106 



ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 



in the human and other races. I consider that causes of change 

 must have been in active operation in the first period after the 

 deluge, which subsided, and no longer produce such powerful 

 effects ; and that it is probable (whatever those causes may have 

 been) that they were still more cogent in the periods which 

 preceded the creation of man ; producing alterations of a much, 

 stronger character than any which have since arisen. If I am 

 asked what those causes were, I cannot pretend to answer. But 

 I think the cooling of the body of the earth, with consequent 

 variations in the gases that emanated from, and were absorbed 

 in, and surrounded it, a very likely cause of variations in the 

 things that sprung therefrom. I imagine that at this moment 

 the relative temperature and moisture of the fibrous roots and of 

 the bulb or point of union between the root and shoot in vege- 

 tables, and between the feet and the head in men and animals, is 

 of infinitely greater importance than either cultivators or medical 

 practitioners have suspected. I am told that some persons who 

 devoutly hold that mankind sprang, as we are told, by genera- 

 tion, from one created pair, nevertheless think that the peculiar 

 aspect of the various races of men was a judgment afterwards 

 miraculously stamped upon them by God, as their speech also 

 was diversified to separate them at the dispersion ; but, if that 

 be admitted to the exclusion of natural causes, we must hold 

 like judgments to have been inflicted upon dogs, of which the 

 distinct races are quite as various, and their origin as much 

 enveloped in obscurity. Neither do such persons consider 

 i ightly what a miracle is. It is a thing arising contrary to the 

 usual and apparent course of events, and shown either by pre- 

 diction, or by the circumstances of the event, to have arisen for 

 a peculiar object ; but it may have been produced by the unex- 

 ampled or even unusual operation of natural causes, which we 

 cannot easily fathom, working together by the Almighty will to 

 produce the marvel. The appearance of three suns in the heaven 

 by an extraordinary effect of refraction is a well-authenticated 

 fact, and it was a great marvel, but not a miracle ; that of the 

 sun, continued after its hour of setting, whether caused by re- 

 fraction or by some disturbing power that deranged the usual 

 course of the earth's movements, was not merely a marvel, but 

 a great miracle, because it happened at the prayer of Joshua, for 

 the purpose of giving him light to overthrow those who were 

 striving against God's people. The driving back of the Red 

 Sea by a wind of unparalleled strength and continuance acting 

 upon an unusual ebb tide so as to lay bare a transverse sand-bank 

 was in itself a great marvel, but occurring at the precise moment 

 and place of the arrival of the Israelites, so as to let them pass, 

 and ceasing exactly at the fit moment to destroy all their pur- 



