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difficulties is the constitution of matter itself, though this is not easy 
make properly intelligible to the whole world. , 
The CHAiRMAN.-Before Mr. Howard replies, I would just say a fe 
words in reference to this subject, although I do not pretend to have that 
knowledge of it which would make me at all a competent critic 18 en 
to the paper with a great deal of interest, as I a\ e a so is ene 
the discussion. It has been said by Mr. Row that the point is no so 
much to prove adaptation, as to show that adaptation indicates^ intel- 
ligent Being. I do not quite understand how that proposition is capabffi 
of proof. It seems to me to be a kind of inference that we Batura ly 
make in our own minds, when we begin to examine the instances of adap- 
tion, and when those instances become numerous and diversified. The y 
mode, so far as I can see, by which we conclude that these are evidences of 
an intelligent superintending Being is, by the analogy which we observe with 
regard to human action and human works. All our arguments of this kind 
must depend upon the assumption of that analogy between the human mind 
and human actions, and the higher mind and higher actions. W e see works 
which resemble the works of man in that respect, and we conclude, by way 
of analogy, that there must have been a similar operation on the part ot a 
superintending Cause. I suppose that this is not exactly capable of proof, 
* but is an inference. But that inference becomes stronger and stronger 
in proportion as the instances of adaptation are more numerous and 
diversified. It is precisely in this way that the value of the paper may 
be estimated. Ido not agree with Mr. Row in wishing that the author 
had selected greater and more leading proofs of adaptation. The striking, 
clear, and patent instances have been constantly insisted upon. Mr. Howard 
seems to have purposely selected the less obvious instances of adaptation, 
and that selection seems to me to be a very valuable addition to this argu- 
ment. We all know the great and leading instances of adaptation, or many 
of them, and as they are multiplied they become more forcible and remain 
in our minds, but when we find these less obvious instances also, they strike 
our minds with peculiar force. We look, for instance, at the atomic struc- 
ture of the globe, if I may use the term, and at first sight it may not 
seem to indicate traces of particular adaptation, but when we look 
at it more closely, as the author of this paper lias done, we seo most 
singular instances of adaptation and order, although we cannot trace 
the” reason for them. We see some interposition, which is evidently an 
adaptation to serve a particular purpose, and possibly to servo more 
purposes with which wc arc not acquainted. I suppose our ancestors, 
when they first observed coal or iron, knew very little indeed of the great 
purposes which these great beds of coal and reservoirs of iron were to 
serve with reference to the wants of the inhabitants of the globe. As 
time goes on those purposes become apparent, and are served ; and as 
we find the different uses to which the different materials are put, we begin 
