ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 3 



roebuck now existing, by perpetually biting the oak or the 

 hazel, prevented them from multiplying, and were in their turn 

 so harassed by the hysenas of the existing species, that their 

 races were barely able to perpetuate themselves ; while the ex- 

 tinct rhinoceros and hysena have had a more rambling spirit, 

 and gone forth into the wide world, and fed on the margin of the 

 waters upon the vegetables and creatures of the shallow swamps, 

 so that their bones became mingled with them in death. But, 

 if anything so improbable were admitted, we should still be met 

 by a grave difficulty ; for why should those which had over- 

 spread a wider space, and become multiplied, have disappeared 

 from the world, and the species, which we must suppose to have 

 been so limited in number and confined in space, that their 

 remains have not been discovered, have since become prevalent 

 in their stead ? I can suggest no rational solution for that diffi- 

 culty ; no reason why the remains of the old world, when 

 dragged from underground, should exhibit a rhinoceros and a 

 hyaena, or a plant, of a kind which does not now exist, and not 

 exhibit the kinds which do exist, if both were created simulta- 

 neously, in their precise respective forms : and yet, without 

 entering into particulars, I may safely assert that, as to many 

 races of animals and plants, the fossil species are not found in 

 the present day. We must try, with humility and piety, to re- 

 concile apparent facts with the revelation of God that has been 

 handed down to us : we must remember, that as the Bible con- 

 tains the only and the whole word of God, and is the sole record 

 of His will and of the doctrine He has delivered to us, and 

 stands in that respect alone, unrivalled, and invaluable, it is not 

 the sole, nor even the most certain, record He has given us of 

 ancient natural facts ; for the remains of the old world, which 

 He has preserved in such wonderful perfection by His power 

 and wisdom, are infallible documents, handed down by His 

 almightiness for our instruction and edification ; and, although 

 we must not indulge in presumptuous speculations and con- 

 clusions drawn from them, the facts which they exhibit are 

 even more certain than the words in that precious and invalu- 

 able volume which relate to things only mentioned incidentally 

 therein, and not affecting the great object for which the Bible 

 was given to man — namely, the declaration of the will of God, 

 and the relations between Him and ourselves. We have, in the 

 history of Egyptian hieroglyphics, a memorable instance of the 

 gross stupidity of mankind in understanding words. A distin- 

 guished Greek ecclesiastic had expressly written that they ex- 

 hibited the first elements of words. For sixteen hundred years 

 the meaning of that expression continued to be a riddle, and the 

 most wild and absurd theories were advanced in the attempt to 



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