174 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [ix. 



had its peculiar crocodiles ; though all, since the chalk, have 

 belonged to the modern type, and differ simply in their propor 

 tions, and in such structural particulars as are discernible only 

 to trained eyes. 



How is the existence of this long succession of different species 

 of crocodiles to be accounted for ? 



Only two suppositions seem to be open to us Either each 

 species of crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen 

 out of some pre-existing form by the operation of natural 

 causes. 



Choose your hypothesis ; I have chosen mine. I can find no 

 warranty for believing in the distinct creation of a score of 

 successive species of crocodiles in the course of countless ages of 

 time. Science gives no countenance to such a wild fancy ; nor 

 can even the perverse ingenuity of a commentator pretend to 

 discover this sense, in the simple words in which the writer 

 of Genesis records the proceedings of the fifth and sixth days of 

 the Creation. 



On the other hand, I see no good reason for doubting the 

 necessary alternative, that all these varied species have been 

 evolved from pre-existing crocodilian forms, by the operation of 

 causes as completely a part of the common order of nature 

 as those which have effected the changes of the inorganic 

 world. 



Few will venture to affirm that the reasoning which applies to 

 crocodiles loses its force among other animals, or among plants. 

 If one series of species has come into existence by the operation 

 of natural causes, it seems folly to deny that all may have arisen 

 in the same way. 



A small beginning has led us to a great ending. If I were to 

 put the bit of chalk with which we started into the hot but 

 obscure flame of burning hydrogen, it would presently shine like 

 the sun. It seems to me that this physical metamorphosis is no 

 false image of what has been the result of our subjecting it to a 

 jet of fervent, though nowise brilliant, thought to-night. It has 



