274 Natural TJieology. 



to the cunning work of the old masters. These 

 flashes of the highest powers of man, shining out of 

 the darkness of unstable civilizations, and in the 

 infancy of physical science, show the fallacy of all 

 development theories, when applied to the mind of 

 man. As far back as we can go, in poetry, and 

 sculpture, and architecture, and philosophy, we have 

 evidence of as high type of mental power as can now 

 be found in the world. They lacked the method in 

 science, and the means of progress, which are the 

 aggregate accumulation of centuries, but they lacked 

 no .element nor degree of power which we possess. 

 The fact that men worshipped the grand and terri- 

 ble in nature the mountain, the sun, the fire, and 

 the thunder showed want of knowledge, indeed ; 

 but it showed the power of the emotional nature, 

 and the potency of natural objects and physical 

 forces to call it into action, and thus to arouse 

 the moral and religious impulses. 



The last adaptation between nature and the mind 

 that we shall notice, is the provision which has been 

 made for the different intellectual tastes of men. 

 There is similarity of mind enough to be a basis 

 for mental philosophy ; but it is apparent that even 

 in the same families are found children having a 

 fitness for different intellectual pursuits. Without 

 this variety of taste and power, advance in science 

 and art would be slow, and vastly contracted in its 

 range. How small a portion of science, of the fine 

 or useful arts, can be mastered by one man I The 



