CuAP. I. COMBINATION OF RELATIONS. 127 



pendenoe. All relations in nature are regulated by a superior wisdom. May Ave 

 only learn in the end to conform, within the hmits of our owti sphere, to the 

 laws assigned to each race ! 



SECTION XXXI. 



COMBINATION IN TIME AND SPACE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF RELATIONS AJIONG ANIMALS. 



It must occur to every reflecting mind, that the mutual relation and respective 

 parallelism of so many structural, embryonic, geological, and geographical charac- 

 teristics of the animal kingdom are the most conclusive proof, that they were 

 ordained Ijy a reflective mind, while they present at the same time the side of 

 nature most accessible to our intelligence, when seeking to penetrate the relations 

 between finite beings and the cause of their existence. 



The phenomena of the inorganic world are all simple, when compared to those 

 of the organic world. There is not one of the great physical agents, electricity, 

 magnetism, heat, light, or chemical affinity, wdiich exhibits, in its sphere, as com- 

 plicated phenomena as the simplest organized beings; and Ave need not look for 

 the highest among the latter, to find them presenting the same physical phenomena 

 as are manifested in the material Avorld, besides those which are exclusiA^ely pecu- 

 liar to them. When, then, organized beings include every thing the material Avorld 

 contains, and a great deal more that is peculiarly their OAvn, hoAV could they be 

 produced by physical causes, and hoAV can the physicists, acquainted Avith the laws 

 of the material Avorld, and Avho acknowledge that these laAvs must have been 

 established at the beginning, overlook that d fortiori the more complicated laAA's 

 Avhich regidate the organic Avorld, of the existence of Avhich there is no trace for 

 a long period upon the surface of the earth, must have been established, later 

 and successively, at the time of the creation of the successive t^'pes of animals 

 and plants ? 



Thus far, Ave have been considering chiefly the contrasts existing betAveen the 

 organic and inorganic Avorlds.* At this stage of our investigation it may not be 

 out of place to take a glance at some of the coincidences Avhich may be traced 

 between them, especially as they afford direct evidence that the physical Avorld 

 has been ordained in conformity Avith laws Avhich obtain also among living beings, 

 and disclose, in both spheres equally plainl}-, the Avorkings of a reflective mind. 



' Compiire Sects. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. 



