2l8 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



terial forces have been always used as the instru- 

 ments of Will. 



It is no mere theory, but a fact as certain as 

 any other fact of Science, that Creation has had a 

 History. It has not been a single act, done and 

 finished once for all ; but a long series of acts — 

 a work continuously pursued through an incon- 

 ceivable lapse of time. It is another fact equally 

 certain, that this work, as it has been pursued in 

 Time, so also it is a work which has been pursued 

 by Method. There is an "observed Order of 

 facts" in the history of Creation both in the 

 organic and in the inorganic world. I speak 

 here, however, of the organic world alone, and 

 chiefly of those higher Forms which are the seat 

 of Animal Life. In these there is an observed 

 Order in the most rigid scientific sense, that is, — 

 phenomena in uniform connexion, and mutual 

 relations which can be made, and are made, the 

 basis of systematic classification. These classi- 

 fications are imperfect, not because they are 

 founded on ideal connexions where none exist, 

 but only because they fail in representing ade- 

 quately the subtle and pervading Order which 



