LAKE AND STREAM 229 



come instantly, each in a flash, although 

 the column of them had been slow in 

 motion and in growth ; and they had 

 not come out of anything that the eye 

 of man could see. Of course, there was 

 the air, and in the air was moisture ; and 

 it was of air and moisture that the flakes 

 had been made. What made them ? 

 Perhaps the making of them had begun 

 millions of centuries ago, when the fluid 

 mass of nebulae that had solidified into 

 our globe had been sent spinning on the 

 course ordained. To that their approxi- 

 mate origin really might be traced : it was 

 conceivable that what I had witnessed, 

 the action of a wandering chUl, was the 

 inevitable outcome of forces that had 

 been set in motion countless aeons before 

 man appeared upon the earth, before, 

 indeed, the earth had a separate being. 

 Yes : the veriest Calvinist must see some 

 cogency in the theory of Evolution, 

 especially when it is applied not to the 

 species to which he himself belongs, 

 but to the species of equally marvellous 



