264 



EXPLj* NATIONS. 



doms ewer the earth, would still, perhaps, be traceable a§ 

 faintly at work, especially in those lower families where 

 life and the modifiable quality are most abundantly im- 

 parted. The evidence for the existence of such laws is 

 patent to the exact observation which will give it philo- 

 sophical certainty, and to such observation I trust it will, 

 in time, be subjected. Meanwhile, I claim its being re- 

 ceived as a provisional aid to the theory of development 



Thus closes my review of the objections which have 

 been made to the evidences for an organic creation by 

 law. Such a mode of that creation was, I said at the 

 first, rendered likely by the manifestation of a presidency 

 of law both in the physical arrangements of the universe 

 and in the constitution of our own minds. It seemed to 

 me that, with evidences of law in these things, we had a 

 strong probability established that law had been the mode 

 of the divine working in the whole system revealed to 

 our senses and reason, throughout all ages of its existence. 

 And I believe that we were called upon, not to grasp at 

 every objection to this idea which could be conjured out 

 of the darkness of our imperfect knowledge, as if to save 

 us from a disrelished conclusion, but rather to look with 

 candid minds into nature, and endeavor to discover m 

 what we do know the traces of such an origin of organi- 

 zation as might harmonize with the conceptions forced 

 upon us from other quarters ; trusting that there nevei 

 could be any disadvantage from embracing that view 

 which the balance of reason might show to be the near- 

 est to truth. The question is, to which view does the 

 valance now incline ? Whether is it most^ likely that the 

 Deity produced Being and its many-staged theatre in the 

 jianner of order or law, or by any different mode of a 

 more arbitrary character ; whether, consequently, are we 

 io regard him as ruling the affairs of the world in the 

 manner of an invariable order or otherwise ? I say likely, 

 because we are not to expect on any such questions the 

 absolute demonstration which attends a mathematical 

 problem or an unchallengeable WTiting. We must be 

 content if we only can see a preponderance of reasons foj 

 regarding the universe and its Author in one or other oi 

 those lights. To be prepared for a decision upon this ques- 

 fcion, it is proper that the reader should be presented with 

 * sketch of the theory opposed to that of universal order. 



