AMERICAN AUTUMN TINTS 197 



under which that life is manifested have an inherent power 

 of adjustment to each other, and to surrounding Nature ; and 

 that this adjustment necessarily leads to the greatest amount 

 of variety, beauty, and enjoyment, because it does depend 

 on general laws, and not on a continual supervision, and re- 

 arrangement of details. As a matter of feeling and religion, 

 I hold this to be a far higher conception of the Creation and 

 of the Universe than what may be called 'the continual 

 interference hypothesis ' " * 



and again he observes: 



" Why should we measure the creative mind by our own ? 

 or why should we suppose the machine too complicated to 

 have been designed by the Creator so complete, that it would 

 necessarily work out its own harmonious results? The theory 

 of 'continual interference' is a limitation of the Creator's 

 power." f 



We have ventured to call attention to this matter 

 here, because we conceive that in the great rotations 

 of the primeval forest we have one of the clearest 

 examples of this self-adjusting power of Nature which 

 is continually taking place under our own eye and 

 observation if we exercise it. 



In the pine woods the appearance of the forest is 

 of course much the same at all seasons, the trees be- 

 ing evergreen; but in the deciduous woods the varia- 

 tions of foliage are often most beautiful, both in spring 

 and autumn, but especially during the latter season ; in 

 America, for instance, the fall of the leaf often ex- 

 hibits a display of autumn tints whose colourings are 

 frequently gorgeous beyond description; and we have 



* Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, by Alfred R. 

 Wallace, p. 268. 

 f Ibid., p. 280. 



