xiv PROOFS OF ORGANISING MIND 297 



earth ; and to those who pointed to the result of all this 

 " motion of matter " in the finished product the church, the 

 mansion, the bridge, the railway, the huge steamship or 

 cotton factory or engineering works as positive evidence 

 of design, of directive power, of an unseen and unknown 

 mind or minds, they would exclaim "You are wholly 

 unscientific ; we know the physical and chemical forces at 

 work in this curious world, and if we study it long enough 

 we shall find that known forces will explain it all." 



If we suppose that all the smaller objects, even if of the 

 same size as ourselves, can only be seen by microscopes, and 

 that with improved instruments the various tools we use, as 

 well as our articles of furniture, our food, and our table- 

 fittings (knives and forks, dishes, glasses, etc., and even our 

 watches, our needles and pins, etc.) become perceptible, as 

 well as the food and drinks which are seen also to move 

 about and disappear ; and when all this is observed to recur 

 at certain definite intervals every day, there would be great 

 jubilation over the discovery, and it would be loudly pro- 

 claimed that with still better microscopes all would be 

 explained in terms of matter and motion ! 



That seems to me very like the position of modern 

 physiology in regard to the processes of the growth and 

 development of living things. 



Insects and their Metamorphosis 



We now have to consider that vast assemblage of small 

 winged organisms constituting the class Insecta, or insects, 

 which may be briefly defined as ringed or jointed (annulose) 

 animals, with complex mouth-organs, six legs, and one or 

 two pairs of wings. They are more numerous in species, 

 and perhaps also in individuals, than all other land-animals 

 put together ; and in either their larval or adult condition 

 supply so large and important a part of the food of birds, 

 that the existence of the latter, in the variety and abundance 

 we now behold, may be said to depend upon the former. 



The most highly developed and the most abundant of 

 the insect tribes are those which possess a perfect meta- 

 morphosis, that is, which in their larval state are the most 



