CREATION BY LAW. 219 



binds together all living things. But the Order 

 which prevails in the existing world is not the 

 only Order which has been recognised by science. 

 A like Order has prevailed through all the past 

 history of Creation. Nay, more ; it has, I think, 

 been clearly ascertained, not only that relations 

 similar to those which now exist have existed 

 always among all the animals of each contem- 

 porary Creation, but that Order of a like kind 

 has connected with each other all the different 

 Creations which were successively introduced. In 

 almost all the leading Types of Life which have 

 existed in the different geological ages, there is 

 an orderly gradation connecting the Forms which 

 were becoming extinct with the Forms which were 

 for the first time appearing in the world. It is 

 still disputed by some geologists, whether w T e have 

 certain evidence that this gradation has been the 

 gradation of a rising scale — of progressive Crea- 

 tions from lower to higher Types. But this dis- 

 pute is maintained only on the ground, that we 

 cannot safely trust to negative evidence. It is an 

 unquestionable fact, that so far as this kind of 

 evidence can go, it does testify to the successive 



