32 EXPLANATIONS. 



fully developed repetition of the respective paren- 

 tal forms. So, also, we can imagine Divine power 

 evoking a whole creation into being by one word ; 

 but we find that such had not been his mode of 

 working in that instance, for geology fully proves 

 that organic creation passed through a series of 

 stages before the highest vegetable and animal 



~forms appeared. Here we have the first hint of 

 organic creation having arisen in the manner of 



_ natural order. The analogy does not prove iden- 

 tity of causes, but it surely points very broadly to 

 natural order or law having been the mode of pro- 

 cedure in both instances. 



But the question is. Does geology really show 

 such a progress of being .? This has been denied 

 in some quarters, and particularly in the elabo- 

 rate criticism upon the Vestiges, which appeared 

 in the Edinburgh Revieio* In reality the whole 

 of the geologists admit that we have first the \ 

 remains of invertebrated animals ; then with these, | 



Jish, being the lowest of the vertebrated ; next, 1 

 reptiles and birds, which occupy higher grades ; ! 

 and, finally, along with the rest, mammifers, the ' 

 highest of all ; and yet controversialists will be 

 found gravely telling their readers, " It is not 



* Jvily, 1845. 



