NATURE AXD LAW. 383 



uninteresting to see in the closing paragraph of my first attempt 

 to work out the &quot; Principles of General and Comparative Physi 

 ology &quot; (1839), the conception I had then formed, and to which 

 I still adhere, of the higlu-st aim of scientific research : 



&quot; If, then, we can conceive that the same Almighty yfa/ which 

 &quot; created matter out of nothing impressed upon it one simple 

 44 law which should regulate the association of its masses into 

 &quot; systems of almost illimitable extent, controlling its movements, 

 &quot; fixing the times of the commencement and cessation of each 

 &quot; world, and balancing against each other the perturbing influences 

 &quot; to which its own actions give rise should be the cause, not only 

 44 of the general uniformity, but of the particular variety of their 

 &quot; conditions, governing the changes in the form and structure of 

 &quot; each individual globe protracted through an existence of count- 

 &quot; less centuries, and adjusting the alternation of seasons and times 

 * and months and years ; should people all these worlds with 

 44 living beings of endless diversity of nature, providing for their 

 44 support, their happiness, their mutual reliance, ordaining their 

 li constant decay and succession, not merely as individuals, but as 

 44 races, and adapting them in every minute particular to the con- 

 4&amp;gt; ditions of their dwellings; and should harmonize and blend 

 &quot; together all the innumerable multitude of these actions, making 

 &quot; their very perturbations sources of new power : when our know- 

 44 ledge is sufficiently advanced to comprehend these things, then 

 &quot;shall we be led to a far higher and nobler conception of the 

 &quot; Divine mind than we have at present the means of forming. 

 14 But, even then, how infinitely short of the reality will be any 

 &quot; view that our limited comprehension can attain, seeing, as we 

 &quot; ever must in this life, 4 as through a glass, darkly ! How much 

 4&amp;lt; will remain to be revealed to us in that glorious future, when the 

 44 light of truth shall burst upon us in unclouded lustre, but when 

 &quot; our mortal vision shall be purified and strengthened so as to 

 44 sustain its daz/.ling brilliancy ! &quot; 



1 purpose, at some future time, to apply the above method of 

 inquiry to the Law of &quot; Evolution,&quot; which is very commonly sup 

 posed to 4&amp;lt; account for&quot; the existing fabric of the universe 

 animate, as well as inanimate ; and to show that it really does 

 nothing more than express an orderly sequence of phenomena, 

 leaving the cause of that order entirely unexplained. 



