DEWAR ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 37 



invisible, to another world, so that not even a primordial form was 

 left, we believe that with the properties with which matter is 

 endowed, and with the limitations which the Deity has imposed on 

 the creation and propagation of monstrosities, that the earth in the 

 course of a few centuries would be re-inhabited with animals and 

 men that did not materially differ from the earth's present occupants. 

 The only faculty probably which could not be evolved out of matter 

 would be the divine mind of man, which the Deity alone, by ano- 

 ther special interposition could restore. 



To our minds the doctrine of special creation is an invidious, if 

 not a very reprehensible one. To say that no new plant or micro- 

 scopic being can come into existence without the special interposi- 

 tion of the Deity, is idolatry of a worse kind than that of the heathen ; 

 for while the heathen make their God capable of all things, from 

 causing the rain to fall on their fields to saving their souls, we make 

 a God for ourselves, and limit his powers to correspond with our 

 finite knowledge. A man can make a machine which goes of 

 itself if it is only wound up, and it does not again require his super- 

 vision, but our God who has made his machine, requires continually 

 to superintend and interpose in its progress. A man may invent 

 a kaleidoscope which gives a never ending succession of new and 

 beautiful forms and figures long after he is dead and buried, while 

 the Deity must be present at the birth of every new form of life in 

 the earth which he has himself made and peopled. A God which 

 endowed matter from the beginning with properties which enabled 

 it when in a certain condition to form new life, is certainly greater 

 than one who had to interpose in every new creation. The more 

 grand, the more omniscient, and the more omnipotent our God is, 

 the more worthy he is of our worship and adoration ; it ill becomes 

 any-one, therefore, to detract from His glory, or to put any limit 

 to His Majesty. 



It is denied by many that instances of spontaneous generation 

 have ever taken place, but it is an undoubted fact, that wherever 

 experiments have been performed, whether by Pasteur, Childe, 

 Bastian or others, and whenever fair play has been given to the 

 experiments and life has had a chance of budding, life has resulted. 



