180 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Darwin has shown that perfect fertility can only he obtained by fertilizing 
•each form with pollen from pistils (stamens?) of the corresponding length.” 
All through the work is full of matter of absorbing interest ; and it is 
abundantly illustrated and exceedingly well printed — two matters by no 
means of unimportance. We can only say, in concluding this imperfect notice, 
that we have very seldom taken up a book that we have read through with 
.so much pleasure, and indeed so much profit, as Sir J. Lubbock’s “British 
Wild Flowers.” 
NUMBED, AN ARGUMENT FOR A GOD.* 
A DMIRABLE as were the arguments adopted in the several “ Bridge- 
water Treatises,” and popular though they were at the period of their 
publication, there can, we think, be little doubt that few among the emi- 
nent scientific thinkers of the present period put much faith in them. And 
yet in the little work which is now before us, an eminent churchman, with 
the best possible intentions, and with a considerable amount of fairness, 
goes once more over the same ground, and fancies that he proves most 
conclusively the existence of a God on the old and exploded principle of 
evidence of design. Indeed, we are somewhat surprised to find one who is 
-eminent in his church leaving aside the subjects on which he doubtless 
could do much that is good, to wander out, and go so hopelessly astray, in 
the very wide and almost boundless fields of scientific speculation. Be it 
■distinctly understood that we do not enter on the question, Is there a God ? 
We think such a subject one unfitted for the pages of a journal like this. 
And what we wish to observe is, the fact that Mr. Girdlestone’s argument is 
an utterly fallacious one, though to many minds it will be doubtless con- 
clusive. But let us ask him, How could you have anything else than order 
and regularity in the exercise of those laws which govern the world ? Let 
us now suppose, for the sake of argument, that there has been no Creator. 
How could any law which did not work in the most perfect harmony with 
-every other law have any existence ? We may suppose it possible that at 
one period of the world’s history some law may have existed, for a 
short time indeed ! ! which was wholly at variance with its fellows. But 
surely here would occur an example of Mr. Darwin’s well-known rule, “ the 
survival of the fittest.” Clearly it could but exist for a very momentary 
period indeed. And yet the writer thinks the facts of number an argument 
for a Deity. How shallow is such argumentation. How could the world go 
on if there were a series of laws which conflicted one with the other ? Of 
■course the battle would ensue between the adverse laws, and the weaker 
one must cease to exist. If Mr. Girdlestone was more of a student of 
Nature, and less of antique works on biological philosophy, we should not 
have had the present essay for review. 
* u Number, a Link between Divine Intelligence and Human ; an Argu- 
ment.” Bv Charles Girdlestone, M.A., Rector of Kingswinford, Stafford- 
shire. London : Longmans, 1875. 
