122 ON THE LATEST FORM OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 
rity from an embryo or from a seed. But on the former supposition, there is no man 
who would not perceive and acknowledge the immediate agency of an intelligent 
cause; whereas, according to the actual order of things, the effect steals so insensibly 
on the observation, that it excites little or no curiosity, excepting in those who possess 
a sufficient degree of reflection to contrast the present state of the objects around them 
with their first origin, and with the progressive stages of their existence." 
