Picture - Cosmic Polymath

354 DESIGN IN NATURE
facts admit of only two explanations. Either cells and cell plants and animals develop and differentiate from the
first in a haphazard way by accident, or their development and differentiation are predetermined, supervised, and
regulated by an intelhgent Agent or First Cause. If the thing developing is not the sport of nature, it follows that
it must have in itself, in a potential form, all the structural and functional peculiarities and attributes of the future
being, whether plant or animal—nay more, that when a nervous system and brain are characteristics, these must
also exist in a potential state. In making this statement, the reader is not to infer that the several structures and
attributes which constitute the compound plant and animal are all contained in the primordial cell from which
plants and animals are developed ; only this, that the cells have in themselves, in the shape of original endowments,
the powers which enable them to build up from their surroundings, consentaneously or consecutively, the several
tissues, structures, and systems which go to form even the most complex plants and animals. To put it otherwise :
there is nothing in nature to show that plants and animals are accidental formations at the outset, or that their sub-
sequent development and differentiation are at any period due to chance or natural selection. Plants and animals
are certainly not the product of spontaneous generation. The accidental or chance hypothesis of the production,
existence, and continuation of plants and animals on the earth would produce endless confusion, and completely
overthrow the law and order which are known to exist alike in the organic and inorganic kingdoms.
Much emphasis has been placed by Mr. Darwin and his followers on what they term " accidental modifications "
in plants and animals ; these being frequently of the most insignificant and trifling description. They ignore the
fact, that plants and animals in a state of nature breed true—that is, they revert to their originals even in the most
minute details : any accidental departure from the normal standard being, as a rule, corrected very soon after its
appearance. They claim that the accidental modifications in plants and animals gradually and steadily accumulate,
and, in the fulness of time, produce what are virtually new beings. They, in reality, seek to establish a false
analogy as between so-called natural and artificial breeding, and have propounded the theory that plants and
animals, in a state of nature, have the power to select and perpetuate whatever is advantageous to themselves and
to suppress and obUterate whatever is disadvantageous. This briefly is the famous theory of " The Origin of Species
by means of Natural Selection." It is safe to assert that plants and animals have no such powers. The theory
takes for granted that plants and animals can dispense with a selector outside of themselves, which they certainly
cannot do. The theory of " Natural Selection " is fully discussed further on. In natural and artificial breeding a
selector is a sine qud non. In nature the selector is, as a matter of fact, the First Cause which created, controls,
and sustains the plant and animal. In the breeding of domestic plants and animals the selector is the individual
who perceives and takes advantage of accidental modifications or sports and perpetuates them for his own purposes,
not unfrequently to the detriment of the typical or natural parts of plants and animals. He breeds against nature,
and produces abnormal or monster plants and animals. He disturbs and destroys the symmetry and balance of
nature. That this artificial breeding is an outrage on nature is proved by this : plants and animals when left to
themselves and allowed to run wild invariably return to their typical form ; the several varieties of pigeons breed
back to the blue rock pigeon, and the tender cultivated vegetables revert to their non-succulent, hardy types.
Natural selection, as a matter of fact, is wholly based on assumption. As already indicated, no plant or animal can,
ifso facto, either develop or suppress any of its parts at discretion.
While plants and animals cannot select and perpetuate what is good in themselves and repress and obUterate
what is bad, they do nevertheless exert a certain amount of selecting and rejecting power in special cases. Thus
secreting and excreting glands select and reject certain ingredients of the blood : they distinguish between those
substances which are to be retained in the system and to be employed in a new form or to be extruded as waste
products. The same is true with regard to food. Plants and animals do not feed indiscriminately on everything
presented to them. On the contrary, they take kindly to certain articles of diet and refuse others. This power
to discriminate between substances possessed by plants and animals, and parts thereof, is in turn referable to original
endowment and a First Cause. Plants and animals, when absorbing and assimilating solids, semi-solids, fluids and
gases, can, within limits, select and appropriate or reject, but this is quite another matter from saying that plants
and animals make themselves in a haphazard way, apart from design and a general plan, and independently of a
Creator. Plants and animals are no doubt influenced up to a point by the food they consume, and may be larger
or smaller according as the food is nutritious and abundant or innutritious and scarce. They are also influenced
by heat and cold, habitat, &c. The ultimate nature or constitution of the plant and animal is, however, not altered
by food, cUmate, habitat, &c. A queen bee (which is considerably larger than the common bee) can be manufactured
by a particular food from a common bee grub, and a man and a horse may be larger or smaller physically. The
bee, nevertheless, remains a bee, the man a man, and the horse a horse.
There is no escaping from a First Cause, from types, and from design, law, and order, in things organic and
inorganic.