LIFE ON THE EARTH. 189 



particular conditions in which each particular animal 

 has been designed to live. Starting from the pri- 

 meval germ, which is the representative of a par- 

 ticular order of full-grown animals, we find all others 

 to be merely advances from that type, with the ex- 

 tension of endowments and modification of forms 

 which are required in each particular case: each 

 form, also, retaining a strong affinity to that which 

 precedes it, and tending to impress its own features 

 on that which succeeds. 



'The various organic forms of our world are 

 bound up in one a fundamental unity pervades and 

 embraces them all, collecting them, from the hum- 

 blest lichen up to the highest mammifer, in one sys- 

 tem, the whole creation of which must have depended 

 upon one law or decree of the Almighty, though it 

 did not all come forth at one time. The idea of a 

 separate creation for each must appear totally inad- 

 missible. The single fact of abortive or rudimentary 

 organs condemns it ; for these, on such a supposition, 

 could be regarded in no other light than as blemishes 

 or blunders, the thing of all others most irreconcile- 

 able with that idea of Almighty Perfection which a^ 

 general view of nature so irresistibly conveys. On 

 the other hand, when the organic creation is ad- 

 mitted to have been effected by a general law, we 

 see nothing in these abortive parts but harmless 



