62 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
of organisms, and the different attempts of naturalists at 
classification, but also all the general biological phenomena 
which have reference to it. The history of the development 
of organisms, both the embryonal and the palzeontological, 
comparative anatomy, the general economy of nature, the 
geographical and topographical distribution of animals and 
plants—in short, almost all the general phenomena of 
organic nature are discussed in Agassiz’s Essay on Classifi- 
cation, and are explained in a sense and from a point of 
view which is thoroughly opposed to that of Darwin. 
While Darwin’s chief merit lies in the fact that he demon- 
strates natural causes for the coming into existence of 
animal and vegetable species, and thereby establishes the 
mechanical or monistic view of the universe as regards this 
most difficult branch of the history of creation, Agassiz, on 
the contrary, strives to exclude every mechanical hypothesis 
from the subject, and to put the supernatural interference 
of a personal Creator in the place of the natural forces 
of matter; consequently, to establish a thoroughly teleo- 
logical or dualistic view of the universe. It will not be 
out of place if I examine a little more closely Agassiz’s 
biological views, and especially his ideas of creation, 
because no other work of our opponents treats the important 
fundamental questions with equal minuteness, and because 
the utter untenableness of the dualistic conception of nature 
becomes very evident from the failure of this attempt. 
The organic species, the various conceptions of which we 
have above designated as the real centre of dispute in the 
opposed views of creation, is looked upon by Agassiz, as 
by Cuvier and Linnzeus, as a form unchangeable in all its 
essential characteristics. The species may indeed change 
