THE CHAIN OF SPECIES. 319 



in eternity, not in time. Nor have they a conception of a creation by 

 law — a creation through the Logos — that eternal Reason, that all- 

 providing Wisdom — whose hand stretched the line upon it, and whose 

 right hand held the plummet; a scintilla of which enlightens every 

 man that cometh into the world. Talk of their bringing forward this 

 doctrine of evolution as a new discovery ! They have, indeed, elabo- 

 rated it in many new applications, but, as to the doctrine itself as a 

 new proposition in philosophy, it was already old when Pythagoras 

 was a school-master. Evolution new in philosophy, and the poetic 

 or anthropomorphic notion of special creations a dogma of theology I 

 Why, we are almost tempted to believe, with the satirist, that " now- 

 adays men read every thing but books!" Even the (so-called) nar- 

 row-minded, ignorant schoolmen of the dark ages (very dark to those 

 who consult not the numerous authors of the period) — even these made 

 a broad distinction between the act, so to speak, the moment which 

 called matter into existence, and that which merely modifies its forms 

 and appearances. The former they dignify with the supreme title, 

 creation [creatio), while the latter they called eduction or evolution 

 (eductio). Looking to the continuance of the creative energy, and 

 yet according to the law — according to, and by, definite and fixed 

 properties, so to speak, with which matter is endowed — the term educ- 

 tion is generally preferred by them; but evolution is also used for the 

 same thing indifierently. And a late author, but of the same school 

 in metaphysics, summing up their cosraological doctrines, and showing 

 a reconciliation of the controversy concerning the relation of the Cre- 

 ator to the universe, from their point of view, known as the doctrines 

 of harmony and assistance, says that the advocates of the latter doc- 

 trine taught that " God works not in his creation except according to 

 the constant and general laws determined from the beginning " 

 (Branchereau, " Cosmology," p. VO). And the still more general doc- 

 trine, also maintained by them, that "all beings admit of evolution by 

 gradations to perfection according to their several natures," goes as far 

 as Mr. Spencer, or any other philosopher, has gone, in the enunciation 

 of general principles on this subject, and from a more elevated posi- 

 tion (Branchereau, " Ontology," p. 56). 



This very fact, that the highest theological philosophers and doc- 

 tors, from St. Augustine down to our own times — as shown by Mr. 

 3Iivart and others — have never had any difficulty on the subject of 

 the abstract question of the creation of the Cosmos, and the eduction 

 of infinite variety from primordial matter by and according to constant 

 law, however ignorant the same authors may have been of facts in 

 !N"ature, and however jejune their notions of history and physics, ought 

 to be sufficient to quiet us as to the legitimacy of our investigations ; 

 in short, that there is no more danger to orthodoxy (as the word is) 

 in this endeavor to discover and trace the steps and stages of the de- 

 velopment of life, than there is in the application of chemistry to the 



