80 GENERAL. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 



quired — In what way was the creation of animated being* 

 effected ? The ordinary notion may, I think, be not un- 

 justly described as this — that the Almighty Author pro- 

 duced the progenitors of all existing species by some sort 

 of personal or immediate exertion. But how does this 

 notion comport with what we have seen of the gradual 

 advance of species, from the humblest to the highest? 

 How can we suppose an immediate exertion of this crea- 

 tive power at one time to produce zoophytes, another 

 time to add a few marine mollusks, another to bring in 

 one or two conchifers, again to produce crustaceous fishes, 

 again perfect fishes, and so on to the end ? This would 

 surely be to take a very mean view of the Creative Power ; 

 to, in short, anthropomorphize it, or reduce it to some 

 such character as that borne by the ordinary proceedings 

 of mankind. And yet this would be unavoidable; for 

 that the organic creation was thus progressive through a 

 long space of time, rests on evidence w T hich nothing can 

 overturn or gainsay. Some other idea must then be come 

 to with regard to the mode in which the Divine Author 

 proceeded in the organic creation. Let us seek in the 

 history of the earth's formation for a new suggestion on 

 this point. We have seen powerful evidence, that the 

 construction of this globe and its associates, and inferen- 

 tially that of all the other globes of space, was the result, 

 not of any immediate or personal exertion on the part of 

 the Deity, but of natural laws which are expressions of 

 his will. What is to hinder our supposing that the or- 

 ganic creation is also the result of natural laws, which 

 are, in like manner, an expression of his will ? More 

 than this, the fact of the cosmical arrangements being an 

 effect of natural law> is a powerful argument for the or- 

 ganic arrangements being so, likewise ; for how can we 

 suppose that the august Being who brought all these 

 countless worlds into form by the simple establishment 

 of a natural principle flowing from his mind, was to in- 

 terfere personally and specially on every occasion when 

 a new shell- fish or reptile was to be ushered into exis- 

 tence on one of these worlds ? Surely this idea is too 

 ridiculous to be for a moment entertained. 



It will be objected that the ordinary conceptions of 

 Christian nations on this subject are directly derived 

 from Scripture, or, at least, are in conformity with it. If 

 they were clearly and unequivocally supported by Scrip- 



