44 
21. Analogous to the seasonal rest of plants in temperate 
zones, and in those more severe, is the torpidity and hyber- 
nation of certain animals, warm as well as cold-blooded. 
Similar and equally well-marked analogy presents itself in 
other seasonal phenomena exhibited by them. As the process 
of metamorphosis* * * § in the development of the young plant is 
accelerated or retarded by certain conditions of climate and 
season, so is the corresponding process, properly so called, in 
relation to particular forms of animal life effected by similar 
states. 
22. Here I would beg to express a personal view. It is, 
that inasmuch as the process of metamorphosis is a condition 
of life leading towards ultimate perfection of organs and 
performance of their functions, so are the processes which 
constitute disease, retrocession of life towards physical death, 
preparatory to reconstruction of elements by which successive 
generations of organised beings rise up, each in turn to 
disappear, and be no more seen in its former identity. All 
such processes, alike of advance and retrogression, are inherent 
in living things. Whence their ultimate cause pure science 
tells us not, but philosophy, when unfettered by the finite, 
points to that great Power beyond. 
23. Is the remark made, These phenomena are so many of 
a series all due to “ Evolution 99 ? I quote from two recent 
writers in reference to the principle to which that expression 
is applied after this manner : “ What is ‘ evolution 9 but 
another expression for the effect of natural causation ? By 
strictly defining the limits and potencies of what we call 
Nature, evolution forces upon us the existence of the super- 
natural.”! “ Throughout nature there is a continual passing 
from movement to repose, which is not rest- — a ceaseless 
oscillation from life to death, from death to life. The order 
of physical phenomena, like the order of mental phenomena, 
is inscrutable, flowing from a past eternity to a future 
eternity.”! What, with reference to this subject, concerns 
our present purpose, is the circumstance that the phenomena 
indicated have more or less defined relation to season, as well 
as to periods. Here we touch alike the borders of pure science, 
and of the abstract, because intangible — the unthinkable. § 
* Structural and Physiological Botany. Thome, p. 220. 
t Nineteenth Century , September, 1881, pp. 383 and 390. 
X The Supernatural in Nature. J. W. Reynolds, p, 94. 
§ What other power than that here indicated as “ natural causation :5 
produces the phenomena to one set of which the expression (( evolution ” is 
applied, to another “ natural selection ” ? The reply to this query has yet to 
be given, at least in the phraseology of the scientist. To the philosopher the 
