ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. 91 



spirit, appear to throw the balance of likelihood on the side of 

 ordinary natural causes. The production of the organic world 

 is, we see, mixed up with the production of the physical. It 

 is mixed in the sense of actual connexion and dependence, and 

 it is mixed in regard to time, for the one class of phenomena 

 commenced whenever the other had arrived at a point which 

 favoured or admitted of it ; life, as it were, pressed in when- 

 ever and wherever there were suitable conditions, and, once it 

 had commenced, the two classes of phenomena went on, hand 

 in hand, together. It is surely very unlikely, d. priori, that 

 in such a complex mass of phenomena there should have been 

 two totally distinct modes of the exercise of the divine power. 

 Were such the case, it would form a most extraordinary, and 

 to philosophic consideration ought to be a most startling ex- 

 ception, from what we otherwise observe of the character of 

 the divine procedure in the universe. Further, let us con- 

 sider the comparative character of the two classes of phenomena, 

 for comparison may of course be legitimate where the natural 

 system is not admitted. The absurdities into which we should 

 thus be led must strike every reflecting mind. The Eternal 

 Sovereign arranges a solar or an astral system by dispositions 

 imparted primordially to matter; he causes, by the same 

 majestic means, vast oceans to form and continents to rise, 

 and all the grand meteoric agencies to proceed in ceaseless 

 alternation, so as to fit the earth for a residence of organic 

 beings. But when, in the course of these operations, fuci and 

 corals are to be for the first time placed in those oceans, a par- 

 ticular interference of the divine power is required : in the 

 belief of the ignorant, the very hand of Deity is necessary ; in 

 that of the sage as sages are amongst us only a " creative 

 fiat" is demanded ; but, in either way, special attention to the 

 object, such as a human being has to pay in the progress of 

 his affairs, is presumed. And not only on this one occasion, 

 but all along the stretch of geological time, this special atten- 

 tion is needed whenever a new family of organisms is to be 

 introduced : a new fiat for fishes, another for reptiles, a third 

 for birds ; nay, taking up the present views of geologists as to 

 species, such an event as the commencement of a certain 



