LETTER XVIII. 



199 



and a probable one. Let us apply it to the subject 

 before us. 



15. As far as I can see, all plants might have been 

 made to reproduce their kind from buds alone, certain 

 of these being adherent/' as in the buds of trees, cer- 

 tain others of them being free," like seeds, as in the 

 Lilium bulbiferum, but not otherwise resembling seeds : 

 and, as far as I can see, the same plan of reproduction 

 might have been followed with the lower animals. It 

 might have obtained also, for anything that appears, in 

 the case of man. He might have been so constituted 

 as of himself to fulfil his twofold mission of replenish- 

 ing and subduing the earth. And, in point of fact, 

 single and alone, man did at the first reproduce the 

 species. In the history of our race, the bud in prin- 

 ciple took precedence of the seed, introduced the 

 seed, and having introduced it was withdrawn. Cain 

 was the first-born of mankind, the joint offspring of 

 Adam and Eve; but Eve was herself the prior off- 

 spring of Adam. From a rib in his side, as from a 

 bud, there sprang her who was the Mother of us all, — 

 ' Bone of his bone ; ' fair offspring of his side." * 



And nothing need have hindered the like mode of 

 reproduction being continued. But the Creator judged 



imparted gift to man, and a standing evidence of divine interposi- 

 tion in the world, see Archbishop Whately, in Introductory Lessons 

 on the History of Religious Worship, Lesson I. 

 * W. S. Oke, M. D., The Atonement, and other Poems, p. 4. 



