[August, 
496 The Constitution of the Earth. 
hold, in their constitution and properties, a close and im- 
portant relation to natures altogether external to their own 
- — to inanimate substances, and to the specific qualities of 
these ; e.g., they hold a stridt relation to the elements by 
which they are surrounded.” And Chemistry is essentially 
the science which notes the circumstances under which the 
various forms of inorganic matter exist, or by which they 
are changed. 
The Law of Diversity follows the Law of Existence as an 
inevitable consequence, and the third law is also a necessary 
consequence of the first and second. If circumstances 
govern the creation of things, it follows that the differences 
or similitudes between two things must be in proportion to 
the differences or similitudes in the circumstances under 
which they have come into existence or by which they are 
sustained, which comprehend all the circumstances which 
have contributed to their abtual present state. Hence each 
individual existence, or form of matter, may be described as 
an embodiment of all the circumstances through which it 
has passed from the remotest beginning. 
Nor does the Law of Motion less stridtly follow from the 
first law. If we admit that all things exist by virtue of 
their surroundings, a change in the circumstances of things 
must necessarily involve a corresponding change in the 
things themselves. It is obvious, however, that the effeht 
of existing circumstances must be governed by the actual 
creation of the circumstances which preceded. Hence what 
I have described as Individuality comes into, confliht with 
the existing conditions, and motion of some kind (chemical, 
physiological, or mechanical ?) is the result. 
The belief that creation is a thing only of the past is 
utterly inconsistent with the religious idea of an ever-present 
and sustaining God. Evolution is, in fatft, only, another 
name for creation by the orderly and consistent action of an 
Almighty Creator. The same laws which have been ob- 
served in the evolution of species have been concerned in 
the origin and development of the globe upon which they 
are found. If plants and. animals exist by virtue of the 
earth’s existence, it follows that they must be constituted 
according to the constitution of the earth. The earth is consti- 
tutionally related to the sun ; the condition of the air, the 
land, and the water, of animals and plants, is dependent on 
the earth’s relationship to that body ; the earth’s relation- 
ship to, or dependency on, the sun is paramount to all rela- 
tionship in respedf of other bodies. If we assume that the 
earth has derived its existence from the sun, and been con- 
