CONCLUSION. 671 



of limiting the intensity or extent of snch phenomena by our own 

 short experience. Nor must we fail to consider that all successions 

 have implied progress, that every oscillation of the piston-rod, every 

 turn of the wheels, urges the machine forward. Nothing can be more 

 evident than the continued progress and development of both unor- 

 ganized and organized nature on the surface of our planet, from the 

 earliest periods of geological time to the present day. But our 

 experience of existing causes has been too short to enable us fully to 

 realize this, or to harmonize it with our notions of uniformity or cata- 

 clysms or creative intervention. We are but infants in knowledge, 

 and we have been passengers in the ship of nature for so short a time 

 that the oscillations of the piston-rod may appear to us cataclysms 

 irreconcilable with the steady motion of the wheels, and that we may 

 yet be unable clearly to discriminate between the action of the lifeless 

 machinery and that of the unseen hand and mind which regulate and 

 guide ; and while we may readily discover motion and progress, the 

 port of departure and that of destination are alike invisible in the 

 distance. Patient observation and thought may enable us in time 

 better to comprehend these mysteries ; and 1 think we may be much 

 aided in tliis by cultivating an acquaintance with the Maker and 

 Ruler of the machine as well as with His work. 



