28 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION". 



It would be limiting the power of the Creator to say so. 



It is evident, however, that while matter has been endowed 

 with an inherent creative force, both in plant and animal life, a 

 certain limit has been affixed to that power. No being higher 

 than man may be formed ; no monstrosity may be perpetuated ; 

 nor any animal created, but what may be controlled or governed 

 by man. 



If a simple evolution of nature originated all things, we would 

 have expected that in the course of six thousand years, all these 

 above results would have happened. We should, for instance, 

 have found some men able to fly. If, as Darwin says, animals 

 develope into something higher by merely wishing to 

 advance; then certainly it is not for want of wishing, 

 that man is not gifted with the power of flight ; for, from 

 the days of the mythological Icarus, who soared so high 

 that the sun melted the wax on his wings, and he fell into the 

 sea there have not been wanting men to experiment with 

 wings on their shoulders, but the appendages refused to be- 

 come incorporated with their bodies, and all their endeavours 

 have only ended in failure, if not disaster. 



The nearest approach to our explanation on the origin of life, 

 is in a pamphlet by Mr. H. Charlton Bastian on " The mode of 

 origin of lowest organisms;" which is a reply to Pasteur, 

 Tyndall and Huxley. After detailing his experiments, he sums 

 up by saying : " It would thus appear, that specks of living 

 matter may be born in suitable fluids, just as specks of crys- 

 talline matter may arise in other fluids. Both processes are 

 really alike inexplicable. Both products are similarly the 

 result of inscrutable natural laws; and what seems, inherent 

 molecular affinities. Living matter developes in organisms of 



