THEORY OF DIRECT CREATION. 21 



of Direct Creation was practically unassailable. 

 It was universally believed that the world was 

 created about 6,000 years ago, and would sooner 

 or later be destroyed. This rendered necessary 

 but a single act of Creation, which is philosoph- 

 ically somewhat less incredible than a succession 

 of such acts, as these would imply the direct, 

 but occasional and capricious interference of 

 the Almighty. But we now know that neither 

 worlds nor individuals arise by direct miraculous 

 agency without the intervention of secondary 

 causes, and hence we are not justified in as- 

 suming this to be the case with species. Our 

 conclusions must be guided by evidence alone. 

 As far as our present knowledge extends, 

 Matter arid Force are fixed quantities ; nor 

 are we in any position to affirm that a soul is 

 newly created when it is born into the world. 



The nature of miracles is closely connected 

 with the theory of Direct Creation. They were 

 formerly supposed to be effects occurring inde- 

 pendently of any appropriate cause, at the will 

 of some superior being. In its more modern 

 sense, a miracle becomes the action of laws which 

 are either unknown or imperfectly understood, 

 or perhaps of intelligent beings able to avail 



