154 NATURAL HISTORY 



each new species for the conditions of the globe 

 when it lived, makes it hard for us to believe that 

 this care has now ceased. We have at least the 

 proof that care has been exercised, not once merely, 

 but unnumbered times through the long lapse of 

 ages. If He cared for the fishes of the Silurian seas, 

 will He not care for us ? The thousand miraculous 

 interpositions proved by the introduction of species, 

 and man himself, show that God introduces the 

 supernatural whenever the good of the universe 

 requires it. And now, when we see the careful 

 provision he has made for the wants of every crea- 

 ted thing, it renders us more ready to see in the 

 adaptations of the Bible to the wants of man's 

 higher nature the mark of His hand. 



We thus, from the study of Nature, remove all 

 antecedent probability against the Bible as a revela- 

 tion, and against the miracles by which its divine 

 authority is supported. The supposed disagreement 

 of the two books has led to more careful study, not 

 only of the rocks, but of the Hebrew text, and its 

 influence on Biblical criticism is of the most marked 

 and happy kind. They may never be perfectly 



