78 THE SUM IMPRESSION 



and, indeed, to make, the future better than the 

 present. 



This seems to be the way — ^judging by what we 

 see in the forest — the Activity works. Things have 

 not come to be as they are by the slap-dash, 

 irresponsible, unregulated methods of mere chance. 

 We cannot fail to see that chance does play some 

 part. One seed from a tree may fall into a rivulet 

 and be swept away to the sea, while another may be 

 borne by a gust of wind, or by a bird, on to rich 

 soil where competitors are few, and be able to grow 

 up into a monarch of the forest, to live for a hun- 

 dred years, and to give birth to thousands like itself. 

 This is true. But chance will not produce the 

 advancement and progress which is observable. 

 Chance will not produce a single one of those organs 

 of adaptation we see in myriads in the forest. And 

 chance would not have made the barren earth of 

 a hundred million years ago bring forth the plant, 

 animal, and human life we see on it to-day. 



The Activity does not work on the haphazard 

 methods of pure chance. Nor, on the other hand, 

 are its operations conducted in the rigid, mechanical 

 method of a machine. Nor, again, can the result 

 yfe see be due to the working of blind physical and 

 chemical processes alone. There is a great deal 

 too much variety and spontaneity and originality 

 about. We could not possibly look upon the 

 forest as a machine — even of the most complicated 

 kind. A machine goes grinding round and round, 

 producing things of exactly the same pattern. 

 Whereas no two things exactly alike are ever turned 



