35 
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 word 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/ [and] 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 effect of the combination of 
forces which act upon an individual endowed with life, and very 
different 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 with 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 mentioned which represent fixed laws ; such, for 
example, as the structure of some animals compels them to be 
d 2 
