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the Vertebrata, Oken and Owen have shown the development of the entire 

 skeleton from the vertebral axis and its appendages ; thus disclosing a series 

 of phenomena parallel with those of the Vegetable world, and demonstrating 

 the absolute unity in this respect of archetypal plan in the highest sub-division 

 of the Animal Kingdom. 



Last of all, Darwin and his followers propose to elucidate the develop- 

 ment of Species by the same procedure which has revealed the mysteries of 

 individual growth. It is plain that in this attempt they are in entire accord- 

 ance with the spirit and tendency of modern Science. If the Darwinians are 

 in the right — and I know not why we should desire to see their theory refuted 

 — not only the birth of idividuals, but the evolution of species is now proceeding 

 as surely as at any former period ; and we must henceforth speak of Creation 

 in the present tense. It is matter of regret, though not of wonder, that the 

 able and judicious author of so great a speculation should himself appear at 

 times to misinterpret the theological bearing of his own ideas ; writing as if 

 his theory tended to supersede the notion of intelligent design. That this is a 

 great error I trust I have made clear, and have succeeded in convincing you 

 that such speculations do but open out upon us grander notions of the universal 

 method. He whom we worship " worketh hitherto ;" immanent in His universe, 

 and active, now, as when the fiat first went forth " Let there be Light :" — 



' ' For was, and is, and will be, are but is ; 

 And all creation is one act at once 

 Tbe birth of light : but we that are not all, 

 As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that, 

 And live, perforce, from thought to thought and make 

 One act a phantom of succession :" — 



The theist, therefore, needs not fear to see these impressions of symmetry, 

 which arise on contemplation of the laws of the Inorganic world, rapidly 

 extending themselves to include Organic nature. The singular limitation of 

 Paley's view, and that of his age, to special utilities and quasi-mechanical 

 adjustments, caused him to underrate some of the sublimest testimony which 

 Nature bears to her Maker's power and wisdom. In che stomach of a grub he 

 could find the traces of a purpose which he vainly sought for in the solar 

 system. To him the harmony of the spheres spoke of no musician, for of 

 Order and Beauty as ends in themselves he was unable to conceive. Loving 

 to view the Universe, not as a whole, but as made up of parts, " the glory of 

 the sum of things " had never flashed upon him. For he looked on Nature 

 with the mechanician's eye, not with the artist's ; and unless he fancied he 

 could guess an ulterior purpose her symmetry and beauty were almost wholly 

 lost upon him. But once seize the conception that order, ratio, symmetry, 

 beauty, do in themselves bespeak designing mind as clearly as utility itself, 

 and Inorganic Nature will be seen to bear its testimony to the Creative 

 Intellect as plainly as the Animated World. 



It would detain us too long were I to treat in detail this branch of the 

 subject : I must content myself with a few words. The ideas of " Space," 

 " Time," and " Number," form the foundation of the pure sciences of Geometry, 

 Algebra, and Arithmetic. The truths of these Sciences are abstract and 

 necessary. They are abstract as having essentially no relation to the external 

 world. No one ever consdered the line or circle, conceived of in the mathematics, 

 as necessary, because, when understood, we perceive not only that they are true, 

 but that they must be true. We can, by no effort, imagine that two and two 

 make five ; that two parallel straight lines when produced can meet ; that the 

 three angles of a triangle are, together, greater or less, than two right angles ; 

 neither can we comeive that these things ever were, or ever will be, here or 

 elsewhere, otherwise than as we now conceive of them. These Sciences, then, 



