CLASSIFICATION. 



21 



elaborate and greatest speculation — The Origin Theory, of Organic 

 Is'ature ; doubtless has rendered science a noble service ; yet his is 

 at best but a first offering of late-fruits ; and must be sent back to 

 Xature for enlargement and maturation ; for, in the gathering in of 

 this growth of fruitful philosophy, much laborious research and careful 

 selection of the true and primitive grains of scientific knowledge is still 

 necessary, ere we can have any very definite or correct ideas upon the 

 origin of Species — whether animal or vegetable. T^atural selection, 

 artificial selection, or any other selection, may select, but can never 

 create materials from which to select, by any known method, system, 

 plan, or theory, which has yet been promulgated : for selection, if it 

 means anything, means a choice of materials already extant ; whose 

 origin or creation is far antecedent to, and much older than book-lore 

 or geological deposits ; for these are but the history or remains of 

 species, and prove nothing more than that species have prototypes, and 

 prototypes varieties, to which there is no limit ; consequently we must 

 go further and higher than Nature, earth, and history, nay, to a more 

 eternal and Divine wisdom — ISature's Creator, man's God. His actio]is, 

 if regulated by laws, or governed by axioms, are such as far transcend 

 the limits of finite minds ; which have learned, are learning, and have 

 yet much to learn on the origin of organic life ; this in our present 

 transient state shall never be revealed to us, any more than the 

 mysterious and sublime plan of Creation, of which, materially con- 

 sidered, organic life is to us the most remarkable phase. This, now one 

 of the most assured doctrines of revealed science, is in perfect unison 

 with the Creator's Revealed Truth, inasmuch as — " faith is the substance 

 of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ; " and how 

 literally true it is — that " the things which are seen are temporal, and 

 only those which are not seen are eternal;" and that the — " things 

 which are seen were not made of things which do appear ! " 

 With such a faith, but not for the purpose of ostentation or disputa- 

 tion, nor to prate and brawl in the province of the Infinite, but in all 

 humility, and as a true student of Nature, do I come to wriyaL TraXaioi — 

 Ancient Founts for uiformation and truth in this particular branch of 

 natural philosophy, and as appertaining to the origin of Species. It is 

 not, however, my purpose to enter the lists as a controversialist upon 

 the antiquity of man, nor of animals ; nor vaguely to speculate upon 

 the state of mother earth's surface when he or they first appeared upon 

 it ; nor to refer to any of the numerous types, forms, or varieties of old 

 Adam the prototype; nor to the many types of the lower animal 



