PEIMITIVE MAN. 341 



This theory does not necessarily affirm that creation 

 is miraculous, in the sense of being contrary to or 

 subversive of law law and order are as applicable to 

 creation as to any other process. It does not contradict 

 the idea of successive creations. There is no necessity 

 that the process should be instantaneous and without 

 progression. It does not imply that all kinds of 

 creation are alike. There may be higher and lower 

 kinds. It does not exclude the idea of similarity or 

 dissimilarity of plan and function as to the products 

 of creation. Distinct products of creation may be 

 either similar to each other in different degrees, or 

 dissimilar. It does not even exclude evolution or 

 derivation to a certain extent : anything once created 

 may, if sufficiently flexible and elastic, be evolved or 

 involved in various ways. Indeed, creation and deriva- 

 tion may, rightly understood, be complementary to 

 each other. Created things, unless absolutely un- 

 changeable, must be more or less modified by influences 

 from within and from without, and derivation or evo- 

 lution may account for certain subordinate changes 

 of things already made. Man, for example, may be a 

 product of creation, yet his creation may have been in 

 perfect harmony with those laws of procedure which 

 the Creator has set for His own operations. He may 

 have been preceded by other creations of things more 

 or less similar or dissimilar. He may have been 

 created by the same processes with some or all of 

 these, or by different means. His body may have 

 been created in one way, his soul in another. He 



