GREAT QUESTIONS IN LITTLE 



— wonders "beneath wonders everywhere; it sup- 

 pYies the missing hnk between matter and spirit; 

 it helps us to understand the unity of things — that 

 all are of one stuff, that near and remote are the 

 same, that celestial and terrestrial join hands; it 

 helps us to grasp the phenomena of magnetism, of 

 electricity, and of gravity, and of the vital inter- 

 change, so to speak, between all the hosts of heaven. 

 "Not a hawthorn blooms," says Victor Hugo, "but 

 is felt at the stars." If the ether is a reality, this may 

 be true. "The divine ship" (the earth), says Whit- 

 man, "sails the divine seas." The ether is this 

 shoreless and soundless sea — the sea in which all 

 worlds and systems float like bubbles. 



II. NATURAL SELECTION 



Darwin could not believe that man was the re- 

 sult of chance, neither can any of us reach that 

 conclusion in the terms in which we at present do 

 our thinking. It is unthinkable. If we suppose that 

 an accidental meeting or a clash of the molecules 

 of inert matter resulted in the lowest forms of life, 

 how are we to get these myriads of living forms 

 from the amoeba up to man, out of the aimless 

 struggle and jostling of living cells, unless the cells 

 know what they want, or work according to some 

 plan or purpose? How can there be any progress 

 toward higher forms, any cooperation among these 

 minute living units, such as we actually see, la 



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