42 CLASSIFICATION AND CREATION. 
necessary which cannot be otherwise than dry to 
any but professional naturalists; yet believing, 
as I do, that classification, rightly understood, 
means simply the creative plan of God as ex- 
pressed in organic forms, I feel the importance 
of attempting at least to present it in a popular 
guise, divested, as far as possible, of technical- 
ities. I would therefore ask the indulgence of 
my readers for such scientific terms and details 
as cannot well be dispensed with, begging them 
to remember that a long and tedious road may 
bring us suddenly upon a glorious prospect, and 
that a clearer mental atmosphere and a new in- 
tellectual sensation may well reward us for a 
little weariness in the outset. 
Besides, the time has come when scientific 
truth must cease to be the property of the few, 
when it must be woven into the common life of 
the world; for we have reached the point where 
the results of science touch the very problem of 
existence, and all men listen for the solving of 
that mystery. When it will come, and how, 
none can say; but this much at least is certain, 
that all our researches are leading up to that 
question, and mankind: will never rest till it is 
answered. If, then, the results of science are of 
such general interest for the human race, if they 
are gradually interpreting the purposes of the 
Deity in creation, and the relation of man to all 
