//;o/-7-o/i' \'in< HOW AND EVOLUTION. 



are the great agents of molecular ii < hi tho 



ul. -s of seed and soil these waves inij 



tnrbing tin- atmic equilibrium, whirli there is an imme- 



: t to restore. The effort, incessantly d- foaled 



for tlie waves continue to pour in is ilioetfatltljf lenewed: 



in the molecular struggle matter is t ic soil 



and from tin- atmosphere, and built, in obedience to tin* 



. nide. the moleciil.-. into il form of 



i general way, therefore, the life of the tree 



mi^ht bo do lined as an unceasing effort to restore a 



turbed equilibrium. In the building < Nature 



s her first structural effort; wo ii i - 10 earliest 



groping of the so-called "vital force," and the manifes- 

 tations of this force in plants and animals, though, as 



iy stated, indefinitely more complex, are to be re- 

 garded of the r-uni'- mechanical quality as those concerned 

 in the building of the crystal. 



Consider the cycle of operations by which the seed pro- 

 duces the plant, the plant the flower, the flower again the 

 seed, tho causal line, returning with the fidelity of a 

 planetary orbit to its original point of departure. \\ 

 what planned this molecular rhythm? \V- do not ki 

 science fails even to inform us whether it was ever " plan- 



at all. Yonder butterfly has a snot of orange on its 

 wing; and if we look at a drawing made a century ago, of 

 one of the ancestors of that butt probably find tin- 



selfsame spot upon the wing. For a century the "mo! 

 have described their cycles. Butterflies!. i begotten, 



have been born, and have died; still we find the mo!- 

 archit m hanged. Who or what determined this 



persistency of recurrence? We do not know; h-ii wo stand 

 within our intellectual range when wo say that tl 



.My nothing in that wing which may not yet find its 



ve that tho principles invol\. -d i 



.-Inn-lion are qualitatively tno name as those l-n-ujit into 

 play in tho formation of the solar system. \\ 

 take a Step further, and aflirm that the drain of man the 

 organ of his reason without which he can neiilu-r think 

 nor feel, is also an assemblage of mM, ,;>. actin. 



ug according to law. Here, however. 



d in mechanical science con 1; and if 



leduce from t nh-raction of 



ules the least of t:. nma of sei 



