228 DESIGN IN NATURE 



give and take in good and evil as between the most civilised and the most depraved members of the race. Man- 

 kind cannot be divided by a hard and fast Une, as is commonly done, into three categories — namely, the savage, 

 the semi-savage, and the civihsed. The three approach and touch each other at innumerable points in every stage of 

 their history. The fact that men are all inhabiting the same planet at the same time, and are never wholly or widely 

 removed from each other, shows that homo safiens is originally and fundamentally one, whether of single or multiple 

 origin. Physically, this can scarcely be doubted, and mentally they are never separated by an impassable 

 gulf. The psychologist and aUenist can always track the workings of the mind in health and disease, and the more 

 the so-called savage is educated, the more certainly can his mental faculties be traced to a lofty source. 



The most depraved nations and individuals have an inkling of good and of a higher power, and as soon as 

 their mental faculties expand and their moral sense asserts itself they recognise the difierence between good and 

 evU. They also come to see that punishment is the proper treatment for disobedience, and that a reward is due 

 to the performance of meritorious deeds. The punishment may be death : the reward immortality. But I need 

 not pursue this subject further : my object in referring to it at all is to invite the reader to take a common-sense 

 view of life and death, and of disobedience, sin, punishment, and reward. The scriptural account does not clash 

 with anything here stated, and it is always well, when dealing with abstruse subjects, to look at them from every 

 conceivable point of view. I have to treat the subject from the anatomical, physiological, and psychological 

 side only. 



Whatever may be thought of the scriptural account of creation by advanced and hypercritical scientists, there 

 can be no doubt as to the subhmity and force of the language employed, and the great originality and far-reaching 

 scope of the theory advocated. If it be deficient in some minor matters, it is, nevertheless, the most satisfying 

 account of creation to be found in any treatise, ancient or modern. It regards the cosmos as a progressive work ; 

 it recognises separate creations ; it acknowledges types in plants and animals ; it proclaims an ascending series in 

 plants and animals ; it says nothing about evolution (in every case the seed of the plant and animal is said to be 

 in itself) ; it makes for permanence and stabiKty as opposed to variation ; it shows that the inorganic and organic 

 kingdoms are complemental, and that plants and animals are also complemental and co-ordinated ; it estabhshes 

 law and order, and is wholly opposed to chance. According to it, everything is foreseen and pre-determined. It 

 advocates in the most uncompromising manner a First Cause and Design ; it relegates reproduction to laws which 

 may not be departed from ; it indicates a plethora of plants and animals even at the beginning — no time being 

 set apart for the manufacture of the one out of the other. It prepares an inexhaustible supply of food for plants 

 and animals (the fiat is to be fruitful and multiply) ; it supplies plants and animals with a suitable home in 

 anticipation of their arrival on our sublunary sphere ; its one dominant note is permanency in the midst of endless 

 fluctuation ; it is absolutely exphcit as to every hving thing being taken from the inorganic kingdom and returned 

 to that kingdom sooner or later ; it makes no mystery as to the existence of dead and hving matter, or of physical 

 and vital force, or of man and intellect as being the crowning or coping-stones of creation. Its language is singu- 

 larly simple and direct, so that even he who runneth may read. Only the perversely bhnd can shut his eyes to 

 the astoimding truths contained in the opening chapters of Genesis. 



The historic account of the great events of creation is sufficiently virile to stand on its own legs, and it should 

 be carefully studied by all those who take an intelhgent interest in the great issues of Ufe and death. According 

 to it there is causality, and continuity, and supervision. The several creative acts are attributed to an intelhgent 

 and adequate First Cause. The lowest and highest plants and animals are produced with equal faciUty. There 

 is no imperfection, no blundering, no want of power anywhere observable. Everything comes into being in natural 

 and necessary sequence, and due provision is made for food supphes and all necessary requirements and supervision, 

 so long as life lasts. 



The means are, in every instance, forthcoming. The nebulous masses which the modern telescope reveals 

 supply the primitive (not necessarily homogeneous) matter from which spheres of various kinds (planets hke our 

 own included) are produced. 



The microscope reveals the primitive (not necessarily homogeneous) protoplasm to which plants and animals 

 owe their origin. Given primitive matter (inorganic and organic) as a first instalment of creation, and a directing, 

 controlhng agency or power, all known phenomena, past and present, become readily intelligible. The question 

 then, as now, hinges on the nature of the primitive matter. Is it homogeneous and simple, or is it heterogeneous ? 

 That the two kinds of primitive matter now referred to are not simple and homogeneous, as many beheve, is proved 

 by this, that inorganic matter, as we know it, is infinitely varied, and cannot be produced by physical forces acting 

 for shorter or longer periods on an absolutely homogeneous substance : similarly, organic matter infinitely diverse 

 in its nature cannot be manufactured by vital force out of an absolutely homogeneous protoplasm. 



The vital and physical forces— all forces whatever — have free play in the production of the universe, and are 



