68 LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 



abundantly of those germs of existence which in the lower 

 parts of creation are evolved in such countless profusion. 

 The total condition of organic life, from its lowest to its 

 highest grades, is modified or controlled by these several 

 causes, unceasingly in action over every part of the globe. 



Our wonder at these things may well be mingled with 

 some degree of awe. For it is impossible to regard them 

 without seeing the great and mysterious problems they put 

 before us. What is, to our reason, this vast design, of which 

 such myriads of separate and successive living generations 

 are the interpreters to our senses ? This question, and others 

 collateral to it, are forced upon us almost as a necessity of 

 thought. We see no way open to their solution. That there 

 is a design ; that it is not accident, or a blind necessity, 

 which evokes and maintains this world of life around us, 

 need hardly be dwelt upon as matter of argument. The 

 marks of law and mutual relation; of purposes fulfilled 

 by organisation and instincts ; are so indelibly impressed 

 on the whole, that no seeming exceptions or anomalies 

 can weigh for a moment against them ; or leave a doubt 

 as to the unity of plan, and its derivation from a higher 

 source than physical science can reach. There is no neu- 

 trality in. this question. To doubt the fact is to cease to 

 reason at all. 



But in recognising this supreme creative power, of which 

 to our reason Man is the highest exponent, we are far below 

 any comprehension of the great scheme in which we occupy 

 this place. The question we have stated still presses upon 

 us, as to the design of this profuse variety of life on the 

 globe, so far beyond all reckoning of number or thought ? 

 It is easy to gather vague replies from those who look but 

 on the surface, and indulge the belief that all these things 

 were made for man, and his supremacy only. Such cannot 

 be the belief of those who have read the book of nature fully 



