4-80 On the Creation, Diffusion, and 



Their distribution evinces too much design to admit, for 

 an instant, of the idea that their ova were diffused through 

 the agency of winds or aquatic birds, independent of the 

 fact, that there is no one region or focus which contains all 

 the species, and that the suddenness of such a transporta- 

 tion or diffusion would have tended rather to exterminate, 

 than to disseminate the species ! 



Nor could they have wandered from a common centre in 

 the sea, for they are adapted solely for a residence on the 

 land, or in fresh waters, and perish instantly in salt waters. 



These latter speculations then, like the former, must be 

 abandoned; for as the diffusion of the various races could 

 not have taken place from an isolated mountain, so neither 

 is there any country in which all animals are found ; nor a 

 mountain range connecting all the portions of the earth ; 

 and farthermore, if there had been, it would have formed, 

 as indeed mountains are often found to be, an insuperable 

 barrier to the diffusion of those species which, delighting in 

 warm and humid climes, were placed in the plains below 

 them. 



The only rational answer then must be, that each was 

 created for specific purposes, and adapted at once to those 

 situations in which they were to perform their parts ; and 

 being so adapted, they were placed each and all in such 

 numbers and proportions as an infinitely wise Creator saw 

 good, at once in the countries where their several services 

 were alone required. 



It is now necessary that we should more particularly touch 

 upon a point to which we have already made allusion, 

 namely, to the fact of fresh creations of animals and plants 

 having taken place subsequent to the six recorded creative 

 days of Genesis. 



This position, which derives ample support from the 

 phenomena actually existant and observable in nature, may 

 be still farther substantiated by the the following passage 



