that he had been doing? When he began he had but vague notions of
what he would do. He had a wish to learn to represent nature, but the
line into which he has settled down has probably proved very different
from that which he proposed to himself originally. Because he has taken
advantage of his accidents, is it, therefore, one whit the less true
that his success is the result of his desires and his design? The
'Times' pointed out not long ago that the theory which now associates
meteors and comets in the most unmistakable manner, was suggested by one
accident, and confirmed by another. But the writer added well that "such
accidents happen only to the zealous student of nature's secrets." In
the same way the bird that is taking to the habit of swimming, and of
making the most of whatever skin it already has between its toes, will
have doubtless to thank accidents for no small part of its progress; but
they will be such accidents as could never have happened to, or been
taken advantage of by any creature which was not zealously trying to
make the most of itself--and between such accidents as this, and design,
the line is hard to draw; for if we go deep enough we shall find that
most of our design resolves itself into as it were a shaking of the bag
to see what will come out that will suit our purpose, and yet at the
same time that most of our shaking of the bag resolves itself into a
design that the bag shall contain only such and such things, or
thereabouts.

Again, the fact that animals are no longer conscious of
design and purpose in much that they do, but act unreflectingly,
and as we sometimes say concerning ourselves "automatically" or
"mechanically"--that they have no idea whatever of the steps whereby
they have travelled to their present state, and show no sign of doubt
about what must have been at one time the subject of all manner of
doubts, difficulties, and discussions--that whatever sign of reflection
they now exhibit is to be found only in case of some novel feature or
difficulty presenting itself; these facts do not bar that the results
achieved should be attributed to an inception in reason, design, and
purpose, no matter how rapidly and as we call it instinctively, the
creatures may now act.

For if we look closely at such an invention as the steam engine in its
latest and most complicated developments, about which there can be no
dispute but that they are achievements of reason, purpose, and design,
we