240 SPECIES NOT 



continual change going on in the plants, he could 

 not afiix to them the arbitrary characters, by 

 which they are now classified. An industrious 

 and highly-gifted man like Dr. Hooker, is, of 

 course, continually splitting up, as it were, the 

 species of the vegetable world, and placing them 

 in groups, according to their affinities. He is 

 exercising human intellect, and human knowledge, 

 in unfolding the plan of a Divine Creative In- 

 telligence. If he fails in discovering those dis- 

 tinctive characters, by which species are separated 

 from mere accidental, climatic, or functional va- 

 riation, this is no proof against separate creative 

 force, but only another in the long list of failures, 

 in endeavouring to comprehend Infinite Wisdom. 

 What human intellect will dare to limit, or 

 define the physical boundaries, by which he de- 

 termines his species, the investigations into which 

 are for the most part carried on by microscopical 

 examination, which is open to a hundred sources 

 of fallacy? No two men are hardly even now 

 agreed, upon the true value of characters, by which 

 species may be separated from varieties. Are we 

 then prepared to say, that because the lines of 

 the ideal botanical cobweb, present strong analo- 

 gies to each other, and to one central plant, that 

 they are plants in a transitional condition? And 

 are we to found, upon such data as this, the 

 doctrine of progressive development and transmu- 

 tation of species, at the cost of the great truth 

 of special creation? And are we to be told if 

 we do not accept the theory, which is founded 



