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absolute according action adaptation admit analogy animal appears argument Aristotle behoved blind called causality chance chap co-ordination coincidence combination conceive conception consequently created creation Cuvier Darwin Descartes determinate difficulty distinct divine doctrine doubt effect efficient cause elements Epicurus evident evolution existence explain external fact final causes force foresight function given hand harmony Hegel human industry hylozoism hypothesis idea immanent induction infinite instance instinct internal finality Kant Lamarck Leibnitz less Lisbon living Lucretius machine Malebranche Manichæism matter means mechanical medium mind motion natural selection necessary objection organs pantheism perfect pheno phenomena phenomenon philosophy physical causes Plato point of view possible precisely principle of final problem produce properties prove purely question reason recognise relation result retina sort soul species Spinoza suffice suppose theory things thought tion true truth universe Voltaire whole word
Popular passages
Page 299 - It is one of those explanations which explains nothing — a shaping of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge. The cause assigned is not a true cause — not a cause assimilable to known causes — not a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous effects. It is a cause unrepresentable in thought : one of those illegitimate symbolic conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real conception. In brief, this assumption of a persistent formative power, inherent...
Page 488 - All Nature is but art, unknown to thee All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
Page 223 - The illustration of the swimbladder in fishes is a good one, because it shows us clearly the highly important fact that an organ originally constructed for one purpose, namely, flotation, may be converted into one for a widely different purpose, namely, respiration. The swimbladder has, also, been worked in as an accessory to the auditory organs of certain fishes. All physiologists admit that the swimbladder is homologous, or
Page 322 - Dost thou think," said he to her. " that if from the creation plates of tin, leaves of lettuce, grains of salt, drops of oil and vinegar, and fragments of hard-boiled eggs were floating in space in all directions and without order, chance could assemble them to-day to form a salad ? " " Certainly not so good a one," replied his fair spouse, " nor so well seasoned as this.
Page 299 - In whatever way it is formulated, or by whatever language it is obscured, this ascription of organic evolution to some aptitude naturally possessed by organisms, or miraculously imposed on them, is unphilosophical. It is one of those explanations which explain nothing — a shaping of ignorance into the semblance of knowledge.
Page 185 - Suppose that a countryman being in a clear day brought into the garden of some famous mathematician, should see there one of those curious gnomonic instruments, that...
Page 79 - It is a curious mathematical problem, at what precise angle the three planes which compose the bottom of a cell ought to meet, in order to make the greatest possible saving, or the least expense of material and labour. This is one of those problems, belonging to the higher parts of mathematics, which are called problems of maxima and minima. It has been resolved by some mathematicians, particularly by the ingenious Mr.
Page 45 - The appropriateness of the eye to its end exists in the most perfect manner, and is revealed even in the limits given to its defects.
Page 80 - We need not say that bees know none of these things. They work most geometrically, without any knowledge of geometry ; somewhat like a child who, by turning the handle of an organ, makes good music without any knowledge of music. " The art is not in the child, but in him who made the organ. In like manner, when a bee makes its comb so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, weight...
Page 79 - He has determined precisely the angle required ; and he found, by the most exact mensuration the subject could admit, that it is the very angle, in which the three planes in the bottom of the cell of a honey-comb do actually meet.