120 HYPOTHESIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 



a great range, which was on the whole to be rigidly regu- 

 lar • let us, I say, only consider these things, and we shall 

 see that the decreeing of laws to bring the whole about 

 was an act involving such a degree of wisdom and device 

 as we only can attribute, adoringly, to the one Eternal 

 and Unchangeable. It may be asked, how does this re- 

 flection comport with that timid philosophy which would 

 have us to draw back from the investigation of God's 

 works, lest the knowledge of them should make us under- 

 value his greatness and forget his paternal charater ? Does 

 it not rather appear that our ideas of the Deity can only be 

 worthy of him in the ratio in which we advance in a 

 knowledge of his works and ways ; and that the acquisition 

 of this knowledge is consequently an available means of 

 our growing in a genuine reverence for him ! 



But the idea that any of the lower animals have been 

 concerned in any way with the origin of man—is not this 

 degrading ? Degrading is a term, expressive of a notion 

 of the human mind, and the human mind is liable to pre- 

 judices which prevent its notions from being invariably 

 correct. Were we acquainted for the first time with the 

 circumstances attending the production of an individual 

 of our race, we might equally think them degrading, and 

 be eager to deny them, and exclude them from the admit- 

 ted truths of nature. Knowing this fact familiarly and 

 beyond contradiction, a healthy and natural mind finds no 

 difficulty in regarding it complacently. Creative Provi 

 dence has been pleased to order that it should be so, and 

 it must therefore be submitted to. Now the idea as to 

 the progress of organic creation, if we become satisfied of 

 its truth, ought to be received precisely in this spirit. 

 It has pleased Providence to arrange that one species 

 should give birth to another, until the second highest gave 

 birth to man, who is the very highest : be it so, it is our 

 part to admire and to submit. The very faintest notion 

 of there being anything ridiculous or degrading in the 

 theory — how absurd does it appear, when we remember 

 that every individual amongst us actually passes through 

 the characters of the insect, the fish, and reptile (to speak 

 nothing of others,) before he is permitted to breathe the 

 breath of life ! But such notions are mere emanations of 

 false pride and ignorant prejudice. He who conceives 

 them, little reflects that they, in reality, involve the prin- 

 ciple of a contempt for the works and ways of God. For 



> i 



