184 Outlook to Nature 



ing under the Roman influence, an eternal city ; 

 to the inhabitants of desert-bordered Palestine, a 

 scene where waters fail not ; to John, banished 

 on Patmos, a place where there is no more 

 sea. If we have only symbols of the other 

 world, how futile to ask where Elysium is ! 



The 'vast program. 



To me, the entire evolution scheme is a pro- 

 gram or design ; and the fact that we have only 

 now been able to apprehend this scheme is all 

 the more proof that it is divine. 



But creation cannot be a true design or 

 scheme if special interference in particulars is 

 necessary to carry it forward. Likewise, a 

 scheme that applies to some groups and not to 

 all, or in which special creations are now and then 

 invoked, is disjunctive and discursive, unable to 

 support itself, and therefore unworthy a divine 

 hand. A powerful reason for ascribing the 

 entire creation to an almighty hand is the very 

 fact that it has within itself the power of unfold- 

 ing and developing throughout space and time 

 the fact, indeed, that it is an evolution. 



