UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



building up organs and parts more and more com- 

 plex, till the earth is peopled with intelligent be- 

 ings? Must there not be some kind of method in 

 the madness of molecular activities, in the chaotic 

 rush and whirl of the atoms and electrons, some 

 purposive arrangement and direction, in order that 

 so wonderful a mechanism as even a flea or a 

 fly may result? What the directing and organizing 

 agent is, or whether or not there is any such agent 

 or power that can be described and referred to in 

 these terms, is one of the fundamental mysteries. 

 According to the terms in which we do our think- 

 ing, nothing can create itself, and yet in the con- 

 cepts of a non-teleological universe, we cannot ad- 

 mit any objective power or influence apart from 

 Nature herself. 



An eye, for instance, is a very convenient thing 

 for an animal to have, but how could natural selec- 

 tion, or the mere struggle of life, have brought it 

 about? Nothing is planning an eye, or thinking 

 about it, or feeling the want of it, in the chaos of 

 a world of chance. The organism is jostled about 

 here and there, and yet in due time the eye with 

 all its wonderful powers and adaptation appears. 

 It is of use when developed, but must there not 

 have been a long preliminary stage in its develop- 

 ment when it was of no use? It began as a faint 

 pigmented spot in the epidermis. Was this pig- 

 mented spot of any service to the organism? Could 

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