The Development Theory. 189 



As a surface fact nothing can be more 

 simple than a piece of chalk, yet if you exam- 

 ine it closely you will find its simplicity to van- 

 ish and in the place of that simplicity a most 

 complex combination of chemistry, history 

 and mineralogy. It tells of the lowly life of 

 a company of animals existing in the deep re- 

 gions of the ocean, milleniums ago, extract- 

 ing the carbonate of lime from the waters 

 around them and through the wonderful 

 chemical forces of life converting this lime 

 carbonate into bony skeletons which on the 

 death of the animals were consigned to the deep 

 oozy bed of the ocean to become chalk. It 

 tells of a subsequent elevation of this ancient 

 chalk bed into a montain mass of a neighbor- 

 ing continent. How far from simple, either 

 in time, in place or in chemistry, is this strange 

 mixture of rock and of history! 



Yet you may say of this piece of chalk, 

 "God created it." So he did, but how? Evi- 

 dently by a long process of development from 

 simpler elements of time, force and material, 

 to what you now find it. 



