132 The Bible of Nature 



believing in the erstwhile origin of the living from 

 the not-living, we give a greater continuity to the 

 course of events, and we must again read some- 

 thing into the common denominator of science — 

 Matter, Energy, and the Ether. We have already 

 read into this. Wonder and Mystery, Harmony and 

 Order, and we must now read into it — Progress 

 and, from a philosophical standpoint, Purpose. 

 Unless Increase of Complexity and Integration, 

 Harmony and Beauty, be considered Ends justi- 

 fying themselves, we cannot read the Riddle of the 

 Earth considered by itself. If, however, the dust 

 of the earth did naturally give rise to living creat- 

 ures, if they are in a real sense her children, then 

 we understand better all the groaning and travail- 

 ing, and what seemed only a development becomes 

 an evolution. 



