The Wonder of the World 29 



"He has made all things beautiful in their sea- 

 son." 



We lift a tiny shell from the shore, and though 

 we know that it is simply an "exoskeleton," — a 

 cuticular secretion of part of the mollusc's skin, 

 we find it exquisitely fashioned, "a miracle of 

 design," and we must say the same of every 

 normal finished organic product in every corner 

 of creation. 



In regard to the beauty of organic structures, it 

 is perhaps of interest to remember that much of 

 it — much of the best of it — is quite unseen, except 

 by the scientific searcher. Much is covered up 

 by the living tissue, as in the exquisite flinty skele- 

 ton of the Venus' Flower-Basket; much is hidden 

 in the darkness of deep waters; much is micro- 

 scopic. In many cases we can justify the beauty 

 on utilitarian grounds, thus it may be architectu- 

 rally effective for resisting strain and stress, or it 

 may be protective by harmonizing with surround- 

 ing color; in many other cases it seems to us as if 

 it were sheer decoration without significance, ex- 

 cept that it expresses the creature that makes it. 



Retrospect. — We have tried to illustrate what 

 may be called the basis of rational wonder. We 

 have spoken of the abundance of power, of the im- 

 mensities, of the manifoldness and intricacy of 

 things, of the order that pervades the whole, of 

 the subtle interrelations in the web of life, of the 



