THE INORGANIC WORLD 97 



vegetable kingdom. If a bean be thrust into the 

 soil, under conditions suitable for germination, the 

 shoot struggles up towards the light, as if it knew 

 that its expanding crown of green leaves had to be 

 exposed to the air and sunlight, and its root wriggles 

 downwards,thrusting aside the smaller stones,twisting 

 round the larger, seeking darkness and moisture and 

 the chemical substances the plant requires. If the 

 bean be placed in the soil upside down, the shoot, 

 almost as soon as it protrudes, bends upwards, 

 making a curve to reach the light, and the root in 

 similar fashion curves downwards over the bean, 

 towards the conditions proper to its functions. 



Why should we stop with the organic and not 

 continue to see purpose and will in the inorganic 

 world ? Why not see choice in the wind " blowing 

 where it listeth," purpose in the cleansing rise and 

 fall of the sea " in its priest-like task of pure ablution, 

 round earth's human shores " ? It has often been 

 pointed out that water behaves differently from other 

 liquids when it is cooled. Most liquids contract as 

 their temperature is lowered and reach a maximum 

 density when they congeal, so that the solid sinks in 

 the liquid of which it is formed. Water contracts 

 until the temperature is slightly over the freezing 

 point, and then expands so that ice is formed on the 

 surface. This has been alleged as an instance of the 

 wisdom of the Creator, preventing oceans and lakes 

 and rivers freezing from the bottom upwards into 

 solid masses of ice that would make the globe 

 uninhabitable by man. But why should the bene- 

 volent wisdom not be ascribed to the ice ? In a 

 word, why should we not return to the beautiful 



