Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/290

282 solitary cogitations. He considers 'the admirable Structure of the Bodies of every Species of Animal' within his reach; is struck by the detailed adaptations of their faculties to the various conditions of their lives; and soon learns to appreciate their 'Art and Foresight' in the preservation of self and young. "In fine," he declares—and by this time we are, of course, fully aware of the drift of his thought, "I beheld the marks of Wisdom wherever I cast my Eyes. An universal Harmony and Dependence appeared through all the Parts of Creation, and the most neglected Things, when duly examined, were not without their manifest use; and I was everywhere surprised with an apparently wise Design, where the least Design was expected."

Had our young Natural Philosopher, we ask, been reading the 'Essay on Man' on the sly? His 'universal Harmony and Dependence' is only the 'great chain of being 7 over again, and when he further informs us that 'from the works of Nature and Providence' he was inevitably led to the knowledge of the First Mover,' he is simply explaining how he looked 'through Nature up to Nature's God.' In fact, the religious development of Autonous, solitary and untaught, furnishes us with an interesting illustration of the early eighteenth-century argument from design. The familiar discussion follows of 'beauty' and 'fitness' as evidences of 'some intelligent Agent,' who is easily shown to be at once all-wise, all-powerful and all-good. All this, indeed, belongs to the 'mere Light of Nature.' But we have only to remember the common eighteenth-century view of the relation of natural and revealed religion to appreciate the importance of the step which the lonely youth had now taken.

We may observe, in passing, that the conditions of life on the island are highly favorable to an optimistic philosophy. Dwelling in a veritable little Garden of Eden, where general peace prevails and the red tooth and claw of nature are seldom shown, Autonous has no difficulty in believing in a Providence both omnipotent and benign. This is surely the best of all possible worlds, he might have said, with Leibnitz and Dr. Pangloss; and there is no rude fact to meet him at the first turning of the eye and shake his whole scheme to its foundations. But what if Autonous had been thrown among birds and beasts of prey? Our author has simplified his task by not raising that question.

Meanwhile the youth is gaining ground in other directions. From what, in the true style of his time, he calls 'the harmonious Chanting of the feathered Tribes,' he infers that speech is the 'method used among men to communicate their minds in conversing one with another'; and from the ignis fatuus and the glow-worm he learns something, though not as yet much, of fire and light. He also gets a little practical experience well worth recording. A couple of bottles, saved by his father from the wreck, have been standing all these years