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what we call design ; but as God's ways are not our ways, so 
believe it to have been evolved, and not created. 
In the last paragraph a new difficulty will have been felt, 
viz., the inadequacy of language to express ideas of the Divine 
methods ; so that in thus writing, the charge of misrepresenta- 
tion, not to say anthropomorphism, can scarcely be avoided. 
I would therefore here state that in labouring to represent 
intelligibly notions as to God's methods of operation, I profess 
to be profoundly ignorant of them. All I would attempt is to 
show what appear to be analogous methods exhibited both in 
the works of nature and in revealed religion, although I cannot 
enter into the divine arcana, and unravel the mysteries of the 
processes of His acts. Rather than venture on any attempt to 
explain the divine methods by ordinary terms, I would prefer 
adopting* some general expressions to convey an imagined 
idea of the causes of existing things, and as less liable to the 
charge of anthropomorphism. 
I purpose, therefore, adopting the general word force , and 
recognizing all issues in nature as the effect produced upon 
matter by the resultant of component forces. These forces 
are separable into physical, chemical, biological, &c. ; and, in 
addition to all those which the chemist and the physicist can 
eliminate and claim as the objects of their special studies, there 
still remains a residuum of forces in those organisms endowed 
with life, and which produce those results which we say are 
designed, and which it is customary to regard as witnessing to 
a divine intelligence. 
In recognizing these latter forces, I would call them evolutive , 
but as being so far like others that their resultant with them 
produces relative effects only according as in their continual 
attempt at equilibration they are more or less counteracted or 
assisted by other natural forces. 
As an illustration I would recognize every special issue of 
evolution, as, for example, some well-marked variety of animal 
(say pigeon) or plant (say rose) as the effect of the combina- 
tion of the usually so-called natural forces in conjunction with 
the evolutive, as a temporary stable form, so long as environing 
conditions to which it was subjected remain the same. Hence 
appears the permanency of some species and races. Subject 
them, however, to altered conditions, and thus bring an un- 
accustomed set of forces to bear upon them, e. g., by domestica- 
tion or cultivation ; the forms once so stable soon <e break," 
the equilibrium is overthrown, and variations once more 
ensue. 
It must be noticed that not merely the evolutive but all 
forces in nature are equally to be regarded as emanations from 
t 2 
