865 



an ideal exemplar in the vertebrated animals proves that the 

 knowledge of such a being as Man must have existed before 

 Man appeared ; for the Divine mind which planned the arche- 

 type also foreknew all its modifications/-''^ 



22. This working up to an exemplar by anticipation is beauti- 

 fully illustrated by the whole arrangement of embryonic ex- 

 istence. Here we find the circulation of the blood carried on 

 by an arrangement adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the 

 case. At birth the pulmonic and systemic circulations begin to 

 operate for the first time, but all the machinery for their effi- 

 cient working had been carefully anticipated. 



23. The first breath of atmospheric air closes, or ought to 

 close, the foramen ovale which for ever draws an impassable 

 boundary between the pre-existing and the present life. 



24. Thus we see that the pulmonary and respiratory processes 

 were all prepared by anticipation, and that, at a time when it 

 would have been impossible to use them without instant de- 

 struction to life. On this smaller but exquisitely wonderful 

 adaptation we have the same unity of plan and variety of form 

 in the mysterious origin of animated beings as compared with 

 the protracted preparation of the globe itself for the reception 

 of the human race, and its tributary dependants. Every- 

 thing here, as in other respects, had been pre-arranged with 

 far-seeing accuracy, and, when the appointed hour had come, 

 the predestined occupant of the earth found everything ready 

 to his hand, according to the position of the creature and the 

 exigency of the period. 



But there is something more than mere adaptation. We 

 have also intimations of such a unity of plan, on which the 

 whole of nature is constructed, as suggests the notion of some 

 pre-existing idea, as it were, in the mind of the Creator, of 

 which we trace the reflection in the works of His hand. In 

 each division of animals there exists a definite type, the essen- 

 tials of which are never violated, even when it seems in a 

 manner incompatible with the habits of particular animals — 

 the necessary conformity being obtained in such cases not by a 

 departure from the type, but by a comparatively slight modifi- 

 cation of some parts of the organization, in a way quite con- 

 sistent with its general character. The organic creation is 

 obviously constructed upon a great systematic plan — not like 

 ai^ overgrown village in which the houses are scattered about 

 without any order, every man having built according to his 

 own fancy — but rather like a well- planned town, with houses in 



* Professor Owen. 

 2 D 2 



