COURSE OF CREATION. 221 



of certain areas of the earth's crust, the interchanges of sea 

 and land thereby occasioned, the recurrence of colder and 

 wanner climates over determinable latitudes, the necessary 

 re -arrangements of life attending these changes, and the 

 like is but a chronological exposition of the influence of 

 natural law; and that as law is as obedient to times as to 

 modes, the periodicity of these occurrences will one day or 

 other be determined. This done, its expression in years 

 and centuries is a simple task ; but though accomplished 

 to-niorrow, and expressed in figures like the distances of 

 the astronomer, the mind would altogether fail to grasp the 

 conception of its immensity. 



[Course of Creation.] 



On the whole, then, the systems and cycles of the geolo- 

 gist imperfectly interpreted, as they yet undoubtedly are 

 present a long series of vital gradation and progress. Not 

 progress from imperfection to perfection of purpose, but 

 from humbler to more highly - organised orders, as if the 

 great design of Nature had been to ascend from the simpler 

 conception of materialism to the higher aims of mechanical 

 combination, from mechanism to the subtler elimination of 

 mind, and from mentalism to the still higher attribute of 

 moralism as developed alone in the heart and soul of man. 

 Thus, from a long azoic period, during which the material 

 elements of the world were being eliminated into mechani- 

 cal order under the influence of chemical and physical 

 forces, we rise, as it were, to the conception and first ex- 

 pression of vitality in the simple organisms of Cambria and 

 Siluria. Again, from the lowly sea- weeds of the silurian 

 strata and the marsh-plants of the old red sandstone, we rise 

 (speaking in general terms) to the prolific club-mosses, 



