolve alum, and evaporate the solution, and 

 so recrystallize it, we can tell beforehand the exact number of 

 degrees that will be between any two faces of the crystals, 

 before a single particle of alum assumes the solid state. 



Again, we can examine the motions of the heavenly bodies, 

 and foretell to a minute an eclipse 1,000 years beforehand. 

 Here then we have fixed and invariable law. 



Now, in applying this term to organism, we note a certain 

 marked peculiarity in the resulting efiect of the combination of 

 forces which act upon an individual endowed with life, and very 

 difterent from that of forces acting upon inorganic matter. 

 Consider the latter first. There is an exactness about them 

 which admits of positive foreknowledge; and in examining 

 minerals of nature the composition of one found early in the 

 world^s history is identical wdth that found yesterday. Simi- 

 larly the physical force of gravitation by which the rain-drop 

 impressed its form on the Silurian slates was identically the same 

 as produces them now. But now turn to the organic world. 

 Although it is true that a large number of observed orders of 

 facts can be meutioned which represent fixed laws ; such, for 

 example, as the structure of some animals compels them to be 



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