CREATION BY LAW. 267 



environ it, it flourishes ; when imperfectly adapted it 

 decays ; when ill-adapted it becomes extinct. If all 

 the conditions which determine an organism's well- 

 being are taken into consideration, this statement can 

 hardly be disputed. 



This series of facts or laws, are mere statements of 

 what is the condition of nature. They are facts or 

 inferences which are generally known, generally ad- 

 mitted but in discussing the subject of the " Origin 

 of Species " as generally forgotten. It is from these 

 universally admitted facts, that the origin of all the 

 varied forms of nature may be deduced by a logical 

 chain of reasoning, which, however, is at every step 

 verified and shown to be in strict accord with facts ; 

 and, at the same time, many curious phenomena which 

 can by no other means be understood, are explained 

 and accounted for. It is probable, that these primary 

 facts or laws are but results of the very nature of life, 

 and of the essential properties of organized and un- 

 organized matter. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his " First 

 Principles" and his " Biology" has, I think, made us 

 able to understand how this may be; but at present 

 we may accept these simple laws without going further 

 back, and the question then is whether the variety, the 

 harmony, the contrivance, and the beauty we perceive 

 in organic beings, can have been produced by the 

 action of these laws alone, or whether we are required 

 to believe in the incessant interference and direct action 

 of the mind and will of the Creator. It is simply a 



