TIVE DESIGN

From 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication'

Some authors have declared that natural selection explains nothing,
unless the precise cause of each slight individual difference be made
clear. If it were explained to a savage utterly ignorant of the art of
building, how the edifice had been raised stone upon stone, and why
wedge-formed fragments were used for the arches, flat stones for the
roof, etc.; and if the use of each part and of the whole building were
pointed out, it would be unreasonable if he declared that nothing had
been made clear to him, because the precise cause of the shape of each
fragment could not be told. But this is a nearly parallel case with the
objection that selection explains nothing, because we know not the cause
of each individual difference in the structure of each being.

The shape of the fragments of stone at the base of our precipice may be
called accidental, but this is not strictly correct; for the shape of
each depends on a long sequence of events, all obeying natural laws: on
the nature of the rock, on the lines of deposition or cleavage, on the
form of the mountain, which depends on its upheaval and subsequent
denudation, and lastly on the storm or earthquake which throws down the
fragments. But in regard to the use to which the fragments may be put,
their shape may be strictly said to be accidental. And here we are led
to face a great difficulty, in alluding to which I am aware that I am
traveling beyond my proper province. An omniscient Creator must have
foreseen every consequence which results from the laws imposed by him.
But can it be reasonably maintained that the Creator intentionally
ordered, if we use the words in any ordinary sense, that certain
fragments of rock should assume certain shapes so that the builder might
erect his edifice? If the various laws which have determined the shape
of each fragment were not predetermined for the builder's sake, can it
be maintained with any greater probability that he specially ordained
for the sake of the breeder each of the innumerable variations in our
domestic animals and plants;--many of these variations being of no
service to man, and not beneficial, far more often injurious, to the
creatures themselves? Did he ordain that the crop and tail-feathers of
the pigeon should vary, in order that the fancier might make his
grotesque pouter and fantail breeds? Did he cause the frame and mental
qualities