Prof. Parsons on the Origin of Species. 7 
I do not now assert that no creature can be made out of noth- 
ing, or out of the dust of the earth, nor do I speak of the first 
beginning of creation; nor of anything but the existing and ex- 
tinct floree and faune. In reference to the various species of 
these, I say only that this is the last conclusion which we should 
adopt, and only when driven to it. Perhaps I may illustrate 
my meaning thus. If a pair of undescribed mammals, about as 
large, we will say, as a fox, with young or preparing for them, 
were found to-day in some district in England which has been 
thoroughly explored, and of which the fauna and flora were per- 
fectly well known, and these animals differed in some specific 
essentials from any known animal, there would be a vast amount 
of speculation about their origin. One writer would say that 
they had escaped from a menagerie or from some ship; another 
that they had always been overlooked and undescribed until 
now; another that they were hybrids, and there would be 
much discussion as to what animals could have produced them, 
like that which Gilbert White tells of about the bird which he 
thought a cross between a pheasant and a hen. There would 
For creation from nothing is just as possible now as it ever was ; 
and we have no reason for saying that it would not be as natural 
now, as likely to occur, and as worthy of admission and belief. 
What do we gain by the use, in this connection, of the word 
miracle in the sense of an exceptional interference i omnipo- 
tence? When one of the wheels of Babbage’s calculating ma- 
chine turns up its numbers in a certain unbroken series for a 
million of times, and then a new element is suddenly introduced, 
and an old one goes out, this apparently disturbing thing is 
just as much a part of the machine and its operation as all the 
rest. The illustration fails so far as this. Babbage calculates 
his machine and sets it going, and leaves its working to the nat- 
ural laws which he finds in operation. God never leaves his 
machine, for if he did it would instantly perish, because it is 
always his present activity which gives force and efficacy to the 
laws by which He works. 
But what shall we do with that other principle of Agassiz, 
that all this successive production or creation of new creatures 
has happened by the will of a creating God; or, to use his own 
