142 CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



whole complex warp and woof of the living world. When we see 

 Nature in her abnormal methods of development revealing to us, 

 under the guise of her sports and freaks amidst the flowers, the true 

 composition of the pistil and stamens, or altering the same structure 

 to form the varied fruits ; when we discover that the complex skull 

 has apparently been built up through slow and gradual modifications 

 from skulls of simpler type, which vanish away, in the lowest confines 

 of the vertebrate animals, and disappear in the barely defined skul- 

 less "cord" of the lowest fish, we may not esteem it an impossibility 

 that all organic forms have been evolved under like conditions of 

 development 



Nor must we omit to think of another important point involved 

 in the study of homologies. If Nature is, as we have shown, 

 liable to modify and alter continually the work of her hands, 

 can such a practice be held to favour the origin of new species by 

 the way which evolution points out ? When the flower returns to 

 the leaf-type, or when it exhibits variations from its usual form and 

 structure, is Nature going back or reverting to former conditions ? 

 or is she initiating paths which lead to new species? The answer to 

 both of these queries may be given in the affirmative. When the flower 

 grows into its leaves, that is a " reversion," a stepping backward to 

 the primitive and simple type. When, on the other hand, the plant 

 shows a tendency towards complexity, instead of simplicity to alter 

 in favour of increased development then is seen the tendency to 

 progression and elaboration of the type. Both tendencies hold sway 

 in Nature, and the one is as inexplicable as the other, save on the 

 theory of Evolution. From the monstrosity of the flower a new 

 "variety" springs, and in time the variety becomes a "race," and 

 the race in turn a new " species." Thus, whilst the course of Nature 

 before our eyes runs not smoothly but in an apparent irregularity, 

 the deeper faith in a law-governed universe, not as yet fully compre- 

 hended or known, convinces us that with the higher knowledge of 

 to-morrow, the irregularities of to-day will resolve themselves into 

 parts of an ordered system. It is not without good reason for 

 believing in the reality of the convictions which nature-studies inspire 

 respecting the government of this world's order, that we find Professor 

 Parker maintaining that " the study of animal morphology leads to 

 continually grander and more reverential views of creation and of a 

 Creator. Each fresh advance shows us further fields for conquest, 

 and at the same time deepens the conviction, that, while results and 

 secondary operations may be discoverable by human intelligence, 

 4 no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning 

 to the end.' We live as in a twilight of knowledge, charged with 

 revelations of order and beauty ; we steadfastly look for a perfect 

 light which shall reveal perfect order and beauty." 



