THE EVOLUTION OP A FATHER 407 



arsenic, nor in the laboratory with the colourman. 

 He who claims Nature for Matter and Physical 

 force makes the same assumption that these would 

 do if they claimed the painting. In a far truer 

 sense than Raphael produced his " Holy Family " 

 Nature has produced a Holy Family. Not for 

 centuries but for millenniums the Family has sur- 

 vived. Time has not tarnished it ; no later 

 art has improved upon it ; nor genius discovered 

 anything more lovely ; nor religion anything more 

 divine. From the bee's cell and the butterfly's 

 wing men draw what they call the Argument 

 from Design ; but it is in the kingdoms which 

 come without observation, in these great imma- 

 terial orderings which Science is but beginning to 

 perceive, that the purposes of Creation are 

 revealed. 



