4 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



— or there existed some natural power hitherto entirely unknown to 

 us, which by means of its own laws formed the species of plants 

 and animals, and arranged and regulated all those countless indivi- 

 dual conditions ; which power, however, must in this case have stood 

 in the most immediate connexion with, and in perfect subordina- 

 tion to, those powers which caused the gradually progressing per- 

 fection of the crust of the earth, and the gradual development of 

 the outward conditions of life for the constantly increasing num- 

 bers and higher classes of organic forms in consequence of this per- 

 fection. Only in this way can we explain how the development of 

 the organic world could have regularly kept pace with that of the 

 inorganic. Such a power, although we know it not, would not 

 only be in perfect accordance with all the other functions of na- 

 ture, but the Creator, who regulated the development of organic 

 nature by means of such a force so implanted in it, as he guides 

 that of the inorganic world by the mere cooperation of attraction 

 and affinity, must appear to us more exalted and imposing, than if 

 we assumed that he must always be giving the same care to the 

 introduction and change of the vegetable and animal world on the 

 surface of the earth as a gardener daily bestows on each individual 

 plant in the arrangement of his garden. 



" 7. We therefore believe that all species of plants and animals 

 were originally produced by some natural power unknown to us, and 

 not by transformation from a few original forms, and* that that 

 power was in the closest and most necessary connexion with 

 those powers and circumstances which effected the perfection of the 

 earth's surface." 



The author then briefly alludes to the various laws of the 

 development of organic beings which have hitherto been brought 

 forward ; and then, after pointing out their insufficiency, proceeds to 

 describe the two elementary principles which have regulated the 

 sequence of organic beings in the following manner : — 



"If we then commence by laying down a theoretical development 

 of the laws of succession of organic beings, it must be understood 

 that this is not done merely as an abstract question, but in antici- 

 pation of the results of the observations and remarks which we have 

 collected during a long period of years ; and we thus arrive at a 

 result, to the actual proof of which the greater part of the following 

 essay wiU be devoted. The sequence of organic beings, from the 

 very first commencement of creation to the appearance of our 

 present vegetable and animal world, has been regulated by these 

 two laws: — 



"1. By an independent productive power constantly advancing in 

 an intensive as well as extensive direction [or degree]. 



*' 2. By the nature and change of the outward conditions of exist- 

 ence under which the organic beings to be called forth were to Hve. 



" We have already stated that both these laws are in the closest 

 connexion with each other, although we cannot understand the pro- 

 ductive power. The first of these laws is positive, the second nega- 

 tive, so far as we can consider them in a separate point of view. 



