TWO PATHS, ONE GOAL. 



101 



to their surroundings and the needs of their lives, theii' 

 unconscious response, which affords a field in which selection 

 may work, no less than the conscious adaptations of man to 

 his home, speak irresistibly of a grand scheme of purpose 

 underlying the mechanisms, by which the adaptations are 

 effected. This flow of purpose through the Ego and nature 

 cannot liave its source either in that great system of " mole- 

 cules in motion" which is called nature, or in an individual 

 man who represents but an infinitesimal proportion of those 

 molecules at some particular brief period of the history of 

 a very small planet. The flow can neither start from me 

 nor from nature, but must be of a kind, whether we call 

 it Divine or supernatural, which transcends any purpose which 

 could originate in me or in nature. Looking metaphorically 

 at the trio of existences, may we not consider Purpose under 

 the aspect of a stream which flows from God to me throuqh 

 nature as a veritable garden of the Lord, fertilising nature in 

 its passage to me ? Such a view of the Cosmos, whether 

 demonstrable or not, does not glaringly sin against the law 

 of the conservation of energy. 



It is necessary now to trace through such provinces of 

 nature as are open to our observation the presence of Purpose^ 

 remembering ever that this closely resembles a river of which 

 we can never see the whole — we may see the source, we may 

 admire its ocean-mouth, we may follow and lose, and follow 

 again its windings, some of which even seem retrograde, and 

 some of which will even pass underground — but the evidence 

 of its source, progress, and destination we never for a moment 

 question, even though we never have traced and never shall 

 trace its complete course. 



Evidence of Purpose. 



The evidence for the existence in the world around us of a 

 purpose, which pervades the whole, may be summed up under 

 five heads : — 



1. The general order of Xature (the depth and extent of 



which grows with advancing knowledge). 



2. The existence of life on the globe. 



3. Special adaptations of means to ends in organisms. 



4. Anticipation, preparation, and production of environments- 



suited for the lives of organisms. 



5. Earthly life a training-ground for the moral nature of 



man. 



