168 LECTUEES. 



in such a rectilinear projection, all the variety and beauty of nature 

 is lost. It is evident that, for purposes of classification, the mor- 

 phologist is right ; for if the principle of the anatomists is consistently 

 carried out, no classification is possible, for animals the most diverse, 

 an echinoderm and a fish, may be brought together. The Divine classi- 

 fier, in the introduction of species, has followed the principle of the 

 morphologist. 



Geology, then, teaches, and, as it seems to me, unmistakably 

 teaches, that the law of succession of animals and plants is that of 

 progressive development in time of these two kingdoms. But, 

 although there has been a development, it is not the development of 

 the Lamarckian, of the author of the Vestiges of Creation, and the 

 pantheist. The development which geology teaches is not a develop- 

 ment which is the result of physical laws and physical forces. If 

 there is anything which geology teaches with clearness, it is that 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms did not commence as monads, or 

 vital points, but as organisms so perfect that even the maddest La- 

 marckian must admit that they could not have been formed by agency 

 of physical forces ; that species did not pass into one another hy trans- 

 mutation, but that each species was introduced in full perfection, re- 

 mained unchanged during the term of their existence, and died in 

 full perfection ; that physical conditions cannot change one species 

 into another, but that a species will give up its life rather than its 

 specific character. In passing from the equator to the poles we pass 

 from one geographical fauna to another, from one set of species to 

 another, but observe no transmutation, but only substitutions ; so 

 also in passing from the oldest geological to the present fauna we 

 pass from one set of species to another ; not, however, by transmuta- 

 tion, but always by substitution. This has been repeated so many 

 thousand times in the geological history of the earth that there is 

 no room for doubt on the subject. As far as the evidence of geology 

 extends, each species ivas introduced hy the direct miraculous interfer- 

 ence of a personal intelligence. There has, indeed, been a constantly 

 increasing series, but the connexion between the terms of the series 

 has not been physical or genetic, but intellectual ; not founded in the 

 laws of reproduction, but in the eternal counsels of the Almighty. 

 There has, indeed, been a development, but not a development the 

 force of which exists within the thing developing ; but rather the de- 

 velopment of a great work of art, under the hand of the Divine 

 Artist — a work conceived in eternity, and elaborated throughout all 

 time. What an overwhelming idea this thought gives us of the un- 

 changeableness, the all-comprehensive intelligence and foreknowledge 

 of the Deity ! The infinite diversity of nature, the whole idea of this 

 infinite work of art, was contained in the first strokes of the Great 

 Artist's pencil, and the ceaseless activity of Deity has been exercised 

 only in the eternal unfolding of the original conception. 



