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Show EXPLANATIONS. N·ow we haTe here two most remarkab~e truths.. Tt.e wondrous tna~sPs which people the Might~ Votd are under the control of natural law. The w~rlnngs of the little world of the human mind-the oppost.te extreme of the system-are under law likewise. vVe have thus ~he character of the litnits .. of the syst~m fixed. So far w~ proceed upon ~olid ground. Now It has bee!'l seen that phenomena precisely the same as th~ formation and arrantrement of worlds take place daily before o~r eyes, under the influence of the laws of matter, showmg !hat the ·whole cosmogony might have bee~ etyecte~-pr~vin~, indeed, that it was effected:-bY th.e DI~tne w1ll actmg In that manner. Having attained this po1nt, we ~re .called upon to remember the many appearances ?f un.1ty In nature · how, when we take a suffici~ntlr ~1de VIew, there is nothing discrepant and exceptive tn.It? how a noble and affecting simplicity brea~hes from. It 1n every part. So reflecting, we ask, "Can 1t be that, as the first and the last parts of the system are under l~w, and the fir.st (this being also the great~st) was man1festly created In that manner ~o the whole IS under law, and has been produced in th~t manner?" It is at the ~o.ment when ~e have arrived at this question, that the origin of the organic world becomes a point of importance.. The skephc .o.f science steps in, and says, " No; t~e Idea of an entn e system under law, and produced by 1t, here ~real~:; ~m~n, for who can pretend to penetrate the mysten~s o~ "1ta\1ty and oro-anizatioa? and who can say that species. .. _': \Ve ~ad other than a miraculous origin ? " The t?ne 10 w~1ch this objection is usually made seems to me Inappropnate, considering that the objectors 'stand on a mere .fragment of nature, '"and one which the. discoveries of sct~nce. are every day lessening. It is but in a nook, to whtch hght l:as not yet penetrated, that the opponen~s of the theory of universal order take refuge. On coming to the con· sideration of the question, I am at the very first struck by the great a priori unlikelihood that th~re ___ cau have been two modes of Divine workino· in the history of natur~namely, a system of fixed order or la~ in. the forf!lat10n ot ~lobes, and a system i~ any degree dtf!'erent In th6 veoplin{J' of these globes wtth plants and animals. Laws govern both : we are left no room ~o Qoubt th?.~ ~a"i~ \'fere the immediate means of malung the first? IS to be 1 eadily admitted that laws did I 'Ot pres1de at GEOLOGY. the creation of the second also, particularly when we find that laws equally at this moment govern and sustain both? Most undoubtedly, it would require very powerful evidence to justify such an admission. And on the other hand, it would require very decisive coun: ter-evidence to forbid the conclusion that the organic creation originated in law. How actually stands the evidence on either side? Simply thus: that no actual evidence has ever yet been offered to prove that the Divine will acted otherwise than in the usual natural order in the org_anic creati?r~; ~hile, on t?e other hand, geology and physwlogy exhibit hvely vest1ges or traces of that mode having actually been followed. 0 n this narrow ground, it appears, is the great question to be debated. If the opponents of the hypothesis of an organic creation by law can bring, from these or any other sciences facts ·which appear as powerful objections to any such c~nclusion. then it must, at the very least, be held in suspense. If, apain, the other party can show these sciences as presenting far more argument for a law creation of oro-anisms than against it, the hypothesis must. be admitted to have the advantage. I have so presented these sciences; the evidence has bee~ ~isputed, a1~d some . obscure points have been largely 1ns1sted upon In objection. It is now my dutY: ~o enter into the consi~eration of these objections, at1d see If they are really of the Importance which has been attributed to them. Fifty years ago science possessed no facts reo-arding the origin of organic creatures upon earth; as fa~ as knowledge acquired through the ordinary means was con· cerned, all nas a blank antecedent to the first chapters of what we usually call ancient history. \\"~"ithin that t~me, by researches in the crust of the earth, we have obtained a bold outline o[ the history of the globe, during -,,·hat appea!'S to have been a vast chronolotry intervening between its formation and the appearance;:, of the human race upon its s.urfac~. ~t is shown, on powerful evidence, that dunng this tune strata of various thickness were deposited in seas, each in succession beino- composed of rnatters worn away from the previous 0 rocks · volcanic agency broke up the strata, and projected chain; o.f mou.ntains; sea and land repe:1tedly changed conditiOns; In short, the whole of the arrangements which we rf( (' prevailing in the earth's crust took place, and that |