PSEUDO-PHILOSOPHY 113 



plasm, that impress the mind with the necessity of an 

 over-ruHng " Adapter ". 



Let us follow out briefly the interdependence of the 

 three kingdoms. A man must live. He must breathe, 

 he must eat and drink. To do the first the air must 

 be so constituted as to supply him with the necessary 

 oxygen. Water is a necessity of life ; and if he eat 

 animal food, the sheep or ox had to live upon the vege- 

 table kingdom ; but grass or wheat, if man eat bread, 

 requires various mineral salts ; nitrates, phosphates, etc., 

 and potash, iron, etc., or it cannot grow. All green 

 plants require carbon dioxide from the air, or they could 

 not build up their tissues. To do this they require heat 

 and light from the sun, the energy of which is stored up 

 in plants ; these have been converted into coal. Man 

 extracts it, lights a fire and roasts his meat, thereby 

 liberating sun-light and sun-heat ; or he may utilise the 

 stored up solar energy in driving his motor car or any 

 kind of engine. 



The question is. Which is more probable : that the 

 innumerable adaptations between the three kingdoms 

 was foreseen by a Master Mind before protoplasm ap- 

 peared on this earth, or whether the exquisite adjustments 

 between Matter, Force and Life came about by chance ; 

 i.e., without any natural laws in mutual correlation, just 

 as natural selection is supposed to have brought about 

 Evolution, without any connection between the appearance 

 of favourable variations and the environment. 



I prefer to regard this interaction as one of the many 

 coincidences which supply inductive evidence in support 

 of the proof of a Creator, both seen in the Origin of Life, 

 and the Origin of Species. 



8 



