VI PEEFACE. 



him to a belief in the adaptation of every part of organised 

 structure to its special use by the preconceived design of a Divine 

 Architect, rather than to that cold and unimaginative doctrine 

 which views all nature as the result of secondary laws which 

 subserve to " arrested development," " natural selection," or the 

 " struggle for existence." I do not say this in any spirit of detrac- 

 tion ; for I know that some of our ablest and most zealous workers 

 hold views to which the last remark will apply. But there is plenty 

 of room in the field of scientific research for the greatest diversity 

 of opinion. The problem of the " origin of species " will, in all 

 probability, never be unfolded to the human intellect; for, carry 

 back the imagination from the highest to the humblest organic 

 form, still the " incoming " of the latter is as great a mystery as 

 ever. The FINITE cannot comprehend the INFINITE mind. 



Should this volume be received favourably, I shall be encouraged 

 to go "onward" in the scale, and finish in another (the-In vertebrate) 

 class of animal life. 



COLCHESTER, April 20, 1868. 



