UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
building up organs and parts more and more com- 
plex, till the earth is peopled with intelligent be- 
ings? Must there not be some kind of method in 
the madness of molecular activities, in the chaotic 
rush and whirl of the atoms and electrons, some 
purposive arrangement and direction, in order that 
so wonderful a mechanism as even a flea or a 
fly may result? What the directing and organizing 
agent is, or whether or not there is any such agent 
or power that can be described and referred to in 
these terms, is one of the fundamental mysteries. 
According to the terms in which we do our think- 
ing, nothing can create itself, and yet in the con- 
cepts of a non-teleological universe, we cannot ad- 
mit any objective power or influence apart from 
Nature herself. 
An eye, for instance, is a very convenient thing 
for an animal to have, but how could natural selec- 
tion, or the mere struggle of life, have brought it 
about? Nothing is planning an eye, or thinking 
about it, or feeling the want of it, in the chaos of 
a world of chance. The organism is jostled about 
here and there, and yet in due time the eye with 
all its wonderful powers and adaptation appears. 
It is of use when developed, but must there not 
have been a long preliminary stage in its develop- 
ment when it was of no use? Jt began as a faint 
pigmented spot in the epidermis. Was this pig- 
mented spot of any service to the organism? Could 
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