Ef ITS EMBRYONIC STATE. 267 



which science can more conclusively demonstrate than that 

 they had all a beginning. The infidel who, in this late age 

 of the world, would attempt falling back on the fiction of an 

 ' infinite series,' would be laughed to scorn. They all began 

 to be. But how ? No true geologist holds by the develop- 

 ment hypothesis ; — it has been resigned to sciolists and smat- 

 terers ; — and there is but one other alternative. They began 

 to be, through the miracle of creation. From the evidence 

 furnished by these rocks we are shut down either to the be- 

 lief in miracle, or to the belief in something else infinitely 

 harder of reception, and as thoroughly unsupported by testi- 

 mony as it is contrary to experience. Hume is at length 

 answered by the severe truths of the stony science. He was 

 not, according to Job, ' in league with the stones of the field,' 

 and they have risen in irresistible warfare against him in the 

 Creator's behalf." 



