AIR-BREATHERS OE THE COAL PERIOD. 291 



Every fact of this kind is at present regarded in its bearings 

 on the probable origin of speeies, and on the questions of indepen- 

 dent creation or of derivation by natural selection, or by some 

 other secondary law. Naturalists have set themselves to discover 

 the philosopher's stone which can transmute the viler into the more 

 exalted species. They will probably fail as others have failed be- 

 fore, but may at least hope to elicit some law of succession or 

 occurrence of living creatures, and to settle more clearly than 

 heretofore what should be regarded as natural species, as distinct 

 from mere races and varieties. It may perhaps be found, after 

 all, that the question whether the creative force manifested itself 

 in calling certain species into existence from nothing, from dead 

 matter, or from previously organized matter, whether by an instant 

 and miraculous act, by more sudden natural change, or by slow and 

 gradual processes, is insoluble by us; or that all or many of these 

 modes may have been concerned in making living beings what 

 they are ; but of this every sound thinker must be convinced, that 

 if not originating in distinct creative acts, species as we have them 

 must be due to causes vastly more recondite and complex than the 

 present advocates of derivation suppose. Nor can even the trans- 

 mutationist altogether get rid of the miracle of creation ; though 

 he may push it back to as great a distance as possible. Some crea- 

 tive force must always precede law, and this even when the 

 theorist goes so far as to derive all things from a concourse of 

 atoms ; or, more venturous still, dispenses even with atoms, and 

 resolves all that he knows into an aggregate of conflicting yet mutu- 

 ally convertible forces. It is scarcely to be supposed that any 

 member even of this last school, will choose to plunge into the 

 two-fold absurdity of supposing that forces are themselves pro- 

 duced by nothing but the law of their own action, and produce 

 all things by their action on nothing but themselves. 



If we could affirm that the air-breathers of the coal period 

 were Teally the first species of their several families, they might 

 acquire additional interest by their bearing on this question of origin 

 of species. We cannot affirm this ; but it may be a harm- 

 less and not uninstructive play of fancy to suppose for a moment 

 that they actually are so, and to inquire on this supposition as to 

 the mode of their introduction. Looking at them from this point 

 of view, we shall first be struck with the fact that they belong to 

 all of the three great leading types of animals which include our 

 modern air-breathers — the Vertebrates, the Articulates, and the 



