GENERAL VIEWS OF EDINBURGH REVIEWER. 137 



or, if not, it stops short in the undeviating sequence 

 of second causes. . . Our view, on the contrary, 

 sees, from one end of the scale to the other, the 

 manifestation of a great principle of creation ex- 

 ternal to matter — of final cause, proved by organic 

 structures created in successive times, and adapted 

 to changing conditions of the earth. It therefore 

 gives us a personal and superintending God who 

 careth for his creatures." 



If such be the best view of the opposite theory 

 which a clever scholar and man of science of the 

 present day can give, that theory must certainly be 

 regarded as in a very unpromising condition. He 

 is, we see, for fiats or efforts adapted to special 

 conditions. These may be, in the divine concep- 

 tion, identical with natural laws or the system of 

 order; but we cannot comprehend it. It is not 

 given to our faculties to understand a matter so 

 profound. Immediately after, he informs us that 

 we have only these faculties to look to for informa- 

 tion on this very subject; and they tell us — what ? 

 — that the world is a system of law ! law, however, 

 subordinate to the Divine will. Surely, if our 

 faculties cannot comprehend the point above 

 stated, they must be equally unable to pronounce 

 decisively upon points so abstruse as law being 



