354i THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 



time, and this in a somewhat regular manner, we 

 have a right to assume that their introduction has 

 been in accordance with a law or plan of creation, 

 and that this may have included the co-operation of 

 many efficient causes, and may have differed in its x 

 application to different cases. This is a very old ^ 

 doctrine of theology, for it appears in the early / 

 chapters of Genesis. There the first aquatic animals, / 

 and man, are said to have been " created ;" plants 

 are said to have been "brought forth by the land;" 

 the mammalia are said to have been " made.'' In 

 the more detailed account of the introduction of 

 man in the second chapter of the same book, he 

 is said to have been ^'formed of the dust of the 

 ground/' and in regard to his higher spiritual life, 

 to have had this "breathed into " him by God. These 

 are very simple expressions, but they are very precise 

 and definite in the original, and they imply a diversity 

 in the creative work. Further, this is in accordance 

 with the analogy of modern science. How diverse 

 are the modes of production and development of 

 animals and plants, though all under one general law ; 

 and is it not likely that the modes of their first 

 introduction on the earth were equally diverse ? 



4. Our knowledge of the conditions of the origina- 

 tion of species, is so imperfect that we may possibly 

 appear for some time to recede from, rather than 

 to approach to, a solution of the question. In the 

 infancy of chemistry, it was thought that chemical 

 elements could be transmuted into each other. The 



