THEISTIC EVOLUTION 167 



in the humbler forms of life up to man himself, in 

 whom the image and likeness of God is still limited 

 by his earthly relations and material frame. This 

 great idea of God manifest in nature, but more or less 

 completely in its different grades of being, is the true 

 basis of the doctrine of theistic development. This 

 being understood, the methods by which these different 

 planes of being have been raised one above another 

 and perfected, whether by the complex action of a 

 vast number of co-ordinated secondary causes or by 

 simpler acts of spiritual power, become fair subjects 

 of investigation, whether by science or philosophy, 

 though it is quite likely that they never can be com 

 pletely understood by finite beings. Man himself 

 occupies merely one plane or grade in the great sys 

 tem, and there may be far higher and more intelligent 

 grades above him. He can hope to know something 

 of the planes that are below him, but not, except by 

 revelation or mere speculation, of those above ; and 

 his comprehension even of those below as compared 

 with that of the Creator Himself must be crude and 

 imperfect. 



It further follows that if we regard nature as a 

 manifestation of God, we must not expect to reduce 

 its many lines of progress and advancement to one 

 simple cause or mode. The methods of action of 

 divine power are to our view infinite in variety ; and 

 though we can ascertain their laws and the secondary 

 causes employed, we can know these only in part, 



