ATTRIBUTES OF INANIMATE MATTER. 189 



animosities. Let the evolutionist concede Omnipo- 

 tence as the author of all law, force, and energy ex- 

 hibited and excited in the universe ; and let the relig- 

 ionist admit that the Ruler of heaven and earth may 

 have rendered this planet habitable, and then peopled 

 it by first introducing the lower forms, then a higher, 

 and so on till man took his place at the head of created 

 things. There is little that is unreasonable in the 

 theory, and much to support it. The admission would 

 deprive the evolutionist of much of his stock in trade, 

 and not shock the sensibilities of the ecclesiastic. This 

 liberal interpretation of mundane operations would 

 allow of a premeditated scheme, of a rational method 

 of procedure, and of results in harmony with the en- 

 tire enterprise. 



Whatever may have been the cause of organic 

 structures, there is on every hand a striking display of 

 purpose in vital operations. If a tree be upturned in 

 a ravine, it will be found that the roots extending to 

 the moisture and rich loam at the bottom of the de- 

 clivity will be large and numerous, as if to absorb 

 moisture and nutriment abundantly, and that the roots 

 reaching upward and laterally will seek a rock or sta- 

 ble substance, around which the rootlets coil and cling 

 as if to gain support or anchorage. It is difficult to 

 see where this conservative purpose came from, though 

 it is easy to declare that the different parts of a tree, as 

 the roots on either side of the stem, know what is best 

 for the general good of the structure in its entirety. 



A neglected potato in a crevice of the cellar wall 

 will sprout under the influence of the warmth of ad- 

 vancing spring, and the colorless shoots will, in their 

 growth, bend toward the light of the nearest cellar 

 window, even emerging to open day if there exist a 



