Picture - Cosmic Polymath

XXX
INTRODUCTION
If (and I think the point must be conceded) creation is a progressive work, a strong argument is furnished
for separate creative acts. If, moreover, separate creative acts follow changes in the earth's crust and climate, the
inference is that the creation of plants and animals, and modifications thereof, go on in the present day as in past
ages, all which means that the Creator or First Cause is at work now as He has always been and will continue to be
while the world lasts. The Creator, in this sense, is to be regarded not only as the Framer but also as the Upholder,
Regulator, and Sustainer of the Universe. This, on the whole, is the most comforting and sensible view to take of
creation, as it guarantees to plants and animals a home, food, and constant supervision ; and to man security both
as regards the here and the hereafter. Creation as a progressive work differs from evolution in the sense that the
different types of plants and animals which prevail now and which prevailed in the past are produced separately,
and are not manufactured the one from the other in endless sequence by infinite modifications in infinite time.
Animals. Systems of Formations. Plants.
Age of Man and Mammalia Kainozoic .
Age o£ Reptiles
Age o£ Amphibians and Fishes )
Age of luvertebrates i
Age of Protozoa
Mesozoic
Palseozoic
Bozoic
Modern
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Miocene
, Eocene
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Erian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Huronian (Upper)
Huronian (Lower) -i
Upper Laurentian \
Middle Laurentian j
Lower Laurentian J
Angiosperms and Palms dominant.
Cycads and Pines dominant.
Acrogens and Gymnosperms
dominant.
Protogens and Algfe.
Dana estimates " that the time-ratios for the first three great ages may be as one for the Kainozoic to three
for the Mesozoic and twelve for the Palaeozoic, with as much for the Eozoic as for the Palaeozoic. . It is further
held that the modern period is much shorter than the other periods of the Kainozoic, so that our geological table may
have to be measured by millions of years instead of by thousands." Geological time, there can be little doubt, " has
been vastly long in comparison to that covered by human history." One of the most astonishing circumstances con-
nected with the Laurentian period is the appearance of protoplasm, chlorophyll, and cells as pointed out by Sir
William Dawson. He writes,^ " In any case we have here presented to us the strange and startling fact that the
remarkable arrangement of protoplasmic matter and chlorophyll, which enables the vegetable cell to perform, with
the aid of solar light, the miracle of decomposing carbon dioxide and water, and forming with them woody and corky
tissues, had already been introduced upon the earth. It has been well said that no amount of study of inorganic
nature would ever have enabled any one to anticipate the possibility of the construction of an apparatus having the
chemical powers of the living vegetable cell. Yet this most marvellous structure seems to have been introduced
in the full plenitude of its powers in the Laurentian age."
As indicating the very close connection which obtains between the organic and inorganic kingdoms it need only
be stated that plants and animals require light and darkness, heat and cold, moisture and drought, and a great
variety of cosmic conditions of a give-and-take, rhythmic character which physics, and the movements of the
heavenly bodies, can alone supply. But (and this is the remarkable circumstance) plants and animals, as indicated,
exhibit give-and-take, rhythmic movements of their own. The cosmic rhythms are repeated, and, as it were, per-
petuated in plants and animals. Without them plants and animals could not possibly exist. Plants and animals
of necessity take in pabulum and give off waste products at intervals. The intake and output movements are
essentially interrupted rhythmic movements. Plants and animals feed and evacuate at intervals, they work and
rest at intervals, they reproduce themselves at intervals. Everything about them is of the give-and-take order.
Even in plants and animals consisting of single cells the give-and-take movements occur. In these rudimentary
' " (ieological History of Plants," ji. 18.