CONCLUSION. 315 



ceeded by new types, each successively more and more 

 like the present creation. Gradually, we may suppose, 

 the earth and air became more like their present con- 

 dition. At length, " in the fulness of time " man was 

 introduced, destined to become the lord of this present 

 creation, and finally the inheritor of a better world. 

 Whether man's race, like that of every other animated 

 being, be doomed to come to a close, it is not the pro- 

 vince of natural history to inquire; but it seems to me 

 that no one who accepts as truth the doctrine of the 

 Incarnation, and considers what that stupendous mi- 

 racle involves, can look forward, as some speculative 

 minds have done, to any further development of the 

 animal creation. Here, then, the naturalist reaches his 

 proper limits the horizon that bounds his powers of 

 vision : if he would still look further, and learn more 

 of his relation to his Maker, he must carry his researches 

 into other fields, and seek for 



- 83Uimen 



(Seteift auf einer onbern glut/ 

 3n einem anbem Sonnenlid^te/ 



3n einet gliidfU^ern SRatut. 



