472 Creation by Law. [Oct., 



the. action of a few general laws of the simplest kind, laws which 

 are in most cases mere statements of admitted facts. The chief of 

 these laws or facts are the following : — 



1. The Law of ^Lulti plication in Geometrical Progression. — 

 All organized beings have enormous powers of multiplication. 

 Even man, who increases slower than all other animals, could under 

 favourable circumstances double his numbers every ten years, or a 

 thousand-fold in a century. Most animals and plants could increase 

 their numbers from ten to a thousand-fold every year. 



2. The Law of Limited Population. — The number of living 

 individuals of each species in any country, or in the whole globe, 

 is practically stationary ; whence it follows that the whole of this 

 enormous increase must die off almost as fast as produced, except 

 only those individuals for whom room is made by the death of 

 parents. As a simple but striking example, take an oak forest. 

 Every oak will drop annually thousands or millions of acorns, but 

 till an old tree falls, not one of these millions can grow up into a 

 tree. They must die at various stages of growth. 



3. The Laic of Heredity, or likeness of offspring to their parents. 

 — This is a universal, but not an absolute law. All creatures 

 resemble their parents in a high degree, and in the majority of 

 cases very accurately ; so that even individual peculiarities of what- 

 ever kind in the parents are almost always transmitted to some of 

 the offspring. 



4. TJw Law of Variation. — This is fully expressed by the 

 lines : — 



" No being on this earthly ball, 

 Is like another, all in all." 



Offspring resemble their parents very much, but not wholly— each 

 being possesses its individuality. This " variation " itself varies in 

 amount, but it is always present, not only in the whole being, but 

 in every part of every being. Every organ, every character, every 

 feeling is individual; that is to say, varies from the same organ, 

 character, or feeling in every other individual. 



5. The Law of unceasing change of Physical Conditions upon 

 the Surface of the Earth. — Greology shows us that this change has 

 always gone on in times past, and we also know that it is now 

 everywhere going on. 



6. The Equilibrium of Nature. — When a species is well 

 adapted to the conditions which environ it, — it nourishes; when 

 imperfectly adapted it decays ; when ill-adapted it becomes extinct. 

 If all the conditions which determine an organism's well-being are 

 taken into consideration, this statement can hardly be disputed. 



This series of facts or laws are mere statements of what is the 

 condition of nature. They are facts or inferences which are 



