TENDENCY OF THE NEW DOCTRINE. 169 



origin and development of life upon our planet as 

 having been equally under natural law, the whole 

 point is gained ; for we are not so much in- 

 quiring in order to say how ? as teas it within 

 or heyoTid the natural ? We have seen then, 

 as I conceive, that all the associated truths of 

 science go to this point. The whole concur to 

 say, that to believe an exception in this particular 

 of the historv" of nature, is an absiu-dity. Difficul- 

 ties there may be in treating the case positively ; 

 some facts of inferior importance may seem to 

 point to an opposite conclusion ; but in the 

 balance of the two sets of evidences, those for a 

 universality of natural law downweigh the other 

 beyond calculation. 



I have now to allude to a class of objections 

 different from those made on scientific grounds, but 

 fortunately not less easily replied to. It has ap- 

 peared to various critics, particidarly to the writer 

 in the Edinburgh Review, that very sacred prin- 

 ciples are threatened by a doctrine of universal law. 

 A natural origin of life, and a natural basis in 

 organization for the operations of the human 

 mind, speak to them of fatalism and materialism. 

 And, strange to say, those, who every day give 



