VESTIGES OF CREATION. 213 



with man at their head, is then maintained by arguments, 

 of the more important of which, the following is a brief 

 synopsis. 



1. "We have seen powerful evidence," says the author, 

 " that the construction of this globe and its associates, and 

 inferentially that of all the other globes of space, was the 

 result, not of any immediate or personal exertion on the part 

 of the Deity, but of natural laws, which are the expressions 

 of his will. What is to hinder our supposing that the organic 

 creation is also the result of natural laws, which are in like 

 manner an expression of his will 1 More than this, the fact 

 of cosmical arrangements being the effect of natural law, is a 

 powerful argument for the organic arrangements being so like- 

 wise; for how can we suppose that the august Being who 

 brought all these countless worlds into form by the simple 

 establishment of a natural principle, flowing from his mind, 

 was to interfere personally and specially on every occasion 

 when a new shell-fish or reptile was to be introduced into 

 existence on one of these worlds'?" The writer further argues 

 that, " to a reasonable mind, the Divine attributes must ap- 

 pear, not diminished or reduced in any way, but infinitely 

 exalted, by supposing a creation by law." 



2. The writer submits that the progressive succession of 

 organic beings, as revealed in fossilology, by which the lower 

 and moret simple forms, as a general rule, precede the higher 

 and more complex, is in perfect harmony with the hypothesis 

 of development by law; whereas, on the supposition of 

 special Divine exertions, it might be supposed that there 

 would have been many specialities of Divine creation, as 

 essentially modifying the existing order of things. 



3. Particular facts and analogies, as connected with the or- 

 ganic kingdoms, seem to hint that forces are lodged in nature 



