XATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 1-5 



globe-peopled space, where all seems analogous. ^^\> 

 have to suppose that every one of these numberless 

 globes is either a theatre of organic being, or in the way 

 of becoming so. This is a conclusion which every addi- 

 tion to our knowledge makes only the more irresistible. 

 Is it conceivable, as a fitting mode of exercise for creative 

 intelligence, that it should be constantly moving from 

 one sphere to another, to form and plant the variou^^ 

 species which may be required in each situation at par- 

 ticular times 1 Is such an idea accordant with our 

 general conception of the dignity, not to speak of the 

 power, of the Great Author % Yet such is the notioji 

 wdiich we must form, if we adhere to the doctrine of 

 special exercise. Let us see, on the other hand, how the 

 doctrine of a ci'eation by law agrees with this expanded 

 view^ of the organic world. 



Unprepared as most men may be for such an announce- 

 ment, there can be no doubt that we are able, in this 

 limited sphere, to form some satisfactory conclusions as 

 to the plants and animals of those other spheres w^hich 

 move at such immense distances from us. Suppose 

 that the first persons of an early nation who made a 

 ship and ventured to sea in it, observed, as they sailed 

 along, a set of objects which they had never before seen 

 — namely, a fleet of other ships — would they not have 

 been justified in supposing that those ships were occupied, 

 like their own, by human beings possessing hands to row 

 and steer, eyes to watch the signs of the weather, in- 

 telligence to guide them from one place to another — in 

 short, beings in all respects like themselves, or only 

 showing such differences as they knew to be producible 

 by difference of climate and habits of life ? Precisely 

 in this manner we can speculate on the inhabitants of 

 remote spheres. We see that matter has originally been 



