292 GENERALIZATIONS. 



which cannot at present be satisfactorily estimated. For in- 

 stance, did new creations occasion the changes undergone by 

 the faunas in the different stages of the Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 epochs ? or were those changes the results of immigration from 

 different centres of life? As the knowledge of fossil organic 

 nature increases, we shall be better able to appreciate how much 

 of the influence of organic transformation is to be attributed to 

 local and how much to periodical causes. 



A magnificent series of phenomena opens out in the -vista of 

 the floras and faunas of different ages of the world. Progressive 

 steps have been taken towards the existing creation, there has 

 been a gradual advance in the organization of living creatures, 

 and a wonderful correlation between the transformations of the 

 earth's crust and the development of organic nature, as well as 

 a succession at long intervals of the birth and extinction of 

 species. 



A.S yet we only know the rows of the building-stones of the 

 im mense edifice of creation ; but as the wonders of the primaeval 

 world are revealed, the grander and richer will the edifice be- 

 come, the gaps of the existing creation will be filled up, and 

 the different parts will be grouped together in a harmonious 

 whole. 



Those intelligent beings who are ready to comprehend the 

 subject, can alone appreciate the splendour of the edifice of 

 creation. Let us take an example from the science of music. 

 A musician alone will understand the meaning of one of 

 Beethoven's symphonies : for him each note will have its signi- 

 ficance, and from the different notes taken together an incom- 

 parable harmony will be produced. 



Nature occupies a similar position. Individual phenomena, 

 like separate notes, can only be understood when a person knows 

 how to combine them and to appreciate the whole of them to- 

 gether. An idea of the grandeur of creation can only be formed 

 by the collection of isolated facts. 



Nature's harmony is felt in the soul by this grouping of known 

 phenomena, a harmony resembling that of its sister in the 

 domain of music, which raises us above the physical world, and 

 produces in the mind a presentiment of a Divine intelligence, 



