GOD IN NATURE 187 



other types of animal life. In the beautiful Portu 

 guese man-of-war (Physalid) and its allies, flotation 

 is provided for by membranous or cartilaginous sacs 

 or vesicles filled with air, and which are the common 

 support of numerous individuals which hang down 

 from them. In some allied creatures the buoyancy 

 required is secured by little sacs filled with oil secreted 

 by the animals themselves, and in ancient zoophytes, 

 known as graptolites, flotation seems to have been 

 effected in some species by air-vesicles supporting a 

 community of animals. 



In each of these cases we have a skilful adaptation 

 of means to ends. The float is so constructed as to 

 avail itself of the properties of gases and liquids, and 

 the apparatus is framed on the most scientific prin 

 ciples and in the most artistic manner. That this 

 apparatus is not mechanically put together, and that 

 in each case the instincts and the habits of the animal 

 have been correlated with it, can scarcely be held by 

 the most obtuse intellect to invalidate the evidence of 

 intelligent design. 



3. Structures apparently the most simple and 

 often heedlessly spoken of as if they involved no 

 complexity prove, on examination, to be intricate 

 and complex almost beyond conception. In nothing, 

 perhaps, is this better seen than in that much-abused 

 protoplasm which has been made to do duty for 

 God in the origination of life, but which is itself a 

 most laboriously manufactured material. Albumen, 



