172 Natural Theology. 



he has now the most delicious apple, peach, or pear, 

 or the most beautiful rose, or the most prolific vari- 

 ety of corn possible. The next year a better apple, 

 a more beautiful rose, a more prolific variety of 

 corn may be produced, and this shall be true for 

 ever. 



There is thus laid in this law of the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms the surest condition of a con- 

 tinued progress in man. The possibility of better 

 forms is ever saying to him, Onward ! Upward ! 



In thus viewing the law of variations in all its 

 manifestations, we have forced upon us the convic- 

 tion that, while it sometimes has reference undoubt- 

 edly to the plant or animal itself in the preservation 

 of the species in its higher manifestations, espe- 

 cially in the vegetable kingdom, it is for something 

 out of the plant, and for a higher creation the 

 animal kingdom ; above all, for man as a rational 

 creature. If all these things were created by an 

 infinitely wise Being, this is what we should expect. 

 If they were created directly, we should expect it ; 

 if through secondary causes operating through my- 

 riads of years, we should expect the same. 



And so at this point we are ready to say that we 

 do not see the atheistical tendency of the so-called 

 development theory at all, except so far as it has a 

 tendency to remove us further from God in nature, 

 and in this way make it easier for men to forget 

 Him or doubt His existence. What difference can 

 it make in our belief in the existence, the wisdom, 

 or the power of God, whether he created the first 



