Picture - Cosmic Polymath

226 DESIGN IN NATURE
apparently anomalous instances of change of property accompanying change of temperature, as in the case of
phosphorus While of course, it is open to the theorist to hold that these elements are varieties of some ultimate
single substance, there seems no prospect that a proof will ever offer itself." The tendency is for the elements slowly
to increase in number as our methods of chemical and other analysis improve.
The discoveries of Sir Wilham Crookes by the aid of vacuum tubes go to show that matter exists in a much
more attenuated form than is represented by the elemental atom, and that a new or fourth estate must be assigned
to it—that is, a condition in which it is neither solid, hquid, nor gaseous in the ordmary sense. A reference to
Sir Wilham Crookes's researches has already been made.
Protoplasm, at one time considered homogeneous and identical, is now known to be compound to qmte a
remarkable extent. The same is to be said of the elements. As time advances, apparently simple bodies are
being resolved into two or more separate bodies. The tendency is not to unify and simphfy matter but to spht
it up indefinitely. The differentiation of matter even in its most initial forms can alone account for the
extraordinary powers possessed by the lowest and most rudimentary plants and animals, and for the successive
embryological changes and stages through which plants and animals pass during development.
The differentiations which characterise the embryological changes referred to are stereotyped, so to speak,
in adult plants and animals.
All the fluids and tissues of plants and animals, in some respects infinitely diverse, cannot possibly be the
product of one or two simple substances.
This is a matter of common sense no less than of science.
CREATION A PROGRESSIVE WORK
The consideration of ultimate matter and force raises the whole subject of creation. The most natural view
to take of this stupendous question is to regard it as a progressive rather than a finished work. The history of the
heavenly bodies, our planet, and plants and animals favours this hypothesis. It can scarcely be doubted that
worlds are in process of formation at the present day, and that plants and animals, as a complementary part of these
worlds, are being continually produced.
The inorganic and organic kingdoms form one great whole, and are correlated not only in their aggregates
but in their details. They are interdependent in the strictest sense, and what is taken from the one is returned
to the other, sooner or later. Both kingdoms have a common origin, in the sense that they are the work of the
same hand and are controlled and supervised by the same master intellect.
§ 38. Scriptural Account of Creation.
The progressive view of creation is supported by revelation. The account given of creation in the Old Testament
is one of progress and separate creative acts. The inorganic kingdom was created first, then came the organic ;
the plants appearing before the animals, and both appearing according to a more or less ascending scale, culminating
in man. All plants and animals were taken from the dust and will be returned to it sooner or later. The
scriptural account is briefly as under : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth
God said. Let there be
God divided the hght from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
. And God said. Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters
was without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. . . . And
light. . . And
called Night. .
from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament. . . . And God called the firmament Heaven. . And God said, Let the
waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : And God called the
dry land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas. . . . And God said. Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the
earth. . . . And God said. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years : And
of the heaven to give hght upon the earth :
and
let them be for Ughts in the firmament
it was so. And God made two great lights ; the greater hght
to rule the day, and the lesser hght to rule the night : he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament
of the heaven to give hght upon the earth. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the hght
from the darkness. . . . And God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
hfe, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and
every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his kind, .
. And
God blessed them, saying. Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas