undertakes to instruct us as to the composition of the universe, and it
is marvellous how much it can tell us even of the composition of the
stars. What, then, is its most general and certain result? Just this,
that order of the strictest kind, the most definite proportions, are
wrought into the very structure of every world, and of every compound
object in the world, air and water, earth and mineral, plant and
animal. The vast variety of visible substances are reducible to rather
more than sixty constituent elements, each of which has not only its
own peculiar properties but its own definite and unvarying combining
proportions with other elements, so that amidst the prodigious number
of combinations all is strictly ordered, numerically exact. There is no
chemical union possible except when the elements bear to each other a
numerically constant ratio. Different compounds are always the products
of the combination of the elements in different yet strictly definite
proportions, there being no intermediate combinations, no transitional
compounds. If each element did not admit of union with many others, the
world would be dead and poor, its contents few and unvaried; if their
unions were not always regulated by law, disorder would everywhere
prevail. How comes it that they are so made in relation to one another
that their manifold unions are ever regulated by law, and generate an
endless variety of admirable products? Who made them thus? Did they
make themselves? or, did any blind force make them? Reason answers
that they must have been made by an intelligence which wanted them
for its purposes. When the proportions of the elementary constituents
are altered, the same elements produce the most diverse substances
with the most dissimilar and even opposite properties, charcoal and
diamond, a deadly poison or the breath of life, theine or strychnine.
These powers all work together for good; but if they worked even a
very little differently--if the circumstances in which they work, not
to speak of the laws by which they work, were altered--they would
spread destruction and death through the universe. The atmosphere is
rather a mixture than a combination of chemical elements, but it is a
mixture in which the constituents are proportioned to each other in
the only way which fits it to sustain the lives of plants and animals,
and to accomplish its many other important services; and wonderful in
the extreme is the provision made for the constant restoration of
the due proportions amidst perpetual oscillations. One of the chiefs
of modern chemistry, Baron Liebig, points to what takes place when
rain falls on the soil of a field adapted for vegetable growth as to
something which "effectually strikes all human wisdom dumb." "During
the filtration of rain-water," he says, "through the soil, the earth
does not surrender one particle of all the nutritive matter which it
contains available for vegetable growth (such as potash, silicic acid,
ammonia, &c.); the most unintermittent rain is unable to abstract
from it (except by the mechanical action of floods) any of the chief
requisites for its fertility. The particles of mould not only firmly
retain all matter nutritive to vegetable growth, but also immediately
absorb such as are contained in the rain-water (ammonia, potash, &c.).
But only such substances are _completely_ absorbed from the water as
are indispensable requisites for vegetable growth; others remain either
entirely or for the most part in a state of solution." The laws and
uses of light and heat, electricity and magnetism, and the adjustments
which they presuppose, all point not less clearly to the ordinances
of a supremely profound and accurate mind. In a word, out of a few
elements endowed with definite powers, this world with its air and its
seas, its hills and valleys, its vegetable forms and animal frames,
and other worlds innumerable, have been built up by long-sustained
and endlessly-varied processes of chemical synthesis mostly conducted
under conditions so delicately adjusted to the requirements of each
case, that the ablest chemists, with all their instruments and
artifices, cannot even reproduce them on any scale however small. Can
these elements be reasonably thought of as having been unfashioned
and unprepared, or these processes as having been uninstituted and
unpresided over by intelligence?[23]
[23] See Appendix XV.
The sciences of geology and palæontology disclose to us the history of
our earth and of its vegetable and animal organisms. They prove that
for countless ages, that from the inconceivably remote period of the
deposition of the Laurentian rocks, light and heat, air and moisture,
land and sea, and all general physical forces have been so arranged and
co-ordinated as to produce and maintain a state of things which secured
during all these countless ages life and health and pleasure for the
countless millions of individuals contained in the multitude of species
of creatures which have contemporaneously or successively peopled the
earth. The sea, with its winds and waves, its streams and currents,
its salts, its flora and fauna, teems with adaptations no less than
the land. Probably no one has studied it with more care or to more
purpose than Lieutenant Maury, and his well-known work on its physical
geography proceeds throughout on the principle that "he who would
understand its phenomena must cease to regard it as a waste of waters,
and view it as the expression of One Thought, a unity with harmonies
which One Intelligence, and One Intelligence alone, could utter;" while
many of its pages might appropriately be read as a commentary on these
lines of Wordsworth,--
"Huge ocean shows, within his yellow strand,
A habitation marvellously planned,
For life to occupy in love and rest."
The sciences referred to certify further, that as regards the various
forms of life there has been from the time when it can be first traced
to the present day "advance and progress in the main," and that the
history of the earth corresponds throughout with the history of life
on the earth, while each age prepares for the coming of another better
than itself. But advance and progress presuppose intelligence, because
they cannot be rationally conceived of apart from an ideal goal
foreseen and selected. Volumes might be written to show how subtly and
accurately external nature is adjusted to the requirements of vegetable
and animal life, and how vegetable and animal life are inter-related;
nay, even on how well the earth is fitted for the development and
happiness of man. Think of the innumerable points of contact and
connection, for example, between physical geography and political
economy, which all indicate so many harmonies between the earth and
man's economical condition, capacities, and history.[24]
[24] See Appendix XVI.
The vegetable and animal kingdoms viewed generally, are also striking
instances of unity of plan, of progressive order, of elaborately
adjusted system. There are general principles of structure and general
laws of development common to all organisms, constituting a plan of
organisation capable of almost infinite variation, which underlies
all the genera and orders of living creatures, vegetable and animal.
It comprehends a number of subordinate plans which involve very
abstract conceptions, and which even the ablest naturalists still
very imperfectly comprehend. These higher plans would probably never
have been thought of but for the detection of the numerous phenomena
which seemed on a superficial view irreconcilable with the idea of
purpose in creation. Just as it was those so-called "disturbances"
in the planetary orbits, which appeared at first to point to some
disorder and error in the construction of the sidereal system, that
prompted Lagrange to the investigations which resulted in establishing
that the order of the heavens was of a sublimer and more remarkable
character than had been imagined, essentially including these
apparent disturbances, so it has been the seeming exceptions to plan
which are witnessed in rudimentary and aborted organs (such as the
wing-bones in wingless birds, the finger-bones in horses, the legs
below the skin in serpents, the teeth which never cut the gums in
whales, &c.), that have indicated to modern biologists a unity of
organisation far more comprehensive and wonderful than had previously
been suspected. The larger and more ideal order thus brought to light
as ruling in the organic world is one which could only have originated
in a mind of unspeakable power and perfection. And it not only thus
testifies directly of itself in favour of a Divine Intelligence, but
the recognition of it, while correcting in some respects earlier
conceptions as to the place of utility in nature, far from proving
that utility has been disregarded or sacrificed, shows that each organ
has been formed, not only with reference to its actual use in a given
individual or species, but to the capacity of being applied to use in
countless other individuals and species.[25]
[25] See Appendix XVII.
When we enter into the examination of organisation in itself,
adjustment becomes still more obvious in the processes of growth,
reproduction, fructification, &c., in plants and animals, and in the
provisions for locomotion, for securing food and shelter, for sight,
hearing, &c., in the latter. The great physician, Sir Charles Bell,
devoted a whole treatise to point out those which are to be found
in the hand alone. The arrangement of bones, muscles, joints, and
other parts in the limb of a tiger or the wing of an eagle are not
less admirable. The eye and ear are singularly exquisite structures,
the former being far the most perfect of optical, and the latter far
the most perfect of acoustic instruments. Instances of this sort
are, indeed, so remarkable, and so irresistibly convincing to most
minds, that some theists have consented to rest on them exclusively
the inference of a designing intelligence. They would grant that
the evidences of purpose are only to be traced in organisation. The
limitation is inconsistent and untenable, but not inexplicable. The
adjustment of parts to one another, and their co-ordination as means
to an end, are not more certainly existent in fitting the eye to see
and the ear to hear than in securing the stability of the solar system,
but they are more obviously visible because compressed into a compass
easily grasped and surveyed; because organ and function are the most
specialised kinds of means and ends; because organisms are the most
curiously and conspicuously elaborate examples of order. And as the
telescope can show us no end of the simple and majestic order of the
heavens, so the microscope can show us no end of the exquisite and
impressive order which discloses even--
"In Nature's most minute design,
The signature and stamp of power divine;
Contrivance intricate, expressed with ease,
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees.
The shapely limb and lubricated joint
Within the small dimensions of a point;
Muscle and nerve miraculously spun,
His mighty work, who speaks and it is done.
The Invisible, in things scarce seen revealed,
To whom an atom is an ample field."--(COWPER.)[26]
[26] See Appendix XVIII.
The traces of a Supreme Reason crowd still more upon the vision when we
come to the human mind,--
"The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,
And where the mixing passions endless shift."
--(THOMSON.)
The mere existence of originated minds necessarily implies the
existence of an unoriginated mind. "What can be more absurd," asks
Montesquieu, "than to imagine that a blind fatalistic force has
produced intelligent beings?" The complicated and refined adjustments
of the body to the mind, and of the mind to the body, are so numerous
and interesting that their study has now become the task of a special
class of scientific men. A very little disorder in the organisation
of the brain--such as even microscopic _post-mortem_ examination may
fail to detect--suffices to cause hallucinations of the senses, to
shake intellect from its throne, to paralyse the will, and to corrupt
the sentiments and affections. How precise and skilful must the
adjustment be between the sound brain and sane mind! Who sufficiently
realises the mystery of wisdom which lies in the familiar fact that
the mind, by merely willing to use the members of the body, sets in
motion instantaneously and unconsciously, without effort and without
failure, cords and pulleys and levers, joints and muscles, of which
it only vaguely, if at all, surmises the existence? The laws of our
various appetencies, affections, and emotions, and their relations to
their special ends or objects, the nature of the several intellectual
faculties and their subservience to mental culture, and still more the
general constitution of the mind as a system consisting of a multitude
of powers under the government of reason and conscience, present to us
vast fields filled with the evidences of Divine Wisdom.[27]
[27] See Appendix XIX.
There are others no less extensive and inexhaustible in the principles
which underlie and maintain human society, and those which preside
over the progressive development of humanity. Political economy is
the department of social science which has been cultivated with most
success. What, then, is its most comprehensive and best established
theorem? This--that although the great majority of men are moved
mainly by self-interest, and few seek with much zeal or persistency
the general good, the result of their being left in perfect freedom to
pursue their own advantage, so long as they do not outwardly violate
the rules of justice, is far better for the whole society than if
they conformed their conduct to any plan which human wisdom, aiming
directly at the general good, could devise; nature having provided in
the principles of the human constitution and the circumstances of human
life for the selfish plans and passions of individuals so neutralising
one another, so counteracting and counterpoising one another, as to
secure the social stability and welfare--as to leave general ideas and
interests to rule with comparatively little resistance. It is surely
a natural inference from this that a Supreme Reason grasps all human
reasons, and uses them in order to realise a purpose grander and better
than any which they themselves contemplate. History viewed as a whole
teaches the same truth on a wider scale. An examination of it discloses
a plan pervading human affairs from the origin of man until the present
day--a progress which has proceeded without break or stoppage, in
accordance with laws which are as yet very imperfectly apprehended. Of
the countless generations which have come and gone like the leaves of
the forest, for unknown thousands of years, few have had the slightest
glimpse of the order which connected them with their fellows, and
embraced their every action; fewer still have sought to conform to it;
the immense majority have set before them only mean and narrow schemes
for personal good; all passions have raged and all vices prevailed
in their turn; there have been confusion and tumult and war; and yet
the order, progress, plan I speak of have been slowly and silently
but surely built up. In this evolution of order out of the chaos of
millions on millions of conflicting human wills seeking merely their
own pleasure, there is, perhaps, even a more impressive proof of the
operation of Divine Wisdom than in the origination and preservation
of order among the multitudinous stars of heaven. The philosophical
historian who has most conclusively shown by the scrutiny of the chief
events in the annals of humanity the existence of such a progressive
plan, is amply justified in arguing that it cannot have originated
with man, or matter, or chance, but must be the work of God. "We have
passed in review," he says, "all the theories imagined by philosophers
and historians to explain the mysterious fact that there is in the life
of man unfolded in history a succession, a plan, a development, which
cannot be referred to man himself. Some, despairing from the outset to
find a solution, make of their ignorance a blind power which they call
hazard. Evidently that is no solution. Hazard is a word, and nothing
more. Other writers--the majority of writers--say that this mysterious
power is nature, under the form of climate, or races, or the whole
of the physical influences which act on the moral world. But what is
nature? Whence has it this power, this foresight, this intelligence,
which are so conspicuous in the course of our destinies? If nature
is matter, and nothing but matter, that too is no answer. Who will
believe that matter acts with wisdom--with intelligence? Where there is
intelligent action there must be an intelligent being; therefore nature
leads us to God. Finally, there are those who substitute for nature
general laws. But do not laws suppose a legislator? and who can this
legislator be, if not God?"[28]
[28] See Appendix XX.
There is, then, everywhere, both in the physical and moral worlds,
order and adaptation, proportion and co-ordination, and there is very
widely present progress--order which advances in a certain direction
to a certain end, which is until realised only an ideal. This is the
state of things which science discloses. The question is, Is this
state of things intelligible on any other supposition than that of
a designing mind? The theist holds that it is not; that it directly
and imperatively demands an intelligent cause; that to assign it
either to no cause, or to any other than an intelligent cause, is,
in the strictest and strongest sense of the term, absurd. If we
deny that there is such order as I have indicated, we set aside the
entire teaching of all the sciences--we pronounce science to be from
beginning to end a delusion and a lie. Men in the present day dare not
do this. If we deny that such order implies the agency of a Supreme
Intelligence, we contradict no express declaration of any of the
sciences; we may accept all that they have to tell us about order, and
they can tell us about nothing else. But notwithstanding this, it is
far more reasonable, far less absurd, to deny that there is order in
the universe, than to admit it and deny that its ultimate cause is an
intelligence. Further, although we cannot be more certain of the cause
than of the effect from which it is inferred, and consequently cannot
be more certain that an intelligence has produced the order which is in
the universe than that there is order therein, the theistic inference
from the whole of that order may well be greatly stronger than the
scientific proof of order in any particular instance. Men of science
have probably never as good reasons for believing in the laws of order
brought to light by their own special science, as the theist has for
believing in a Supreme Intelligence because of the order which is the
common and concurrent result of all the sciences, and which is obvious
to every eye.
II.
The argument from order and adaptation is often spoken of as "the
argument from design." The phrase is an unfortunate one. The argument
is not _from_ but _to_ design. To assume design and then to affirm
that "every design must have a designer," is manifestly not serious
reasoning, but a play upon words. To assume design at all is to
assume precisely what one is most bound to prove; and to assume
design in the universe is to assume what cannot be proved, yea, what
the theist requires to show against the pantheist cannot be proved.
In any other than a very loose and metaphorical sense design has no
existence except in mind. There is no design in the sky, or the sea,
or the land; there are only law, order, and arrangement therein, and
these things are not designs although they imply designs. What we can
describe as the designs of the lower animals are given to them with
their constitutions, and are only a part of the instrumentality which
fits them for their place in the world. Men have designs properly so
called; but the argument for the existence of God from the evidences
of a Supreme Wisdom in the progressive evolution of human history,
instead of resting on these designs, is based on the fact that what
has actually been realised has far transcended them. Science as a
mere exposition of the facts of the universe can never show us Divine
design, for the good reason that there is no such design in these
facts, although, had it not existed elsewhere, they could never have
been what they are. While this is true, it must in justice be added
that most if not all of the advocates of theism who have presented
the argument under consideration in the faulty form,--"Design implies
a designer; the universe abounds in design; therefore the universe,
so far as it abounds in design, implies a designer,"--have erred more
in expression than in thought. In reality they have not meant by
design what is properly so called, and consequently have not begun
their argument by assuming what was denied and in need of proof. In
reality they have meant by design those characteristics of things
which they hold to be the indications or evidences or correlatives of
intelligence, and which they might have designated by such terms as
order, adjustment, adaptation, fitness, progress, &c. All attempts
to refute their reasoning, therefore, by a strict and literal
interpretation of the phrase "Design implies a designer," must be
pronounced unfair. Censure of the phrase is warranted. Rejection of the
argument on account of the phrase is superficial and unjust.