66 THE UNIVERSE 



beings with sentient power to regulate and control 

 their own destiny. 



Meanwhile the surging tides of electric energy are 

 forcing the continents upward, and the fish that 

 swim in the paleozoic seas find the waters receding 

 and himself part of the time on the land or in the 

 mud and shallows, and the growing organism, from 

 generation to generation becomes adapted to each 

 condition of life on land and water. Then comes to 

 pass the raising of the organism from the fish to the 

 reptile by the influence of electrical induction and 

 change of environment. Then also comes the growth 

 of plant life, and the marvelous varieties of vegeta- 

 tion in the form of tree and shrub and grass. Upon 

 the land, half submerged, the vegetation that had its 

 rootlets in the former ocean bed grew from sea 

 weeds into rank grasses and ferns, the types of which 

 are seen to this day in the dense forests and jungles 

 of the tropics. 



In the early period of the paleozoic age the mo- 

 lusks, polyps, and marine plants were evolved with- 

 out any reference to light whatever and depended on 

 the sense of feeling to provide for the necessary food 

 supplies to maintain their organism. 



We have in the night-blooming cereus a flower 

 that belonged in that epoch of the world's evolution 

 when plants flowered and perfected their seed bearing 

 in the dark. And in the salamander, beaver and 

 hippopotamus a type of the amphibious animals of 

 the early ages. We have in the bat a type of animal 

 that flourished in the darkness of earth's formative 

 period, and in the embryonic period of animal and 

 man we find the beginning of the life processes in the 

 darkness of the womb, and all seed of vegetable and 



