152 EXPLANATIONS. 



and orders, is only analogous to the fact, not 

 nearly enough present to the minds of a civilized 

 people, that to this day the bulk of the earth is a 

 waste as far as man is concerned. 



Another startling objection is in the infinite local 

 variation of organic forms. Did the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms consist of a definite number of 

 species adapted to peculiarities of soil and climate, 

 and universally distributed, the fact would be in 

 harmony with the idea of special exertion. But 

 the truth is, that various regions exhibit variations 

 altogether without apparent end or purpose. 

 Professor Henslow enumerates forty-five distinct 

 floras, or sets of plants upon the surface of the 

 earth, notwithstanding that many of these would 

 be equally suitable elsewhere. The animals of 

 different continents are equally various, few spe- 

 cies being the same in any two, though the gene- 

 ral character may conform. The inference at 

 present drawn from this fact is, that there must 

 have been, to use the language of the Rev. Dr. 

 Pye Smith, " separate and original creations, j)er- 

 haps at different and respectively distant epochs." 

 It seems hardly conceivable that rational men 

 should give an adherence to such a doctrine, when 

 we think of what it involves. In the single fact 



