214 WALTER KIDD, M.D., P.Z.S., ON 



meutaiy rocks littered with and often composed of the 

 carcases of bye-gone generations of beingjj, the chalk of 

 skeletons of globigerina, the long-buried flints of poly- 

 cystina and diatoms, the carboniferous beds of ancient 

 decaying vegetation, endowing our little island with a 

 wealth greater than of the Indies, by Avhich of old Spain 

 was both enriched and emasculated, the alluvial richness 

 of drift-deposits, the vegetable mould formed in later days 

 by "natural" means? The geologist and physicist will 

 give us valuable information as to the " natural laws " under 

 which all this earth-making has been conducted. But when 

 the dissertation is over, we can only say in the hardness of 

 our hearts that all this decomposing, destructive, cataclysmic 

 action, disclosed for us by his special skill, looks perilously 

 like the direct reverse of those processes of life, which the 

 Evolutionist cosmogony has glorified as effectual in the 

 production of the world and the things that are therein. 

 It can never be wrong in these discussions to revert to 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer's description of evolution given in 

 the last edition of the Epitome of SyntJietic Philosophy* 

 — " Throughout the universe in general and in detail, there 

 is an unceasing redistribution of matter and motion. This 

 redistribution constitutes evolution, where there is a predo- 

 minant integration of matter and dissipation of motion, and 

 constitutes dissolution where there is a predominant absorp- 

 tion of motion and disintegration of matter." In the history 

 of the environments there is doubtless a change in the main 

 from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from simple to 

 complex. But it is hardly too much to say, as to their 

 production, that by evolution the organic life of the globe, 

 and by dissolution the environments for that life have been 

 produced, according to the cosmic theory of evolution. 

 Thus it would require the strange assumption that, on the 

 one hand, the processes of life and, on the other, mainly 

 those of death, are concerned in the orderly bringing forth 

 of an inhabited world. 



32 There is one remaining point in the controversy as to 

 Design in Nature, to which attention may once more be 

 directed. It is one early brought forward by Darwin and 

 held by his followers as an argument against supernatural 

 design of overwhelming weight. Darwin invited his op- 

 ponents to adduce a smgle instance in the vegetable or 



* Pref. viii. ix. 



