196 NATURE'S POWERS OF ADJUSTMENT. 



out the course of ages. When the Creator set the 

 clock of time in motion, and initiated the reproductive 

 power of Nature, His work was perfect : that is to say, 

 it was everlasting, it was self-regulating, self-supporting, 

 self-perpetuating: both here on earth, and throughout 

 the realms of space above. 



It is on the contrary characteristic of every sort of 

 human workmanship, that it is of necessity imperfect 

 decay and time are constantly at work upon it from 

 the first moment of its construction; and unless con- 

 stantly repaired and kept in order, it wears out, ceases 

 to perform its functions and perishes. When therefore 

 the Creator is represented as perpetually interfering 

 with the course of Nature by ordering every trifling 

 event through special interpositions of Providence: it 

 has always seemed to us that this idea was founded 

 upon a total misapprehension of the greatness and 

 grandeur of His work, which was thus unconsciously 

 robbed of half its glory. The works of man it is 

 true, must be kept in repair, by a process of continual 

 tinkering and supervision. 



But the Divine work needs no such tinkering no 

 readjustments, no reparations. It is characteristic of 

 its transcendent majesty and grandeur that it alone 

 was in the beginning so perfectly adjusted once for all 

 that thenceforth it continued to operate smoothly, effi- 

 ciently, and for ever. 



Among others Mr. Wallace, a careful observer of the 

 various phenomena of Nature, was evidently strongly 

 impressed with the same conviction, for he says, in 

 words that cannot be too often repeated : 



"I believe that the Universe is so constituted as to be 

 self-regulating : that as long as it contains life the forms 



