264 



After showing liow men come to the conclusion ^' that the order 

 of nature was reasonable in the sense that everything was 

 adapted to some good end/^ he continues^ " Further considera- 

 tion, however, has led men out of the conclusion in two different 

 ways/' He then attempts to show that the case has been 

 wrongly stated ; that wonderful structures can be found that 

 serve no good purpose at all ; referring to the useless teeth of 

 whales — the eyes of the mole being perfect in the young and 

 destroyed in the adult — the uselessness of our own external 

 ears — and he continues thus : ^' The eye, regarded as an optical 

 instrument of human manufacture, was thus described by 

 Helmholtz, the physiologist, who learned physics for the sake of 

 his physiology, and mathematics for the sake of his physics, 

 and is now in the first rank of all three. He said : ' If an 

 optician sent me that as an instrument, I should send it back to 

 him with grave reproaches for the carelessness of his work^ and 

 demand the return of my money/'' 



56. Professor Clifford's second reason for denying adapta- 

 tion to some good end " is that, " both the adaptation and the 

 non-adaptation which occur in organic structures have been 

 eocplained. The scientific thought of Darwin, Herbert Spencer, 

 and Mr. Wallace has described that hitherto unknown process 

 of adaptation as consisting of perfectly well-known and familiar 

 processes." 



57. Here we have Darwinism shown to destroy our teleological 

 view of nature, which it is often denied that it does. And 

 this is effected by such weak arguments as the rudiments of 

 teeth in the whale, forgetting the adaptation which replaces 

 the useless organs; the blindness of the mole, which can easily 

 be proved to be untrue ; the uselessness of our external ears, 

 which are well known to concentrate the waves of sound ; apd 

 the scientific arrogance which can see imperfection in one of 

 the most perfect and the most beautiful works of God.* 



58. Another effect of Darwinism may be witnessed in the 

 recent attempt by a strong disciple of the school to deprive 

 mankind of the great and inestimable privilege of prayer. 



A friend of mine assures me that if a live mole be confined in a box, 

 although all its efforts are concentrated in the desire to get out at the bottom 

 by burrowing, if a finger is introduced carefully and slowly at the part 

 furthest from the animal, it will immediately make a rush at it. Every one 

 also knows that if the waves of sound are not sufficiently concentrated to 

 suit partially deaf people, they elongate the external ear with their hands, 

 and thus hear more plainly. A celebrated London physician in an address 

 to a public scientific body, said that if he had to make a man he would 

 make bim without tonsils, for they are of no use. This statement is abso- 

 lutely untrue, as the merest tyro in physiology full well knows. This is 

 another instance of " scientific arrogance." 



