42 CLASSIFICATION AND CREATION. 



necessary which cannot be otherwise than dry to 

 any but professional naturalists ; yet believing, 

 as I do, that classification, rightly understood, 

 means simply the creative plan of God as ex- 

 pressed in organic forms, I feel the importance 

 of attempting at least to present it in a popular 

 guise, divested, as far as possible, of technical- 

 ities. I would therefore ask the indulgence of 

 my readers for such scientific terms and details 

 as cannot well be dispensed with, begging them 

 to remember that a long and tedious road may 

 bring us suddenly upon a glorious prospect, and 

 that a clearer mental atmosphere and a new in- 

 tellectual sensation may well reward us for a 

 little weariness in the outset. 



Besides, the time has come when scientific 

 truth must cease to be the property of the few, 

 when it must be woven into the common life of 

 the world ; for we have reached the point where 

 the results of science touch the very problem of 

 existence, and all men listen for the solving of 

 that mystery. When it will come, and how, 

 none can say ; but this much at least is certain, 

 that all our researches are leading up to that 

 question, and mankind will never rest till it is 

 answered. If, then, the results of science are of 

 such general interest for the human race, if they 

 are gradually interpreting the purposes of the 

 Deity in creation, and the relation of man to all 



