136 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



power employed. This is the point where science is 

 baffled. The biologist sees the three forms of sarcode, 

 but he has not the faintest idea as to which one will 

 appropriate the silica, or which the carbonate of lime, 

 or which will decline both of these substances. The 

 microscope detects no difference, chemical analysis 

 fails to say which has this or that power. They are 

 only specks that are under examination. They are 

 devoid of organs, yet they are as distinct as possible 

 in the mysterious powers they possess. Place theai 

 in their proper elements. One feeds, but assimilates 

 neither the flint nor the lime held in suspense in the 

 water, so that it does not secrete a shell ; another 

 appropriates in a very marvellous manner the flinty 

 matter, and lo ! a most complex structure, perforated, 

 latticed, ornamented, and of surpassing attractiveness, 

 is the result ; the third has no power over the silica, 

 but instead it selects the carbonate of lime, and a 

 beautiful shell is produced. This mysterious principle, 

 force, or whatever else we may call it, is not a chance 

 possession. There is nothing haphazard about this, 

 any more than there is about the uses of the moon to 

 this earth. This is only one of the innumerable 

 phases of life that puzzle men of science and that 

 can only be answered by attributing all to the 

 general plan of creation which in every stage shows 

 overwhelming evidence of the existence of an all-wise 

 God. 



In addition to those Foraminifera which take in 

 calcareous or chalky matter, there are some members 



