158 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 2, 
All the other miracles, so far as we can judge from the very 
brief record, are marked by the same characteristic. 
Hence, I think, we may conclude that the divine method in 
miracle-working was to do only that which Nature, with her laws 
and powers, could not do, and then to let herdotherest. What 
was already in existence was invariably used, as far as it could be 
applied, and to this was added only that which was necessary to 
complete the transaction. 
Hence it seems reasonable to infer that, in His work as Creator, 
He used whatever was nearest to His purpose, and exerted 
power above Nature only to do what she could not. As to the 
rest, He left it to the outworking of natural causes. 
Now for the application. 
The world of to-day contains many thousand species of plants 
and animals. There is indisputable evidence that the present 
is only the last of a long series of ‘‘ populations,” each differing 
from its immediate predecessor. Each antecedent population 
was of a lower grade than its successor, until at last we reach 
the dawn of life where only the lowest orders are found. Or, 
conversely, starting at the beginning of life, there were for mil- 
lions of years radiates, articulates, and mollusks, but no verte- 
brates; then for other millions, there were water vertebrates, 
but none on the land ; then for thousands of centuries, land ver- 
tebrates but no mammals, and for another long period, mammals, 
but none of existing kinds, and lastly those now living. 
One example will suffice, although it reaches back but a little 
way, yet far enough for my present purpose. 
Many thousand years ago, there lived an animal which geolo- 
gists have named Orohippus, or the Mountain Horse. It was 
about the size of a very small Shetland pony, which in many re- 
spectsit resembled. Stillit was not a horse, for it had four little 
hoofs on each fore foot, and three on each of its hind ones. The 
genus lived many thousand years, each generation like its pre- 
decessor ; but at last “‘from some cause unknown to science,” 
anew animal, in fact a new genus, appeared, different in some 
respects from the Orohippus, and approximating somewhat 
more to the present horse, yet not a horse, for on each of its 
feet were three hoofs. ‘The Mesohippus, for so geologists have 
named it, also kept on for many generations, producing at every 
birth only its own likeness. After a uniform course, for we 
know not how many thousands of years, there appeared another 
creature, the Miohippus, very much like its predecessor, but 
approaching more nearly to the horse. The middle hoof was 
larger, indicating a promise of an animal in which the two side 
hoofs should disappear. The Miohippus lived from generation 
to generation its_uneventful life, one monotonous series of like 
