88 
THE SILURIAN BEACH. 
and purposely limited then, because the world, 
which was to be the home of the higher animals, 
was not yet made ready to receive them. 
I am fully aware that the intimate relations 
between the organic and physical world are inter- 
preted by many as indicating the absence, rather 
than the presence, of an intelligent Creator. 
They argue, that the dependence of animals on 
material laws gives us the clew to their origin as 
well as to their maintenance. Were this influ- 
ence as absolute and unvarying as the purely 
mechanical action of physical circumstances 
must necessarily be, this inference might have 
some pretence to logical probability, — though it 
seems to me unnecessary, under any circumstan- 
ces, to resort to climatic influences or the action 
of any physical laws to explain the thoughtful 
distribution of the organic and inorganic world, ' 
so evidently intended to secure for all beings 
what best suits their nature and their needs. 
But the truth is, that, while these harmonious 
relations underlie the whole creation in such a 
manner as to indicate a groat central plan, of 
which all things are a part, there is at the same 
time a freedom, an arbitrary element in the 
mode of carrying it out, which seems to point to 
the exercise of an individual will ; for, side by 
side with facts, apparently the direct result of 
physical laws, are other facts, the nature of 
