272 FINAI CAUSES : THEIR BEARING 



in the unity of one grand harmonious? design, — now " lifted 

 ap high" over the comprehension of earth, — now let down 

 to its humble level ; and that the Creator of all has been ever 

 seated over them on the throne of his providence, — a "like- 

 ness in the appearance of a man," — embodying the perfec- 

 tion of his nature in his workings, and determining the end 

 from the beginning 1 



There is geologic evidence, as has been shown, that in the 

 course of creation the higher orders succeeded the lower. 

 [We have no good reason to believe that the mollusc and 

 crustacean preceded the fish, seeing that discovery, in its slow 

 course, has already traced the vertebrata in the ichthyic form, 

 down to deposits which only a few years ago were regarded 

 as representative of the first beginnings of organized exist- 

 ence on our planet, and that it has at the same time failed to 

 add a lower system to that in which their remains occur.]* 

 But the fish seems most certainly to have preceded the rep- 

 tile and the bird ; the reptile and the bird to have preceded 

 the mammiferous quadruped ; and the mammiferous quadru- 

 ped to have preceded man, — rational, accountable man, whom 

 God created in his own image, — the much-loved Benjamin of 

 t/he family, — last-born of all creatures. It is of itself an 

 extraordinary fact, without reference to other considerations, 

 that the order adopted by Cuvier, in his animal kingdom, as 

 that in which the four great classes of vertebrate animals, 

 when marshalled according to their rank and standing, natu- 

 rally range, should be also that in which they occur in order 

 of time. The brain which bears an average proportion to 

 the spinal cord of not more than two to one came first, — it 

 Ls the brain of the fish ; that which bears to the spinal cord 



* This conclusion is of course founded on the erroneous testimonies 

 ^ven in chapter sixth. There does appear to be evidence that the 

 mollusc and crustacean preceded the fish ; but this harmonizes with the 

 progressive order of creation. — L. M. 



