Exfoliation 



that very specialised form of Evolution which 

 has been adopted by modern science, in this 

 particular among others : that it fixes the atten- 

 tion on that which appears last in order of Time, 

 as the most important in order of causation, rather 

 than on that which appears first ; and recalls 

 to us the fact that often in any succession of pheno- 

 mena, that which is first in order of precedence 

 and importance is the last to be externalised. 

 Thus in the growth of a plant we find leaf after 

 leaf appearing, petal within petal — a continual 

 exfoliation of husks, sepals, petals, stamens and 

 what-not ; but the object of all this movement, 

 and that which in a sense sets it all in motion, 

 namely the seed, is the very last thing of all to be 

 manifested. Or when a volcano breaks out — 

 first of all we have a cracking and upheaval of 

 superficial layers of ground, then of layers below 

 these, then the outflow of lava, and last of all the 

 uprush of the inner fires and forces which set 

 it all agoing. What appears first in time, or in 

 the outer world is — in the case of the building of 

 a house, the making of bricks ; in the case of 

 the flower, the outermost bracts ; in the case of 

 a volcano, the stirring of the surface of the ground ; 

 and in the case of Life on the Earth, the appear- 

 ance of protoplasms and primordial cells. The 

 bricks are not the cause of the house (if indeed 

 the word " cause " should be used here at all) 

 but rather the house — or the conception of the 

 house — is the cause of the bricks ; and the cells 

 fi.re not the origin of Man, but Man is the original 



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