28 The Bible of Nature 



series of cosmic periods must be a chain, each link 

 of which is bound together with every other in the 

 unity of one plan. ... As we required that each 

 section of the world's history should present a 

 harmony of the elements firmly knit together, so 

 we must now require that the successive order of 

 these sections shall compose the unity of an on- 

 ward advancing melody." The unity of an on- 

 ward advancing melody! 



Beauty. — We have not said anything in regard 

 to the beauty of the world, partly because the 

 theme is so difficult, and partly because no small 

 part of the beauty is implied in the order, the in- 

 tricacy, and the fitness of things. It may be safely 

 said that every finished and normal living thing is 

 beautiful — an artistic harmony when in its natural 

 setting. This suggests the truth of the Platonic 

 conception that a living creature is harmonious be- 

 cause it is the realization of a single idea. The 

 only ugly plants are those which have been de- 

 formed or discolored by cultivation. The omni- 

 presence of beauty in finished and normal living 

 things must have some meaning, and even if it 

 only mean that something in us responds pleasur- 

 ably to what nature mints and fashions, that is a 

 fact of great significance. Beside the remarkable 

 verse in the Book of Wisdom which says: ''Thou 

 hast ordered all things in measure and num- 

 ber and weight" — we may rank its correlative, 



