Picture - Cosmic Polymath

INTRODUCTION
The present work naturally and necessarily covers a wide field, from the fact that it attempts to trace Design,
Order, and Purpose in the inorganic and organic kingdoms, especially the latter.
It concerns itself not only with inorganic matter and physical force, but also with organic matter, vital force,
and intellect.
It seeks to explain, so far as that is possible, the combinations and movements of atoms and molecules in
dead and living matter, particularly where growth is concerned ; growth and force frequently acting on essentially
the same lines, as witness the formation of dendrites, frost-pictures, lightning-imprints, the branching of plants,
and the division and distribution of blood-vessels, &c., in animals.
It aims at showing that growth occurs in specific or predetermined directions ; that atoms and molecules under
the influence of hfe coalesce to form cells, and that from cells all, or nearly all, the tissues of plants and animals
are produced.
It attempts to demonstrate that atoms and molecules obey certain laws, and that they are under control, and
arrange and group themselves in straight hnes, radiating and otherwise ; in curves and circles concentric and
otherwise ; in spirals single, double, and multiple, and in the several forms common in crystals, plants, and animals.
It strives to refer the formative processes of certain crystals and certain plants and animals to the same or
similar laws, to show how inorganic and organic products are built up, and how plants and animals tend to spUt
and divide longitudinally and transversely to produce branching and segmentation. The branching is well seen in
the majority of plants, and in the blood-vessels and other parts of animals. The segmentation is witnessed in the
horse-tails among plants and in the vertebral column of animals.
It endeavours to explain that in plants and animals there is gradation and advance from lower to higher forms,
according to a gradually ascending scale, as apart from evolution or the production of the one from the other by
unlimited modifications in unlimited time. It makes for advance, by the improvement of individuals and by the
creation of higher types with varieties ; a state of matters which gives fixity with a certain amount of fluctuation ;
the fluctuation being confined within prescribed limits in such a way as never to produce confusion. It is only in
this way that the absence of connecting links in the geologic and other records can be explained.
It relegates rudiments and vestiges and embryonic changes in the higher forms to a general plan, thus asserting
and manifesting itself at every stage of the hfe histories of plants and animals. It is felt that the resemblances of
the embryos of higher forms to the adults of lower allied forms afford no proof that the higher forms are manufactured
from the lower ones in the course of untold ages. If this theory were true, and if, as beUeved by many,
the production of the lower forms was confined to a particular period, atime would inevitably come when no lower
forms would be left ; the fact being that countless millions of such forms exist and always have existed.
It advocates the doctrine that like produces like in endless sequence, and that each begets only its own kind.
It asserts that plants and animals differ, and fundamentally differ, from each other from their first inception, and
that there is no such thing as a universal sarcode or protoplasm common to all. The physical conditions of repro-
duction are to a large extent the same as regards climate, atmosphere, moisture, heat, &c., and nothing short of
fxmdamental differences in the ultimate embryonic elements themselves can account for the amazing multitude and
variety of plants and animals found on the earth.
It proclaims the belief that a nervous system (in the ordinary sense) is not necessary to what are essentially
voluntary movements, and that myriads of lower forms act in definite directions and to given ends as apart from
it. It further attributes to the lower animals with a nervous system a certain degree of consciousness and the
power of reasoning ;
the reasoning faculty being graduated and culminating in man.
It endeavours to illustrate the several points alluded to above by constant references to structures and movements
occurring in the two great kingdoms of nature, namely, the inorganic kingdom, represented by "brut"
matter, and the organic kingdom, consisting of plants and animals in endless variety.
It proceeds on the conviction that in the universe there is a store of matter and of force which, himianly
speaking, can neither be increased nor diminished ; that all the matter which enters into the composition of plants
and animals is taken from and ultimately restored to the inorganic kingdom ;
that a certain proportion even of the