THE NATUKAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL. 187 



expended in animal force. A muscular act is as simple and 

 unconsciously performed as sending out a pseudo-pod ; and 

 digestion is as unconscious in a stomach as if performed in a 

 temporary vacuole. 



Calcareous shells grow up from within the protozon bodies, 

 as do our bones ; and are formed as unconsciously as the 

 skeleton of an average Englishman. The power within this- 

 particle of jelly guides its physical and chemical force so as 

 to give rise to the most exquisite formation and arrange- 

 ment of the particles of lime. 



The smallest living being is said to be ^-g-joo- inch and 

 yet moves with grace, eats, and multiplies. As if to exclude,, 

 moreover, the inanimate clay which we call protoplasm from 

 any active share in the wonder that life produces, Herbert 

 iSpencer expressly shows that no germ, animal or vegetable, 

 contains the slightest rudiment, trace, or indication of the 

 future organism, since the microscope has shown us that the 

 first process set up in every fertilised germ is a process of 

 repeated spontaneous (?) fissure, ending in the production 

 of a mass of cells not one of v/hich exhibits any special 

 character ! 



To sum up then ; the inorganic part of the universe 

 consists of matter and force, the directing and determining 

 agent being mind — the mind of God. In the organic world 

 we have protoplasm and life, which latter is the name we give 

 to the determining and directing power that moulds the proto- 

 plasm by means of the forces of nature to certain definite 

 ends. Life thus stands revealed as mind, and this mind the 

 mind of God. 



The natural we have seen is matter as formed by the 

 hand of God (that is, by forces which are His laws) in 

 accordance with His mind. 



It is called natural because it is what is known, what is. 

 expected, what is usual, from the simple fact that His mind 

 changes not, and that therefore forces are always determined 

 in the same directions, giving defiaite shapes and properties, 

 to leaves, flowers, and fruit, to crystals, dewdro]3s, and 

 planets. 



If the natural be matter moulded by the mind of God, 

 the artificial is matter moulded by the mind of man. 



Clay is a natural product, that is, it is matter held together 

 by certain natural laws, the expression of mind — the mind ot 

 God. A brick is an artificial product, that is, it is matter in 

 a form impressed on it by the mind of man. 



