28 EXPLANATIONS. 



from it in every part. So reflecting, we ask, 

 " Can it be that, as the first and the last parts of 

 the system are under law, and the first (this being 

 also the greatest) was manifestly created in that 

 manner, so the whole is under law, and has been 

 produced in that manner ?" It is at the moment 

 when we have arrived at this question, that the ■ 

 origin of the organic world becomes a point of] 

 importance. The sceptic of science steps in, and 

 says, " No ; the idea of an entire system under 

 law, and produced by it, here breaks down, for 

 who can pi'etend to penetrate the mysteries of 

 vitality and organization .? and who can say that 

 species have had other than a miraculous origin ?" 

 The tone in which this objection is usually made 

 seems to me inappropriate, considering that the | 

 objectors stand on a mere fragment of nature, 

 and one which the discoveries of science are every 

 day lessening. It is but in a nook, to which light 

 has not yet fiilly penetrated, that the opponents I 

 of the theory of universal order take refuge. On | 

 coming to the consideration of the question, I am 

 at the very first struck by the great a priori un- 

 likelihood that there can have been two modes of 

 Divine working in the history of nature — namely, 

 a system of fixed order or law in the formation of 



