142 THE NATURE OF NATURE 



of blind forces or that chance rules supreme in 

 Nature. We have firm ground for holding that 

 it is spirit which is supreme, and that every smallest 

 part and the whole together are animated by 

 Purpose. 



So when we view Nature in the tropical forests 

 and in barren deserts, in mountains and in plains, 

 in meadows and in woodlands, in seas and in stars, 

 in animals and in men, we do not see Nature as a 

 confused jumble with all her innumerable parts 

 come together in haphazard fashion as the grains 

 of sand shovelled into a heap — a chance aggregate 

 of unrelated particles in which it is a mere toss-up 

 which is next to which and how they are arranged. 

 Nature is evidently not a chance collection of un- 

 related particles. We came to that conclusion 

 when studying the forest, and a study of the stars 

 shows nothing to weaken that conclusion. Nature 

 is animated by Purpose. 



Yet because Nature is animated by Purpose, 

 we need not regard her as a machine, a piece of 

 mechanism which has been designed and put 

 together, wound up and set going by some outside 

 mechanician, and regard ourselves as cogs on the 

 wheels, watching all the other wheels go round and 

 through the maze of machinery catching sight of 

 the mechanician standing by and watching his 

 handiwork. A cog on the wheel as it revolved 

 would be rigidly confined in its • operations : it 

 would have no choice as to what means it should 

 employ to carry out its end. Yet even plants have 

 the power of choice, as we have seen, and use 

 different means to achieve the same end. They 



