CREATION PROGRESSIVE. 313 



of the Ammonite genus and we can perceive, by its 

 diminished number, that the Nautilus is approaching 

 its close. But the circumstances which regulate the 

 extinction of the one or the other are unknown to us. 

 Changes of climate may now and then cause the destruc- 

 tion of a race; but the extinction of species, and of 

 generic types, seems to proceed on too regular a plan 

 to be dependent on secondary causes, and must, I think, 

 be referred to laws originally imposed on each species 

 at its creation. 



What those laws are, we can but conjecture. All 

 analogy favours the notion that creation has been pro- 

 gressive; for everything about us tells of a beginning, 

 an upward progress, and a decline. And the history of 

 the earth, so far as we can decipher the hieroglyphics 

 written in its strata, furnishes evidence of such pro- 

 gress. Doubtless there was a time when "the world 

 was without form and void, and darkness was upon the 

 face of the deep," and doubtless the altered aspect of 

 all things springs from that Power which " moved upon 

 the face of the waters," and called forth light, and life, 

 and order, out of chaos. Ages rolled on, and new ani- 

 mals and plants were introduced, each, as it successively 

 appeared, a witness to the power, and wisdom, and per- 

 sonality of its Author. To His personality clearly. 

 For though we may admit that physical laws suffice to 

 explain the mutations of the mineral world, the re- 

 gular succession of seasons, and the irregular action of 

 the earthquake and the storm, we cannot attribute to 

 physical agency the existence of organic life itself the 

 clearest witness to a supernatural power. Every plant 



