78 THE SUM IMPRESSION 



and, indeed, to make the future better than the 

 present. 



This seems to be the way judging by what we 

 see in the forest the Activity works. Things have 

 not come to be as they are by the slap-dash, 

 irresponsible, unregulated methods of mere chance. 

 We cannot fail to see that chance does play some 

 part. One seed from a tree may fall into a rivulet 

 and be swept away to the sea, while another may be 

 borne by a gust of wind, or by a bird, on to rich 

 soil where competitors are few, and be able to grow 

 up into a monarch of the forest, to live for a hun- 

 dred years, and to give birth to thousands like itself. 

 This is true. But chance will not produce the 

 advancement and progress which is observable. 

 Chance will not produce a single one of those organs 

 of adaptation we see in myriads in the forest. And 

 chance would not have made the barren earth of 

 a hundred million years ago bring forth the plant, 

 animal, and human life we see on it to-day. 



The Activity does not work on the haphazard 

 methods of pure chance. Nor, on the other hand, 

 are its operations conducted in the rigid, mechanical 

 method of a machine. Nor, again, can the result 

 we see be due to the working of blind physical and 

 chemical processes alone. There is a great deal 

 too much variety and spontaneity and originality 

 about. We could not possibly look upon the 

 forest as a machine even of the most complicated 

 kind. A machine goes grinding round and round, 

 producing things of exactly the same pattern. 

 Whereas no two things exactly alike are ever turned 



