COURSE OF CREATION. 225 



each great section there has been a similar structural ascent, 

 an ascent (take the Crustacea for example) from trilobites to 

 eurypterites from eurypterites to limuloid forms from 

 these to the long-tailed lobsters and cray-fish (macrura) 

 and from the macrura to the short-tailed crabs (brachyura) 

 of the chalk and tertiary the ancient forms being charac- 

 terised in their mature state by certain features which now 

 only transitorily appear in the embryonic stages of their 

 existing congeners. In the main, the chronological and 

 physiological harmony is complete ; and were the record 

 entire, a thousand connecting forms would appear, linking 

 the whole into one continuous unity of design a design to 

 whose perfection every part conspires, and yet maintains its 

 own essential arid distinctive character. Whatever, we 

 again repeat, may be the operating causes in this scheme of 

 vital evolution, it is clearly the predestined scheme of a 

 Governing Mind a mind that from the beginning has co- 

 adapted and co-adjusted all the forces and progressive con- 

 ditions of the universe, and whose power, wisdom, and 

 goodness are the same, whether displayed in a succession 

 of creative acts which we cannot comprehend, or in a series 

 of secondary causations which we fail to explain. If the 

 course of creation be the result of a succession of creative 

 acts, these acts have always the most intimate relation to 

 one another, as well as to those that have preceded, and 

 their order and character are therefore hopefully deter- 

 in inable if, on the other hand, the course of creation de- 

 pends on a series of secondary causations, these causes, 

 being patent to our investigation, must be inductively dis- 

 coverable. Either way, the constitution of our intellect 

 constrains us to inquire ; and though the problem may 

 never be fully solved, the effect of the inquiry must be to 

 elevate the creature who earnestly strives to attain to the 

 comprehension of the designs of its Creator. 



