19* ( 4* ) 



components are so arranged as to yield results to the 

 energies of that mind. For example, the transition 

 points of vaporization and liquefaction are so placed as 

 to be within the reach of man's agents ; their weights 

 are so fixed as to accord with the muscular or other 

 forces which he is able to exert; and other living or- 

 ganizations are subject to his convenience and rule, and 

 not, as in previous geological periods, entirely beyond 

 his control. These two terms being given, it is main- 

 tained that the present situation of the most civilized 

 men has been attained through the operation of a law 

 of mutual action and reaction a law whose results, 

 seen at the present time, have depended on the accel- 

 eration or retardation of its rate of action ; which rate 

 has been regulated, according to the degree in which a 

 third great term, viz., the law of moral or (what is the 

 same thing) true religious development has been com- 

 bined in the plan. What it is necessary to establish in 

 order to prove the above hypothesis is 



I. That in each of the particulars above enumerated 

 the development of the human species is similar to that 

 of the individual from infancy to maturity. 



II. That from a condition of subserviency to the laws 

 of matter, man's intelligence enables him, by an accu- 

 mulation of power, to become in a sense independent 

 of those laws, and to increase greatly the rate of intel- 

 lectual and spiritual progress. 



III. That failure to accomplish a moral or spiritual 

 development will again reduce him to a subserviency to 

 the laws of matter* 



This brings us to the subject of moral development 

 And here I may be allowed to suggest that the weight 

 of the evidence is opposed to the philosophy, " falsely 



