IN FAVOR OF REVEALED RELIGION. 313 
power, and that it could have done greatly more than it actually 
did, seeing that we now find it to be a Cause adequate to the 
origination of vitality and organization in two great types, — 
the vegetable and the animal,—as exemplified in pines and 
araucarians, in fishes and in reptiles. But still confining our- 
selyes with cautious skepticism within the limits of our argu- 
ment, we continue to hold that, as fishes of a high, and reptiles 
of a low order, with trees of the cone-bearing family, are the 
most perfect specimens of their respective classes which the 
producing Cause has originated, it would be unphilosophic to 
hold, in the absence of proof, that it would originate aught 
higher or more perfect. And now, as yet other ages pass . 
away, the creation of the great Secondary division takes the 
place of the vanished Paleozoic; and we find in its few dico- 
tyledonous plants, in its reptiles of highest standing, and in 
its some two or three comparatively humble mammals, that in 
the previous, as in the earlier creation, the producing Cause 
had been, if I may so express myself, working greatly under 
its strength, and that in this third creation we have a still 
higher display of its potency. With some misgivings, how- 
ever, we again apply our argument. And now yet another 
creation, — that of the Tertiary period, with its noble forests 
of dicotyledonous trees, and its sagacious and gigantic mam- 
mals, —rises upon the scene ; and, as our experience in crea- 
tion has now become very considerable indeed, and as we have 
seen each in succession higher than that which preceded it, we 
find that, notwithstanding our assumed skepticism, we had, — 
compelled by one of the most deeply-seated instincts of our 
nature,— been secretly anticipating the advance which the 
new state of things actually realizes. But, applying the argu- 
ment yet once more, we at least assume to hold, that as the 
sagacious elephant is the highest example of animal life pro- 
duced by the originating Cause, it would be unphilosophic to 
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