ORIGIN OF SPECIES. LS 
can look back upon such a series, coinciding to such 
an extent, and uot read in them the successive man- 
ifestations of a thought, expressed at different times 
in forms ever new, and yet tending to the same end, . 
onward to the coming of man, whose advent is al- 
ready prophesied in the first appearance of the ear- 
liest fishes.” (On Classification, 167.) 
Assuming that the Rhizopod—found in a bed of 
rocks lower than the Siberian—was the first appear- — 
ance of animal life upon the globe, it must have been 
created by direct influx into a protoplastie recepta- 
ele of earthy materials. It was a nearly shapeless 
mass, yet it had life, aud was the birth of a species 
from dead matter ; the matrix and the offspring 
being separated by whatever separates and divides 
the organic from the organic kingdoms of nature— 
and this must certainly be granted to have taken 
place in at least this one case. In this lowest form 
of life, the mode of Creation is easily comprehended. 
But the creation of an Elephant by influx into crude 
earth, would not much more readily fall into belief, 
than to suppose a house built without a foundation, 
and suspended in the air. The logic of creation has 
a more consistent and practical basis. The Rhizo- 
pod, low and useless as it seemed, could nevertheless — 
serve as a matrix for the creation of an advance spe- 
~ gies ; and go on up. And the rule will be found to 
prevail throughout, that the higher and more com- 
plicated the life and structure, the higher and more 
