DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 201 



physical development, and lies, as yet, far beyond the grasp 

 of human philosophy. ]S r or, indeed, as has been fitly re- 

 marked by Professor Agassiz, " will there be any scientific 

 evidence of the method of God's working in nature, until 

 naturalists have shown that the whole creation is the ex- 

 pression of a thought, and not the product of physical 

 agents." 



Further, as every creature has its own nature, and habits, 

 and functions, we must, under the transmutation hypothesis, 

 either make the plant and animal capable of changing their 

 own nature and habits, or ascribe the change to the force 

 of external conditions. In the vegetable kingdom we can 

 readily admit, within very wide limits, the operation of 

 external causes ; but even there the generic diversity oc- 

 curring under precisely the same conditions remains alto- 

 gether inexplicable by such a hypothesis ; while the nature 

 of plant-life for ever debars the idea of internal volition. 

 In the animal kingdom we have the same difficulty to con- 

 tend with. Admitting that physical conditions had the 

 power to modify the vital organism, the nature and limit of 

 these modifications must be predetermined and directed in 

 order to preserve the harmony that prevails throughout 

 living as well as throughout extinct forms ; and this har- 

 mony can never be other than the ordaining of a governing 

 mind. It is impossible to invest any mere physical law 

 with a discriminating power absurdity to ascribe to in- 

 dividual volition any permanent change of organisation 

 while an intimate relationship continues to pervade the 

 whole. And even admitting the Creator had chosen to act 

 through such means, they can be placed in no higher light 

 than the unconscious machinery of a system requiring 

 superintendence at every turn, and whose every variation is 

 in effect the equivalent of a new creation. The conversion 

 of a mollusc into a fish, or of a fish into a reptile even if 



