62 THE HISTOEY OF CREATION. 



of organisms, and the different attempts of naturalists at 

 classification, but also all the general biological phenomena 

 which have reference to it. The history of the development 

 of organisms, both the embryonal and the palseontological, 

 comparative anatomy, the general economy of nature, the 

 geographical and topographical distribution of animals and 

 plants — in short, almost all the general phenomena of 

 organic nature are discussed in Agassiz's Essay on Classifi- 

 cation, and are explained in a sense and from a point of 

 view which is thoroughly opposed to that of Darwin. 

 While Darwin's chief merit lies in the fact that he demon- 

 strates natural causes for the coming into existence of 

 animal and vegetable species, and thereby establishes the 

 mechanical or monistic view of the universe as regards this 



o 



most difficult branch of the history of creation, Agassiz, on 

 the contrary, strives to exclude every mechanical hypothesis 

 from the subject, and to put the supernatural interference 

 of a personal Creator in the place of the natural forces 

 of matter ; consequently, to establish a thoroughly teleo- 

 logical or dualistic view of the universe. It will not be 

 out of place if I examine a little more closely Agassiz's 

 biological views, and especially his ideas of creation, 

 because no other work of onr opponents treats the important 

 fundamental questions with equal minuteness, and because 

 the utter untenableness of the dualistic conception of nature 

 becomes very evident from the failure of this attempt. 



The organic species, the various conceptions of which we 

 have above designated as the real centre of dispute in the 

 opposed views of creation, is looked upon by Agassiz, as 

 by Cuvier and Linnseus, as a form unchangeable in all its 

 essential characteristics. The species may indeed change 



