PEEFACE 



Vll 



I argue that they necessarily imply first, a Creative Power, 

 which so constituted matter as to render these marvels pos- 

 sible; next, a directive Mind, which is demanded at every step 

 of the process we term growth and often look upon as so 

 simple and natural a process as to require no explanation; 

 and, lastly, an ultimate Purpose, in the very existence of the 

 whole vast life-world in all its long course of evolution through- 

 out the eons of geological time. This Purpose, which alone 

 throws light on many of the mysteries of its mode of evolu- 

 tion, I hold to be the development of Man, the one crowning 

 product of the whole cosmic process of life-development; the 

 only being which can to some extent comprehend nature ; which 

 can perceive and trace out her modes of action ; which can 

 appreciate the hidden forces and motions everywhere at w^ork, 

 and can deduce from them all a supreme and overruling mind 

 as their necessary cause. 



If we accept some such view as I have now indicated, I 

 show (in Chapters XV. and XVI.) how strongly it is sup- 

 ported and enforced by a long series of facts and co-relations 

 which we can hardly look upon as all purely accidental coin- 

 cidences. Such are the infinitely varied products of living 

 things which serve man's purposes and man's alone — not only 

 by supplying his material wants, and by gratifying his higher 

 tastes and emotions, but as rendering possible many of those 

 advances in the arts and in science which we claim to be the 

 highest proofs of his superiority to the brutes and of his 

 advancing civilisation. 



From a consideration of these better-knoAvn facts I proceed 

 (in Chapter XXII.) to an exposition of the mystery of cell- 

 growth; to a consideration of the elements in their special 

 relation to the earth itself and to the life-world ; while in the 



