NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 119 



while of others we have now only kindred species. Thus 

 we find not only frequent additions to the previously 

 existing forms, but frequent M'ithdrawals of forms which 

 had apparently become inappropriate — a constant shift- 

 ing as well as advance — a fact calculated very foi^cibly 

 to arrest attention. 



A candid consideration of all these circumstances can 

 scarcely fail to introduce into our minds a somewhat 

 different idea of organic creation from what has hitherto 

 been generally entertained. That God created animated 

 beings, as well as the terraqueous theatre of their being, 

 is a fact so powerfully evidenced, and so universally re- 

 ceived, that I at once take it for granted. But in the 

 particulars of this so highly supported idea, we sureh^ 

 here see cause for some re-consideration. It may now 

 be inquired — In what way was the creation of animated 

 beings effected % The ordinary notion may, I think, be 

 not unjustly described as this — that the Almighty Author 

 produced the progenitoi-s of all existing species by some 

 sort of personal or immediate exertion. But how does 

 this notion comport with what we have seen of the 

 gradual advance of species, from the humblest to the 

 highest ? How can we suppose an immediate exertion 

 of this creative power at one time to produce zooph}T:es, 

 another time to add a few marine mollusks, another to 

 bring in one or two Crustacea, again to produce crusta- 

 ceous fishes, again perfect fishes, and so on to the end % 

 This w^ould surely be to take a very mean view of the 

 Creative Power — to, in short, anthropomorphise it, or 

 reduce it to some such character as that borne by the 

 ordinary proceedings of mankind. And yet this would 

 be unavoidable ; for that the organic creation was thus 

 progressive through a long space of time, rests on evi- 

 dence which nothing can overturn or gainsay. Some 



