150 EXPLANATIONS. 



directly from the appointment of the Creator. 

 The Edinburgh reviewer says, " they were created 

 by the hand of God and adapted to the con- 

 ditions of the period." Now, it is, in the first 

 place, not certain that species constantly main- 

 tain a fixed character, for we have seen that 

 what were long considered as determinate spe- 

 cies have been transmuted into others. Passing, 

 however, from this fact, as it is not generally 

 received among men of science, there remain 

 some great difiiculties in connexion with the idea 

 of special creation. First, we should have to sup- 

 pose, as pointed out in my former volume, a most 

 startling diversity of plan in the divine workings, 

 a great general plan or system of law in the lead- 

 ing events of world-making, and a plan of minute 

 nice operation, and special attention in some of 

 the mere details of the process. The discrepancy 

 between the two conceptions is surely overpower- 

 ing, when we allow ourselves to see the whole 

 matter in a steady and rational light. There is, 

 also, the striking fact of an ascertained historical 

 progress of plants and animals in the order of 

 their organization ; marine and cellular plants and 

 invertebrated animals first, afterwards higher 

 examples of both. In an arbitrary system, we had 



