196 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



besides this — worlds older and larger and more glo- 

 rious than ours, and intelhgences higher and purer 

 and more noble than man — whose origin also may 

 date from myriads of ages before his. Be it so. 

 None can have been more highly favoured than he 

 has been ; and there is surely warrant enough from 

 Scripture, and from reason enlightened by Scripture, 

 for the belief that there are no creatures in existence 

 that are at once higher and different in kind from 

 man, — however thev mav differ in the modes or the 

 conditions of their existence. We may therefore re- 

 gard man as being, at the least, the type and repre- 

 sentative of the highest order of created being. And 

 this -'more modest," and it may be, ''juster estimate 

 of his place," will answer the purpose I have in view. 

 If those other intelhgences be not clothed upon" as 

 man is, their condition will not affect our specula- 

 tion. If they be — if they have organised bodies 

 and reproduce their kind, we may infer that in 

 essential particulars, their constitution will be model- 

 led after the pattern which has been followed in 

 man's. 



12. Let us pause here for a little, and look at a 

 principle which gives to the considerations now sub- 

 mitted to you, all their force and value. It is the 

 principle of ''unity of composition" — oi uniformity of 

 plan as a ruling element in the constitution of the 

 organic world. Of this principle I cannot give you a 

 better idea than bv la vino; before vou a verv clear 



