PROOFS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AUTHORITIES, ETC. liii 



same character also a most perfect instance of the inductive method, 

 to our humble apprehension. So much being established, the process 

 of development, the only natural mode ever suggested, or which 

 apparently could be suggested for the origin of the said organi 

 world, had of course strong probability on its side. How, on the 

 other hand, does Mr. Sedgwick observe the Baconian maxims t 

 Admitting with one breath that the origin of the organic world was 

 in the manner of law, he with another patronises special effort? c 

 Creative Power, an activity which has not one iota of observed lact, 

 one sentence of the record of experience, in its favour. Telling us on 

 one pao-e that " there are not, and never can be, any probabilities in 

 hature, that are not suggested by experience," he says m another 

 (p clxxviii.,) "the succession of material phenomena and the acts ot 

 his own volition, would never lead a man to the highest form ot 

 truth, were there not a principle within himself, a part of his very 

 beino-, whereby he is led to something far above what he knows and 

 learns by his own experience!" Could it be expected that such a 

 man was to apprehend rightly the author of the Vestiges or know 

 a true argument on the basis of the inductive philosophy when 



he saw it? . P ,, 



To come to the fundamental difference between the Author ot 

 Vesti-es and Professor Sedgwick. The former lays down the pro- 

 position : it being admitted that the system of the Universe is one 

 under the dominion of natural law (natural latv being guardedly 

 denned as a mere term for that order which the Deity observes m his 

 operations), it follows that the introduction of species into the work 

 must have been brought about in the manner of natural law also. 

 The proposition is strictly syllogistic: what is granted of the who 

 must be granted of a part. It may, the author admits, be difficult 

 to understand by what process the introduction of species was 

 accomplished; nevertheless, he has suggested one analogous to the 

 foetal history of an individual animal, by which the work might have 

 been done; and it has been shown that the actual history of creation, 

 as far as we can gather it from geology, is m harmony with the 

 requirements of such a process. Here, it is seen, the general argu 

 ment is the strong one, while the suggestions as to a process torm a 

 mere hypothesis. What, on the other hand, has been the course ot 

 Professor Sedgwick? Starting from a different point, he says,- 

 Species being now persistent, there being no divergence seen irom 

 the law that like produces like, it is unphilosophical to suppose that 

 anything of the character of progressive development has ever taken 

 place on earth. Thus fastening upon the hypothesis which has been 

 started merely as a plausible explanation of certain unseen pheno- 

 mena, as if it were the fundamental proposition of the book, and 

 totally disregarding that fundamental proposition. 



Mr Sedo-wick speaks of the present work as having been ill 

 received by men of science, and he is studious to inculcate his own 

 opinion of the author as a superficial^ writer, and one who can only 

 bring forward " pretended reasonings." 



