PREDOMINANT THEORY EXAMINED. 277 



lo follow laws of its own, or been proved to be exactly sim- 

 ilar to objects and events, which, in more familiar mani- 

 festations, or on a more limited scale, follow strict laws 

 our inability to trace the same laws on the larger scale, 

 and in the more recondite instances, being accounted for 

 by the number and complication of the modifying causes, 

 or by their inaccessibility to observation."* 



The whole question, then, stands thus. For the theory 

 of universal order — that is, order as presiding in both the 

 origin and administration of the world — we have the tes- 

 timony of a vast number of facts in nature, and this one 

 in addition — that whatever is reft from the domain of 

 ignorance and made undoubted matter of science, forma 

 a new support to the same doctrine. The opposite view, 

 once predominant, has been shrinking for ages into lesser 

 space, and now maintains a footing only in a few depart- 

 ments of nature which happen to be less liable than others 

 to a clear investigation. The chief of these, if not almost 

 the only one, is the origin of the organic kingdoms. So 

 long as this remains obscure, the supernatural will have 

 a certain hold upon enlightened persons. Should it ever 

 be cleared up in a way that leaves no doubt of a natural 

 origin of plants and animals, there must be a complete 

 revolution in the view which is generally taken of our 

 relation to the Father of our being. 



This prepares the way for a few remarks on the present 

 state of opinion with regard to the origin of organic na- 

 ture. The great difficulty here is the apparent determi- 

 nateness of species. These forms of life being apparently 

 unchangeable, or at least always showing a tendency to 

 return to the character from which they may have diverg- 

 ed, the idea arises that there can have been no progression 

 from one to another; each must have taken its special 

 form, independently of other forms, directly from the ap- 

 pointment of the Creator. The Edinburgh reviewer says, 

 " they were created by the hand of God and adapted to 

 the conditions of the period." Now it is, in the first 

 place, not certain that species constantly maintain a fixed 

 character, for we have seen that what were long consid- 

 ered as determinate species have been transmuted into 

 Others. Passing, however, from this fact, as it is not 

 generally received among men of science, there remain 

 •ome great difficulties in connection with the idea of spe« 

 * System of Logic, ii., 116. 



