A BIRD OF PASSAGE 



visitation — something ab extra that implies super- 

 mundane, or supernatural, powers? 



Added to this wonder is the fact that the vital 

 order has gone on unfolding through the geologic 

 ages, mounting from form to form, or from order to 

 order, becoming more and more complex, passing 

 from the emphasis of size of body, to the emphasis 

 of size of brain, and finally from instinct and reflex 

 activities to free volition, and the reason and con- 

 sciousness of man; while the purely physical and 

 chemical forces remain where they began. There 

 has been endless change among them, endless 

 shifting of the balance of power, but always the 

 tendency to a dead equilibrium, while the genius 

 of the organic forces has been in the power to dis- 

 turb the equilibrium and to ride into port on the 

 crest of the wave it has created, or to hang forever 

 between the stable and the unstable. 



So there we are, confronted by two apparently 

 contrary truths. It is to me unthinkable that the 

 vital order is not as truly rooted in the constitution 

 of things as are the mechanical and chemical orders; 

 and yet, here we are face to face with its limited, 

 fugitive, or transitional character. It comes and 

 goes like the dews of the morning; it has all the 

 features of an exceptional, unexpected, extraordi- 

 nary occurrence — of miracle, if you will; but if the 

 light which physical science turns on the universe 

 is not a delusion, if the habit of mind which it be- 



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