COURSE OF CREATION. 223 



the godlike gift of moral perception. Much of the simi- 

 larity that runs through the great types of Life has evident 

 reference to those physical forces which act independently 

 alike on all matter, organic and inorganic ; but over and 

 above this, there is the homology of parts in the several 

 main divisions of plants and animals the embryonic phases 

 of life which harmonise in a wonderful manner with the 

 successive geological phases the ascent in time as well as 

 in organisation from acrogens to endogens, gyinnogens, and 

 exogens, from cold-blooded water-breathers to cold-blooded 

 air-breathers, warm-blooded water-breathers, and warm- 

 blooded air-breathers the curious modifications in time on 

 the various families of the same great classes as already in- 

 dicated in the geological record the occurrence of con- 

 temporary representative species in distant geographical 

 areas the similarity of form accompanying the similarity 

 in function in widely separated classes, &c. all of which 

 are undoubtedly the results of some great pre-appointed 

 and continuously operating law. It may not be the force 

 of external conditions, the power of hereditary impulse 

 affecting embryonic germs, the result of natural selection in 

 the struggle for existence, or any one of the causes acting 

 gradually through indefinite time, that have been advanced 

 to account for the phenomena. Yet each and all of them 

 may be factors in some great scheme of causation; and we 

 are bound in the spirit of true research not only to treat 

 fairly, but to honour, every earnest endeavour towards the 

 solution of the problem. It has been well and prettily 

 said, that " before common minds can know, men of genius 

 must guess ; and if in assaulting the citadel of the unknown 

 they should sometimes fall, their names ought at least to 

 be chronicled with honour." In this spirit, and as tentative 

 aims at Truth, suppositions cannot be debarred from our 

 science, and all the less in questions so intricate and ob- 



