COMBINATION OF RELATIONS. 197 



evidence of this kind has been presented have become a 

 matter of historical record (Caesar dictating several letters 

 at the same time), though they exhibit only the capacity 

 of passing rapidly, in quick succession, from one topic to 

 another, while keeping the connecting thread of several 

 parallel thoughts : if all this is only possible for the 

 highest intellectual powers, shall we, by any false argu- 

 mentation, allow ourselves to deny the intervention of a 

 Supreme Intellect in calling into existence combinations 

 in nature, by the side of which all human conceptions are 

 child's play 1 



If I have succeeded, even very imperfectly, in showing 

 that the various relations observed between animals and 

 the physical world, as well as between themselves, exhibit 

 thought, it follows that the whole has an Intelligent Au- 

 thor ; and it may not be out of place to attempt to point 

 out, as far as possible, the difference there may be between 

 Divine thinking and human thought. 



Taking nature as exhibiting thought for my guide, it 

 appears to me, that, while human thought is consecutive, 

 Divine thought is simultaneous, embracing at the same 

 time and for ever, in the past, the present, and the future, 

 the most diversified relations among hundreds of thou- 

 sands of organized beings, each of which may present 

 complications again, which, to study and understand even 

 imperfectly, as for instance, Man himself, Mankind has 

 already spent thousands of years. And yet, ah 1 this has 

 been done by one Mind, must be the work of one Mind 

 only, of Him before whom Man can only bow in grateful 

 acknowledgment of the prerogatives he is allowed to 

 enjoy in this world, not to speak of the promises of a 

 future life. 



I have intentionally dismissed many points in my 



