ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES. 



8? 



follows: — " The coral polypi, united by a common an.- 

 mal bond, construct a defined form in stone ; many kinde 

 construct many forms. An allotted instinct may permit 

 each polypus to construct its own cell, but there is no su- 

 perintending one to direct the pattern, nor can the work- 

 ers unite by consultation for such an end. There is no re- 

 cipient for an instinct by which the pattern might be con- 

 structed. It is God alone, therefore, who is the architect ; 

 and for this end, consequently, he must dispose of every 

 new polypus required to continue the pattern, in a new 

 and peculiar position, which the animal could not have 

 discovered by itself. Yet more, millions of these blind 

 workers unite their works to form an island, which is also 

 wrought out according to a constant general pattern, and 

 of a very peculiar nature, though the separate coral works 

 are numerously diverse. Still less, then, here is an in- 

 stinct possible. The Great Architect himself must exe- 

 cute what he planned, in each case equally. He uses these 

 little and senseless animals as hands ; but they are hands* 

 which himself must direct. He must direct each one 

 everywhere, and therefore he is ever acting.'** This is a 

 most notable example of a dangerous kind oL reasoning. 

 It is now believed that corals have a general life and sen- 

 sation throughout the whole mass, residing in the nervous 

 tissue which envelopes them ; consequently, there is no- 

 thing more wonderful in their determinate general forms 

 than in those of other animals. 



It may here be remarked that there is in our doctrine 

 that harmony in all the associated phenomena which gen- 

 erally marks great truths. First, it agrees, as we have 

 seen, with the idea of planet-creation by natural law. 

 Secondly, upon this supposition, all -:nat geology tells us 

 of the succession of species appears natural and intelligi- 

 ble. Organic life presses in, as has been remarked, wher- 

 ever there was room and encouragement for it, the forms 

 being always such as suited the circumstances, and in a 

 certain relation to them, as, for example, where the lime- 

 stone-forming seas produced an abundance of corals, cri- 

 noidea, and shell-fish. Admitting for a moment a re- 

 oiigination of species after a cataclysm, as has been sur- 

 mised by some geologists, though the hypothesis is always 

 becoming less and less tenable, it harmonizes with nothing 

 so well as the idea of a creation by law. The more soli- 

 • Macculloch on tne Attributes of the Deity, iii. 569 



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