19 
representatives of a fish, or even a hairy quadruped. As. I have 
said, I am Myself, and care not what I have been. If it be 
truth, I am perfectly willing to abide by it ; but instead of, or 
rather in that “ bungling ” recognize law. I refrain from pro- 
nouncing subjectively what God might or ought to have done 
with me, as well as from finding fault with what He did with 
me when “ He fashioned me in the womb.” (Job xxxi. 15.) 
Geology has greatly extended our knowledge of the forms of 
beings, and has brought to light a vastly enlarged panorama of 
organized creatures, so that the question of design of their ex- 
istence becomes more and more pressing. We may add, too, 
that we see a corresponding or somewhat analogous develop- 
ment in the inorganic world; the crust of the earth changing 
and elaborating itself seon after aeon, fitting itself more and 
more for our existence, by producing that immense variety of 
substances, metals, marbles, &c., which are so invaluable to us.* 
When we consider all this, at which I have but here hinted, we 
cannot shut our eyes to the fact that a great design or purpose 
has been steadily maintained throughout, and that purpose was 
Man. Man comes in at the right time, closes the series, and 
the argument of design is furnished with its final cause. The 
great doctrine of evolution thus throws a very different light 
upon the matter to the old statement that “everything was 
made for man, and is of some use to him.” There was a truth, 
no doubt, underlying it, but it expressed a far too limited and 
presumptuous a view of the real state of things. 
Man alone can look out upon the world and understand his 
position and destiny. He alone can recognize the broad line 
which severs him from all other members of creation, while he 
can yet recognize the links which unite him to them. He alone 
can see Mind in all around him, and recognize his own as a feeble 
image of the Creator’s. 
Designs Nos. 4 and 5. — The earlier and later forms of teleology 
may be called the “ Creative Fiat 33 and the “ Creative Plan.” 
The second may be thus described : The organic world is part of 
a general scheme, in which each species represents an idea in the 
Divine Mind, and must be taken as an item in a plan conceived 
from the first in all its details, although realized in successive 
epochs. 
The difference between them is not real, but apparent only, and 
has arisen out of deference to geological discovery. In other 
words, the fiat is transferred from one single period to a succession 
of periods. Whatever objections can be raised against contempo- 
* This I considered as the 7th instance of design. I shall not, however, 
dwell more upon it in this, essay. 
c 2 
