212 THE WOELD OF LIFE 



cially favourable conditions, affecting the whole earth, which 

 rendered possible a rapid growth of dense vegetation in all 

 situations which were suitable. Such situations appear to 

 have been extensive marshy plains near the sea, probably the 

 deltas or broad alluvial alleys of the chief great rivers ; and the 

 special conditions were, probably, a high and uniform tem- 

 perature, with abundance of atmospheric moisture, and a larger 

 proportion of carbon-dioxide in the air than there has ever 

 been since. 



We may, in fact, look upon this period as being the neces- 

 sary precursor of the subsequent rapid development of terres- 

 trial and aerial animal life. A dense and moisture-laden 

 atmosphere, obscuring the direct rays of the sun, together wdth 

 a superabundance of carbonic-acid gas and a corresponding 

 scarcity of free oxygen, would probably have prevented the 

 full development of terrestrial life with its magnificent culmi- 

 nation in such examples of vital activity as we see manifested 

 in the higher mammalia, and especially in the more perfectly 

 organised birds and insects. In this first and most widespread 

 of the coal-making epochs we see the results of a world-wide 

 and even cosmical adaptation which influenced the whole future 

 course of life-development; while the later and more limited 

 periods of coal-formation have been due apparently to highly 

 favourable local conditions, of which the production of our 

 deeper peat beds are the latest example. 



If then, as I am endeavouring to show, all life development 

 — all organic forces — are due to mind-action, w^e must postu- 

 late not only forces but guidance; not only such self-acting 

 agencies as are involved in natural selection and adaptation 

 through survival of the fittest, but that far higher mentality 

 which foresees all possible results of the constitution of our 

 cosmos. That constitution, in all its complexity of structure 

 and of duly co-ordinated forces acting continuously through 

 eons of time, has culminated in the foreseen result. ISTo other 

 view yet suggested affords any adequate explanation ; but this 

 vast problem will be more fully discussed later on. 



