342 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
ment help us here over all obstacles; for when in the animal 
kingdom we follow the gradual progress towards perfection 
of the eyes and ears, step by step, we find such a finely 
graduated series of improvement, that we can clearly 
follow the development of the most complex organs through 
all the stages towards perfection. Thus, for example, the 
eye in the lowest animal is a simple spot of pigment which 
does not yet reflect any image of external objects, but at 
most perceives and distinguishes the different rays of light. 
Later, we find in addition to this a sensitive nerve; then 
there gradually develops within the spot of pigment the 
first beginning of the lens, a refractive body which is now 
able to concentrate the rays of light and to reflect a definite 
image. But all the composite apparatus for the movement 
of the eye and its accommodation to variations of light and 
distance are still absent, namely, the various refractive 
media, the highly differentiated membrane of the optic 
nerve, etc., which are so perfectly constructed in higher 
animals. Comparative anatomy shows us an uninterrupted 
succession of all possible stages of transition, from the 
simplest organ to the most highly perfected apparatus, so 
that we can form a pretty correct idea of the slow and 
gradual formation of even such an exceedingly complex 
organ. The like gradual progress which we observe in the 
development of the organ during the course of individual 
development, must have taken place in the historical 
(phyletic) origin of the organ. 
Many persons when contemplating these most perfect 
organs—which apparently were purposely invented and 
constructed by an ingenious Creator for a definite function, 
but which in reality have arisen by the aimless action 
