xxviii INTRODUCTION 



the Equisetaceje in plants, and the Nautilidse in animals in geologic as compared with modern time, support this 

 view.i The view here advocated would account for the disappearance of races of plants and animals in the pre- 

 historic period, and for otherwise unaccountable gaps in the geologic record. Plants and animals, as already 

 explained, are conditioned. Atmospheric changes, varying climatic states, the rise and subsidence of land, volcanic 

 upheavals, the unequal distribution of mountains, plains, islands, seas, lakes, rivers, &c., would largely account for 

 the appearance of new plants and animals on the globe, for their continuance thereon in some cases for practically 

 indefinite periods, and for their deterioration and complete disappearance in others. Their appearance, continua- 

 tion, and disappearance, there can be little doubt, are regulated by design, law, and order, and it seems certain 

 that plants and animals appear, live, and disappear, and keep pace with the changes incident to the physical universe, 

 particularly the earth. Plants and animals, as has been pointed out, are complemental parts of the great scheme 

 of nature ; the organic and inorganic kingdoms being conditioned, correlated, and made for each other. Plants and 

 animals are made from and for, but not by, the physical universe. 



While the heavenly bodies and movements proclaim Creative Energy, Law, and Order on a grand scale, the 

 prevalence of plants and animals in such profusion and variety on the earth, each of which is cared for even in matters 

 of detail, attests the existence of an Omnipresent, AU-ruHng Providence. The interdependence of the inorganic 

 and organic kingdoms, and the prevalence of essentially the same law and order in both, further declare that the 

 Great First Cause, Prime Mover, and Upholder is one and indivisible. 



The magnitude of the creative acts and the enormous antiquity of the universe conclusively point to the eternal 

 nature of the Being by Whom, and through Whom, everything exists. His presence in matter, force, life, and 

 intellectual manifestations of all kinds can scarcely be gainsaid if the reasoning faculties be allowed free play and 

 the dictates of conscience followed. 



As I cannot conceive of the earth with its gradual but stupendous changes of atmosphere, cUmate, distribution 

 of continents, mountain ranges, islands, seas, lakes, rivers, volcanic upheavals, &c., as apart from Design, Law, and 

 Order, so I cannot imagine the great races of plants and animals in geologic and modern time as other than fixed, 

 in the sense that their forms and functions, their duration and their distribution, have hmits which may not be 

 exceeded. The symmetric nature of plants and animals, their life-histories, their birth and death, their tendency 

 to breed back, their unwilhngness to form hybrids, the barrenness of hybrids in the majority of cases, &c., all point 

 to a well-ordered plan which, amid much apparent fluctuation and mutabihty, nevertheless remains immutable. 



The remarkable resemblances between plants and animals in many cases, to say nothing of the likeness of both 

 to crystals, dendrites, spiral, and other inorganic forms and combinations, conduct to similar conclusions. 



It is an astonishing fact, and one deserving of very special attention, that the crystallic and dendritic arrange- 

 ments seen in frost-pictures on window-panes and pavements in winter, in certain minerals and metals, in the 

 hghtning flash obtained by instantaneous photography, or as it impresses itself on the human skin, are reproduced 

 in infinite variety in plants and animals. Nor less astounding is the circumstance that the spiral arrangements which 

 everywhere obtain in plant and animal structures and movement have their prototypes and counterparts in the 

 physical universe ; in the spiral arrangements of nebulae ; in spiral waterspouts and sand-storms ; in whirlpools of 

 air and water, &c. These cannot be chance coincidences. The same laws evidently apply to the organic and in- 

 organic kingdoms. There is, it appears to me, no possibihty of getting away from a First Cause', Design, Law, and 

 Order when the facts are squarely looked at. 



The modern arguments in favour of evolution, instead of destroying the arguments for a First Cause and Design 

 as factors in creation, do not, it appears to me, raise serious objections, and scarcely touch the hem of the subject. 



If evolutionists have nothing to offer but crude conjecture and wild speculation, they are not entitled to sap 

 and destroy the foundations and superstructures of a former, and on the whole satisfying, beUef . Better to leave 

 well alone than to attempt to ground our faith upon what is virtually an ignis fatuus. A doctrine is not necessarily 

 scientific and profound because it is destructive and unintelligible. 



I may not succeed in marshalling and stating the evidence in support of a First Cause and Design with all the 

 skill or force desirable, but holding the views expressed above, I feel it incumbent upon me to 'make at least 

 the attempt. 



While the spiral and other arrangements discussed in the present work exist in the inorganic and organic 

 kingdoms alike, I hope to be able to show that in the latter, as seen in plants and animals, they are due to design 

 and to the operation of life and of growth, and very little, if at all, to external stimulation. Plants, in many cases 

 twine and revolve, and bones, muscles, horns, and shells twist and coil spontaneously because of inherent bias and 

 as apart from irritability and artificial stimuU of all Idnds. Similar remarks are to be made of the spiral arrans-e- 



' " lu the Pal.-eozoic age the chih-mosscs, leriis, and horse-tails engrossed the world and grew to sizes and attained den-re- ■ f ■ i ■ 

 of strneture not known in inodern times." The euttle-Hshes in the olden time were greatly in e,\-cess of those existino- in the 'iv'''^' ^ i"""^^ ™'i'^^' 

 were not only more numerous and represented more sjiecies, hut they were also more highly developed and complicated^as regards ff' f^'Y' ^ 



