Picture - Cosmic Polymath

DIVISION OF LABOUR IN RELATION TO DESIGN 355
If cells, and cell plants and animals, which supply the simplest examples of living things, characteristically
differ from each other from the beginning, and cannot be. traced to a common source, what shall we say of the
supposed identity of the more complex plants and animals ?
The cell, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, is not a simple structure. It is, as a rule,
composed of a cell wall, cell contents or protoplasm, a nucleus, and one or more nucleoli. It has a molecular basis,
and in the molecules, the differentiation which distinguishes one cell, and one cell plant and animal, and plants and
animals as a whole from each other, occurs. The nature and powers of the molecules cannot be determined by
the microscope or by chemical analysis, but that the molecules and cells are differentiated from the first is rendered
certain by this, that they unerringly reproduce themselves, and only themselves. Cell plants do not produce cell
animals or the converse, and the great races of plants and animals characteristically differ from each other as
regards their leading features and types.
To say that all plants and animals are originally derived from absolutely homogeneous and identical matter
is to ignore numerous important facts.
According to recent researches, molecules, protoplasm, cells, germs, seeds, and eggs vary infinitely. There is
no such thing as absolutely homogeneous identical living matter, and in its absence no common basis or starting-
point can be claimed for plants and animals. If such matter really existed, it would avail nothing in the absence
of a designer and director outside of itself. Such matter at best could only reproduce itself. A designer and
director is absolutely necessary to inaugurate and carry out the divisions and differentiations which characterise
the leading types of plants and animals. No progress whatever could be made in the construction of the several
kinds of plants and animals as apart from a designer, and distinct differences in the general matter from which the
plants and animals proceed. The power to divide and differentiate is an inherent original power conferred by the
Creator. Plants and animals are not chance products. Everything about them is due to design and the operation
of an intelligent First Cause.
The histories of plants and animals from their earliest beginnings to their latest developments confirm
this view.
If there are unicellular plants and animals which never advance beyond the cell stage, but which, nevertheless,
perform all the functions of life and reproduce themselves, and only themselves, it is evident that a limit or
boundary is assigned them. The irrevocable fiat has gone forth, " thus far and no farther." They have their spheres
of usefulness, and to these their activities are confined. The fiat applies not only to all plants and animals, but
to all parts of plants and animals, and in this we have an explanation of the so-called vestiges or rudiments, where
development is suddenly checked ; a part which attains large dimensions in one case becoming dwarfed or dis-
appearing in another. A good example of interrupted growth and stunted development is furnished by the appendix
vermiformis in man.
On the higher plants and animals a greater power of differentiation is conferred, and conferred at the outset.
It is original differentiating power which makes plants and animals what they are. The amount of differentiating
power varies according to types, and according to an ascending scale ; but in every instance limits or boundaries
are set up. These limits or boundaries are the outcome of design, law, and order, and prevent confusion. Without
them the members of the organic kingdom would be mixed up in one vast, inextricable tangle.
The power of differentiating, here contended for, applies not only to cells, cell plants and animals, and plants
and animals as a whole, at their earliest beginnings, but also to every stage of their development. In other words,
all plants and animals can and do differentiate from the first as molecules, cells, germs, seeds, and eggs : they also
differentiate as they develop from the imperfect to the perfect being. The adult forms can always be referred to
their primordial masses, whatever these happen to be. As the special molecules, cells, germs, seeds, and eggs cannot
be mixed up and confused, so their ultimate products remain distinct, and cannot be mistaken for each other.
The special germinal matters, and the final adult forms, whether plants or animals, never lose their identity. On
the face of it, rudimentary plants and animals cannot engender de novo a power of differentiating. The power to
differentiate is a conferred power, and furnishes the key to the organic kingdom. As the organic kingdom is superior
to the inorganic kingdom, so the members of the former are superior to those of the latter. The organic kingdom
occupies a higher platform than the inorganic, and takes precedence when the two kingdoms come into contact
or opposition. The living plant and animal are superior to their surroundings or environment. They appropriate
and reject matter according to their requirements. They play the role of masters. They direct and control, and
are very Httle under the influence of extraneous matter. Accidental, dead, extraneous matter and artificial stimulation
do not form the several organs and systems of plants and animals. These are all provided for them by
nature from the beginning. Neither does extraneous, non-sentient, non-living matter form the plants and animals
themselves.