54 



appears to be an order in the proceedings of 

 Omnipotence, as regards creation, which we 

 should not break. What a beautiful gradation! 

 In creation there are no chasms ; all the parts 

 of it are admirably connected, to make up one 

 imiversal whole ; there is one chain of beings, 

 from the lowest to the highest. The scale of 

 creation does not advance by leaps, but by gen- 

 tle steps. One rises gradually above another; 

 dead matter, unorganized earth, minerals, vege- 

 tables, insects, reptiles, birds, beasts, and man! 

 The truth is, as observes the philosophic au- 

 thor of the ^^ J^otes^' that a pigmy and a Pa- 

 tagonian, a mouse and a mammoth, derive 

 their dimensions from the same nutritive juices. 

 The difference of increment depends on cir- 

 cumstances unsearchable to beings with our 

 capacities. Every race of animals seems to have 

 received from their Maker certain laws of ex> 

 tension. Their elaborative organs were formed 

 to produce this, while proper obstacles were 

 opposed to its further progress. Below these 

 limits they cannot fiill; above them they can- 

 not rise. What intermediate station they shall 

 take may depend on soil, on climate, on food, 

 and on a careful choice of breeders. Therefore 

 we are neither to be astonished at the wide and 



