17 
tliat it was designed for tliat purpose. But in proportion as 
we suppose the w^ards to be more complicated, the smaller is 
the probability that the adaptation could be accidental. In 
fact^ in the case of what we should call a good lock, i.e., one of 
a very complicated construction, we have the utmost practical 
certainty that the key which opens it was designed to do so. 
But this is not all. In order adequately to illustrate the case 
of nature, we must suppose thousands of locks, each opened 
by its own key and by no other, which multiplies what we have 
already seen to be a practical certainty by a number equal to 
the number of the locks. 'Now this, I venture to say, is the 
kind of certainty we have of design in the adaptations that are 
to be found in the universe. They exist in myriads. Some 
remarkable examples of them are brought together in 
AYliewelPs Bridgwater Treatise on Astronomy and General 
Physics.^^ One of these is the adaptation of the muscular powers 
of all animals to terrestrial gravity. If the unit of this force 
were considerably greater than it is, no human being, or other 
animal, endowed with its present muscular powders, could leap 
or walk, or even crawl. If, on the other hand, the unit of 
gravity were considerably diminished, say to what it amounts 
to in the moon, the exertion now required in order to jump a 
foot high -would carry us 80 feet upwards into the air. Another 
example may be found in the quantities, respectively, ot 
oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, as compared with our 
breathing faculties. Were these elements mixed in other than 
their actual proportions, life could not long continue. Again, 
if the temperature of the sun were to any great extent 
increased or diminished, life could not exist on the earth 
unless the frames of men and animals -were altered accordingly. 
These and thousands of other examples might be mentioned, 
in which the arhitmry quantities, as they are called, — i.e., the 
quantities which might have been different from what they are, 
— are so adapted to each other as to make life and its con- 
veniencies and comforts possible ; and so great is their number 
that it seems wonderful that any thoughtful persons should 
deny that they are the result of design. And since design 
necessarily implies a designer, it follows that there must be an 
intelligent Creator of the universe. How it came to pass that 
such a Creator should exist, is of course a mystery far beyond 
our ken. We are quite unable to go back farther. But this 
is no reason why we should refuse to go back as far as our 
reason will take us by the hand. To refuse to acknowledge 
the Deity because we cannot account for His existence would 
be most irrational. Were we to disbelieve everything that w^e 
cannot account for, we should believe in nothing. 
VOL. XVI. c 
