12 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



can they be carried out; ideas cannot be formed where 

 there is no understanding to form them, much less can 

 they be realised; adjustments, adaptations, and arrange- 

 ments cannot be devised when there is no devising 

 nature, much less can they be produced. These are not 

 workers, but the work done. A perceiving mind, great 

 as the greatness of the work, has imparted to matter the 

 dazzling order which distinguishes it. 



It will not be difficult to see where mind has been at 

 work on matter. The marks of its hand it will be easy 

 to distinguish. It prints its footsteps brilliantly. Its 

 work is inimitable. We can imagine in some cases 

 different physical substances and forces leaving behind 

 them traces very difficult to differentiate. But what 

 save mind can do the work of mind ? What can fill its 

 place, produce its effects, and show its sail of glory? 

 Chance cannot. It can go only a little way. It can take 

 but single steps. It is the easiest thing in the world 

 in most cases to distinguish between the fruits of the 

 operation of chance and those of the operation of mind. 

 Blind forces cannot. No unintelligent ground or prin- 

 ciple of existence can. No nonentity can. No entity 

 that is not intelligent can produce, on an extended scale 

 and with consummate perfection, really clear and brilliant 

 signs of mind. Where the signs are indistinct, where 

 there are only the faintest shadows, the most distant 

 resemblances to the work of intelligence, it may be 

 impossible to determine whether intelligence has been 

 present and has acted ; but where the signs are of dazzling 

 clearness, where the marks are multitudinous and the foot- 

 prints of matchless form, there cannot, there assuredly 

 ought not to be, the least hesitation in coming to a con- 

 clusion. If a small portion of any kind of food tasted 

 slightly of salt, one might not be sure that it had been 



