DESIGN A PROMINENT FACTOR IN NATURE 361 



which the element of chance enters. The heavenly bodies are all under law and order, and so great is that law and 

 order that astronomers can calculate and predict unerringly the dates of the eclipses of the sun and moon, the 

 appearance and disappearance of comets, &c. As science advances and more powerful telescopes are invented, 

 undreamt-of wonders reveal themselves, and the mind, surfeited and in a manner overwhelmed, recoils from the 

 stupendous task of describing and delineating them. 



What is true of the telescope is equally true of the microscope. The universe is at once inconceivably great 

 and inconceivably little. There is practically no limit to the division of matter and the number of rudimentary 

 plant and animal forms which the modern microscope reveals. Here, as in the heavens, untold wonders await us. 

 Not only are there endless bacteria ^ and other low vegetable forms all but invisible with even the highest powers 

 of the microscope, but there are corresponding minute animal forms in incalculable numbers. 



The bacteria and low vegetable forms, and the minute rudimentary animal forms, especially the former, possess 

 a truly amazing power of fertility. They are to be counted by millions in even the most confined spaces, and play 

 a leading r61e not only in the fertilisation of the soil and the production of food stuffs, but they are also active agents 

 in putrefaction and in setting up nearly every form of contagious disease. They have thus a high mission to per- 

 form ; a mission so important that one cannot help regarding them as the emissaries of an all-wise Being Who directs 

 and controls their operations rmder all circumstances. Microbes and animalcules enter largely into our food and 

 drink in the healthy state, and are accountable for most of our diseases. Here is interdependence of a pronounced 

 land as between the most rudimentary and despised hving forms and man himself. Nothing lives by itself and 

 for itself, and all things are made subservient to each other and for the wisest of purposes. Man with his boasted 

 superiority, mentally and physically, is associated with the lower rudimentary vegetable and animal forms in a way 

 which, to some minds, is not a little humiliating. He, in common with the higher animals, is a host and hostelry 

 for an incalculable number of low living forms which at times inhabit his tissues and revel and multiply in his 

 blood. There are friendly and unfriendly microbes, and the prevalence of the one over the other, in a large number 

 of cases, determines the degree of health and of disease. Truly the issues of life and death hang on very slender 

 threads, and the wonder is not that we are occasionally sick and out of sorts, but that we are ever well. 



In addition to the microbes referred to, there are other pests, such as the Trichina spiralis, guinea worm, thread 

 or round worms, tape-worms, bots, &c. The subject of parasites favours design, inasmuch as certain plants and 

 animals avail themselves of the labours of other plants and animals ; the higher forms being made a convenience 

 for the lower forms. It is not conceivable that the lower forms should acquire this mastery as apart from an 

 intelligent Cause giving them the victory. 



Very powerful arguments for design are to be drawn from the growth, life history, and reproductive powers 

 of plants and animals. 



Before plants and aiimals could exist on the earth much and elaborate preparation was necessary. The heavenly 

 bodies had to be created and set in motion. The sea, earth, and atmosphere had to be formed. Plants which 

 directly draw their sustenance from the earth, air, and moisture derived from the sea, lakes, or rivers were first 

 produced. Animals which, for the most part, hve upon plants were a later or subsequent creation. Plants only 

 can live on inorganic matter : animals cannot live directly on the elements ; their food must be prepared. This 

 important function is discharged by the plants, which store up the elements in their own substance in a form which 

 makes them available and readily assimilable by the animals. The plants which feed upon inorganic matter supply 

 the food of animals. 



The relations which obtain between plants and inorganic matter, and between plants and animals, have always 

 existed. They have, however, varied sUghtly at different times. In the immeasurably remote past, the composi- 

 tion of the atmosphere was not exactly what it is to-day. It contained a larger amount of carbonic acid. The 

 temperature was also higher. These differences induced corresponding differences in plants and animals. The 

 flora and fauna of the early day had to accommodate themselves to existing circumstances. The hot, humid 

 atmosphere surcharged with carbonic acid supphed the conditions for a vigorous race of tree and other ferns and 

 tropical plants, which grew so luxuriantly that they covered large portions of the earth's surface in successive layers ; 

 plants growing upon plants ad infinitum. These huge deposits of plants, due mainly to excess of heat and hght, 

 and a moist, pecuUar atmosphere, form the coal measures of the present day. Their present position in the bowels 

 of the earth was a mere question of subsidence extending over long periods. They gradually sank and were covered 

 over by cosmic dust, by water deposits, and by agents which are constantly at work in the reduction of rocks and 

 the production of soil. 



^ Cohn has divided bacteria into («) sphero-baeteria, or spherical bacteria ; (6) micro-bactem, °,';,l''^«tf 'i^^'V.f .^ f^™ ?^^^^ 

 the genus Bacterium; (c) desmo-bacteria, or bacteria in straight filaments, of which the genus Bacillus is a type , (d) spno-bacteiia, oi bacteiia 

 in spiral filaments, as the genus Vibrio, n 



VOL. I. 



