ii Organising Intelligence. 13 



For the development of the great vertebrate class 

 out of the lowly, worm-like, and undeveloped Ascidian 

 larva, of the bird out of the reptile, and above all, 

 of the man out of an ape-like form, an Intelligent 

 Power is needed, transcending all the powers, not 

 only of unvitalised matter, but of the unintelligent 

 life of mere habit and hereditary transmission. 



When an organ has to be adapted to a new 

 function, or an organism to a new mode of life it 

 may be to a new element, as when a water-breathing 

 larva turns into an air-breathing perfect form the 

 usual method of the Organising Intelligence is not to 

 call a new organ into existence, but to adapt one 

 already existing. Thus, the lungs of air-breathing 

 vertebrates are beyond doubt a modification of the 

 swim - bladder of fishes ; the wing of the bird is 

 a modification of the fore-leg of the reptile ; and the 

 wings of insects have most probably been formed by 

 the modification of organs for aquatic respiration. So 

 it is in the process whereby the Spirit of God trans- 

 forms the natural into the spiritual man. The powers 

 of reverence, knowledge, and love are not conferred 

 for the first time, but they receive a new direction ; 

 they were formerly directed to earthly, probably un- 

 worthy, certainly inadequate and unsatisfying, objects; 

 now they are directed to the only perfectly worthy, 

 adequate, and satisfying Object. This view of the 

 true natural analogue of spiritual regeneration is, no 

 doubt, unfamiliar, and may perhaps appear startling ; 

 but it is not more so than Professor Drummond's 



