2 SPECIES NOT 



sophic naturalist, these results have a still greater 

 interest to those who pass the pleasantest hours 

 of their life, in studying Nature as she exists in 

 the beautiful world by which we are surrounded. 



To the former they revolutionize all the theories 

 upon which his principles of classification are 

 based; to the latter they are destructive of nil 

 that he has ever contemplated of the harmony- - 

 the adaptation the design which he has dreamt 

 that he saw in created things. 



It cannot therefore be deemed an unnecessary 

 or uncalled-for task, to enquire critically into the 

 grounds upon which such conclusions have been 

 formed. The minds of the students of Nature 

 of all classes are strongly imbued with the idea. 

 that living things have been specially created to 

 serve certain purposes in the world that they 

 in fact represent the ideas or constituent part* 

 of the great thought by which they were called 

 into being that they are distinct, and though 

 variable, yet immutable organisms not changing 

 one into another by any secondary law or law-. 

 but existing as they were first produced; carrying 

 out the Design by which their structure was 

 adapted to their mode of life and position in the 

 world. 



It is upon no slight grounds that such a belief 

 will be surrendered. There is so much evident 

 Truth in the congruity of Nature so much that 

 is convincing in its harmony so much that speaks 

 in clear and unmistakeable language of a Great 

 First and Final Cause that the mind instinc- 



