CREATION AND EVOLUTION.

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qualities on its different products, as to introduce them by direct creation.

Many experiments and careful studies have been made to ascertain if nature now contains within itself a power of spontaneous generation-of producing a germ without the aid of parents-but no such instance has been discovered; no hint has been given that nature ever possessed such a power, unless the fact of the appearance of new species and races may be so considered. On the contrary, early races

are often found to combine in their forms and qualities the peculiarities of two or more races that afterward made their appearance, suggesting the idea that they may have been the original stock from which distinct branches grew. A large number of similar facts seem to give countenance to the doctrine of evolution, or the gradual development of different species and classes from those that preceded them.

There is certainly a law of evolution—an unfolding of many parts having close relationship to one stock or rootbut it does not seem capable of explaining all the facts observed. The sudden appearance of classes widely different from any that had before been found is frequently noticed, for which evolution has no well-proved explanation; and a variety of similar facts seems to indicate the operation, occasionally at least, of some other law regulating the introduction and propagation of forms of life.

The most interesting question of all relates to Man as an animal and as an all-comprehending intelligence. In the general features of his bodily structure he is closely related to the higher animals, while in his mental and spiritual powers there is a world-wide difference. In one view he seems to be the climax of animal development; in another, he has a kind of faculties with a compass and power absolutely unparalleled in creation as we know it.

Physically, he stands as the ultimate end, the most perfect, the most beautiful and noble of all the products of the Life

Force. He is the finest sample of its architectural skill, and is endowed with a variety and breadth of sweep of physical capabilities and adaptations that place him at the head of the Systems of Life. But, by his intelligence and moral qualities he seems to be the significance, the end and purpose of the system of nature as a whole. He can combine and control chemical and mechanical powers so as to become superior in strength to all other forces of the organic world united. He is, therefore, King in the earth. He may penetrate the thought of which each part of nature is the embodiment, so that all nature is as a book made for his reading and instruction; and still above this quality is his range of moral powers; of distinguishing between right and wrong; of admiring purity and moral beauty, and of practicing virtue. These capacities of control, of reflection, of combinations whose results often resemble creation; his power of living in the past and the future by a well-trained imagination, render him immeasurably superior to every other animal.

How did he become so like and so unlike all the other products of the Life Force? It is the most interesting and the most difficult question which the consideration of the system of life suggests, and finds, as yet, no satisfactory answer in the researches of science. It is the last and deepest secret of the systems of nature and of life, and the key to them both. Science has demonstrated, very clearly, that definite purposes and ends unite all the stages in the development of animate and inanimate nature. Man was evidently designed to be the interpreter of the whole, to conquer all its secrets. They will be delivered to him in due time. The separate volumes are being carefully and successfully studied, and all the relations of one to the other will ultimately be apparent. Nature, with all its various parts and purposes, is evidently one and tends to one great end, which seems to be secured in the qualities, the powers and the destinies of its last and greatest production. Man, can never rest until all the meaning which its various developments contain stands clearly revealed.

THE LIFE FORCE IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

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Though the Life Force seems to be a common principle in all the forms it organizes, and to follow the same methods so far as the objects it seeks permit, its manifestations in the different spheres of its activity are extremely different. There seems little in common between the tree, the fish, the horse and man; and yet there is a strong likeness in the first operations of the building force to which they all owe their existence; and there are points of contact in the great classes where it seems difficult to distinguish them from each other. It is difficult to tell that the lowest animals are not plants, and the least developed men seem to be only superior animals. They seem, in some respects, to be parts of one system of life; but the most characteristic examples of development in each place a world-wide difference between the classes.

The plant commences with a cell, or a collection of cells, and builds down into the dark and damp earth and up in the sunlight. It uses the earth as its support and both earth and air are its magazines of raw material, while, by its foliage, it expels some gases and takes in others—the light assisting in its work. In the animal the building force commences with a center and works each way toward the extremities-in the lowest animals not distinguishing a head at all, but spending more and more elaborate pains on that part as the animal rises in rank.

The higher plants are firmly fixed in the earth, have no power of movement and no self-consciousness. All but the lowest animals are free to move, have sensation, consciousness, and a certain power of will in the control of their motions; these gifts becoming more complete in the higher animals until they find a kind of boundless development in man.

The plant finds its nourishment without and near it and draws it in by attraction through its pores; the animal goes about for its food which it takes into a central cavity where it is digested and from which it is distributed through the system as needed.

The plant organizes its substance directly from the crude, unorganized material of the earth; but the animal depends on the plant world as its magazine of food. It uses only organized material-plants or other animals.

Thus the two kingdoms differ widely while being most intimately bound together.

CHAPTER V.

VEGETATION IN THE VALLEY, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

The system of life has two sides, the vegetable and the animal, which interlock to form a whole. In some respects, also, the system of vegetable life may be considered the base or condition of animal life. The building force goes directly to the mineral kingdom for its material when it constructs vegetable forms. Decayed vegetable or animal remains, indeed, speed its work, but only by furnishing the material required in greater abundance, thereby saving time and enabling it to build more sumptuously. Though the general plan is the same, the ends are different in each of the two systems. For the vegetable the aim is restricted and modest. It is the servant to wait upon the animal, the magazine containing the supplies for its physical wants.

This is the leading use of vegetable life, but various others are seen, in all of which service is rendered to the higher class. It aids in the collection and deposition of some metals very useful to man; it supplies petroleum and coal in vast abundance; it furnishes numberless materials for man's higher development; enriches the surface of the earth by the decay of its forms and covers it with beauty; supplies the most agreeable and nourishing fruits, and is a magazine of perfumes, of medicines and of art supplies. Much of this, however, was reserved for development as the human period approached. In the early days of Palæozoic time the builder employed comparatively little skill on vegetable forms.

The general plan of vegetable structures is radiate; that is, similar parts start from a common center, and spread out in various directions, while for animals there are five different