98 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



necessary combinations and collocations, for compelling 

 the molecules to spring into the multitude of places 

 which it is necessary for them to take, and so to build 

 up a machine of such nicety and multiplicity of parts. 

 And so the environment was a work of mind. The 

 environment can only thus be accounted for. And every 

 element entering into it and forming it is richly ordered, 

 and must be ascribed to the same source. 



If protoplasm came into being in a peculiar environ- 

 ment, it might have been (1) that only in that environ- 

 ment it would have been possible for it to persist ; and 

 (2) that it only should have been able to multiply in it, 

 and that it should not have been capable of multiplying 

 itself in a multitude of environments. 



(4) In the elements. Protoplasm, in its origin, even if 

 it came into existence as the fruit of operations going 

 before, is radiant with signs of mind. It is built up with 

 a brilliancy of constructive power unapproachable by man. 

 It yields the lofty element of life. The environment 

 necessary to its evolution and multiplication, to its pro- 

 cesses and advances, was also rich in the results of in- 

 telligent working. The elements, therefore, rising to so 

 great a height, yielding a form of being which has pro- 

 duced the whole living world, afford proofs of the most 

 convincing force from whence they have come. The 

 difficulty of building up the protoplasmic structure cannot 

 be exaggerated, and it is impossible to make too much of 

 it as an evidence of the many ordered qualities of the 

 substances which perform the work. The vitality of the 

 structure is of high rank, and that the atoms should be 

 capable by evolution and organisation of striking out a 

 spark so exalted and so permanent, evinces most clearly 

 that for it they have been specially endowed. 



Protoplasmic globules are more wonderful than atoms, 



