132 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION 



world and, more particularly, the organization of living beings in 

 their connection with the physical world, prove in general the exis- 

 tence of a Supreme Being as the Author of all things. The task of 

 science is rather to investigate what has been done, to inquire if 

 possible how it has been done, than to ask what is possible for the 

 Deity, as we can know that only by what actually exists. To attack 

 such a position, those who would deny the intervention in nature 

 of a creative mind must show that the cause to which they refer the 

 origin of finite beings is by its nature a possible cause, which can- 

 not be denied of a being endowed with the attributes we recognize 

 in God. Our task is therefore completed as soon as we have proved 

 His existence. It would nevertheless be highly desirable that every 

 naturalist who has arrived at similar conclusions should go over the 

 subject anew from his point of view and with particular reference 

 to the special field of his investigations; for so only can the whole 

 evidence be brought out. 



I foresee already that some of the most striking illustrations may 

 be drawn from the morphology of the vegetable kingdom, especially 

 from the characteristic succession and systematical combination of 

 different kinds of leaves in the formation of the foliage and the 

 flowers of so many plants, all of which end their development by 

 the production of an endless variety of fruits. The inorganic world, 

 considered in the same light, would not fail to exhibit also unex- 

 pected evidence of thought, in the character of the laws regulating 

 the chemical combinations, the action of physical forces, the uni- 

 versal attraction, etc., etc. Even the history of human culture ought 

 to be investigated from this point of view. But I must leave it to 

 abler hands to discuss such topics. 



SECTION XXXII 

 RECAPITULATION 



In recapitulating the preceding statements we may present the 

 following conclusions: — 



Ist.^^^ The connection of all these known features of nature into 



^^^ The numbers inscribed here correspond to the preceding sections, in the same 

 order, so that the reader may at once refer bacis. to the evidence, when needed. 



