224 THE LAW. 



scure as the origin and progress of Life. It may "be that 

 the solution of the problem lies far, as yet, beyond the 

 efforts of inductive science, but assuredly the time will 

 come for its attainment, and all the more quickly the less 

 we attempt to dissociate from nature's operations the ever- 

 active presence of a Supreme Intelligence. 



In the mean time, all that can be asserted under the 

 warrant of geology is, that in the Vegetable World the 

 course of creation has evidently been from the amphigens 

 of Siluria to the acrogens of Devonia and the coal-measures 

 from the acrogens to the gymnogens of the coal and new 

 red sandstone from the gymnogens to the endogens of the 

 oolite and from these to the exogens of the tertiary and 

 current epochs. This ascent in time harmonises in the 

 main with advance in structural organisation ; and, were 

 the geological record perfect, it is more than likely that 

 intermediate forms like the sigillarire and lepidodendra 

 of the coal-measures might be found throughout, linking 

 these great sections more intimately into one continuous 

 series than inosculating species now connect and bind to- 

 gether existing genera. As we approach the present day, 

 the structural forms become higher and more complex ; 

 and as we descend in time, step by step the higher dis- 

 appear, till ultimately, in the lowest fossiliferous rocks, 

 we meet only with the cellular amphigens, that take rank 

 at the bottom of the botanical scale. In the same way 

 with the Animal World, we clearly ascend from the radiates 

 and articulates of Cambria to the mollusca of Siluria from 

 these to the fishes of upper Siluria and Devonia from these 

 to the lowly reptiles of the carboniferous from the reptiles 

 to the birds of the trias from the birds to the marsupials 

 of the oolite and from these to the true mammalia of the 

 tertiary and current eras. Here is the same chronological 

 and physiological harmony : and not only so, but within 



