84 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 



tary commencements of species, which wquld have seen 

 the most inconceivably paltry exercise for an immediately 

 creative power, are sufficiently worthy of one operating 

 by laws. 



It is also to be observed, that the thing to be accounted 

 for is not merely the origination of organic being upon 

 this little planet, third of a series which is but one ot 

 hundreds of thousands of series, the whole of which again 

 form but one portion of an apparently infinite globe-peo- 

 pled space, where all seems analogous. We have to sup- 

 pose that every one of these numberless globes is either a 

 theatre of organic being, or in the way of becoming so. 

 This is a conclusion which every addition to our know- 

 ledge makes only the more irresistible. Is it conceivable, 

 as a fitting mode of exercise for creative intelligence, that 

 it should be constantly moving from one sphere to ano- 

 ther, to form and plant the various species which may be 

 required in each situation at particular times ? Is such 

 an idea accordant with our general conception of the dig- 

 nlcy, not to speak of the power, of the Great Author? 

 Yet such is the notion which we must form, if we adhere 

 to tho doctrine of special exercise. Let us see, on the 

 other hand, how the doctrine of creation by law agrees 

 with this expanded view of the organic world. 



Unprepared as most men may be for such an announce- 

 ment, there can be no doubt that we are able, in this li- 

 mited sphere, to form some satisfactory conclusions as to 

 the plants and animals of those other spheres which move 

 at such immense distances from us. Suppose that the 

 first persons of an early nation who made a ship and ven- 

 tured to sea in it, observed, as they sailed along, a set ot 

 objects which they had never before seen — namely, a fleet 

 of other ships — would they not have been justified in sup- 

 posing that those ships were occupied, like their own, by 

 human beings possessing hands to row and steer, eyes to 

 watch the signs of the weather, intelligence to guide them 

 from one place to another — ^n short, beings in all respects 

 like themselves, or only showing sucli differences as they 

 knew to be producible by difference of climate and habits 

 of life. Precisely in this manner we can speculate on 

 the inhabitants of remote spheres. We see that matter 

 has originally been diffused in one mass, ©f which the 

 spheres are portions. Consequently, inorganic matter 

 must be presumed to be everywhere the same, although 



