616 THE UNIVERSE. 



gave to the plant organization; to the animal movement, 

 sensation, and intelligence ; to man, besides these manifold 

 gifts, the faculty of reason, doubled by the power of aim- 

 ing at the ideal, perhaps proposes to itself to create one 

 day, along with man or after him, a still sui^erior being. 

 This new creature, which modern religion and poetry appear 

 to have foreseen in the ethereal and radiant type of the 

 Christian angel, would be provided Avith moral faculties, the 

 nature and essence of which elude our understanding. 



"We ought to satisfy ourselves Avith laying down this 

 redoubtable problem without attempting to resolve it. 

 This great mystery, to use the beautiful expression of Pliny, 

 is concealed in the majesty of nature, latet in majestate 

 naturce, or better, in the thoughts and omnipotence of the 

 Creator of worlds." 



