"'''""''''''hi iiii ;;,i:f;:::;||l:;i;iiilli 3|||iia ' i < ! li! liif j,' h •■■'Mm. M!''!;!'lii' ^m Will, ■ i^^^ IHI 1!! !|iliiliitri::i;H mm ii|!Mil i lji,i!,„ llii;,!' m I IP ii iilii ;i il'i'.'i iilii'i.',.;' iitei'iiiisi'V' iiiiiiilit i"i II "'it'' ' ''I PI i !' 'illi'iii'"'!,,l'i|l!|ll,„ !lli#li'V'll|i:'':''. I! 1 1 4,: J;:' ^' ;!|i ill.:' I " I !i ,'!! ilili!iilil!lil!!!;;:inili;!i!i:'ii;iii|i 'ii'i ' i ' i' ■xi^ Jfrmt^isi ICichjcx^. //6s^. University of California. FROM rH!C I.liiKAKV OF DR. P^RANCIS LIEBKR, Profe.-ij^or of History and Law in Columbia College, New Yi.rk. THK GITT OF MICHAEL REESE Of San Francisco. 1 B 7 LK \ y/. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE BY JOHN HARRIS, D. D. I. THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. KOTICES OF THE PRESS. " As we have examined every page of this work, and put forth our best efiforts to un- derstand the full import of its varied and rich details, the resistless impression has come over our spirits, that the respected author has been assisted from on high in his labo- rious, but successful undertaking. May it please God yet to aid and uphold him, to complete his whole design ; for we can now see, if we mistake not, that there is great unity as well as originality and beauty in the object which he is aiming to accomplish. If we do not greatly mistake, this long looked for volume, will create and sustain a deep impression in the more intellectual circles of the religious world." — London Evan- gelical Magazine. " The man who finds his element among great thoughts, and is not afraid to push into the remoter i-egions of abstract truth, be he philosopher or theologian, or both, will i-ead it over and over, and will find his intellect quickened, as if from being in con- tact with a new and glorious creation." — Albany Argus. " Dr. Harris states in a lucid, succinct, and often highly eloquent manner, all the leading facts of geology, and their beautiful harmony with the teachings of Scrip- ture. As a work of paleontology in its relation to Scripture, it will be one of the most complete and popular extant It evinces great research, clear and rigid reasoning, and a style more condensed and beautiful than is usually found in a work so profound. It will be an invaluable contribution to Biblical Science." — New York Evangelist. " He is a sound logician and lucid reasoner, getting nearer to the groundwork of a Bubject generally supposed to have very uncertain data, than any other writer within our knowledge." — Neio York Com. Advertiser. " The elements of things, the laws of organic nature, and those especially that lie at the foundation of the divine relations to man, are here dwelt upon in a masterly man- ner." — Christian Reflector, Boston. II. MAN PRIMEVAL; OR THE CONSTITUTION AND PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF THE HUMAN BBINQ. WITH A PINE PORTRAIT OP THE AUTHOR. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. "It surpajsses in interest its predecessor. It is an able attempt to carry out the author's grand conception. His purpose is to unfold, as far as possible, the successive Bteps by which God is accomplishing his purpose to manifest His AU-suflBciency. * * * The reader is led along a pathway, abounding with rich and valuable thought, going on from the author's opening propositions to their complete demonstration. To stu- dents of mental and moral science, it will be a valuable contribution, and will assuredly secure their attention." — Christian Chronicle, Philadelphia. " It is eminently philosophical, and at the same time glowing and eloquent. It can- not fail to have a wide circle of readers, or to repay richly the hours which are given to its pages."— iVfii« York Recorder. '' The reputation of the author of this volume is co-extensive with the English lan- guage. The work before us manifests much learning and metaphysical acumen. Its great recommendation is, its power to cause the reader to think and reflect." — Boston Recorder. " Reverently recognizing the Bible as the fountain and exponent of truth, he is as in- dependent and fearless as he is original and forcible ; and he adds to these quaUties consummate skill in argument and elegance of diction." — N. Y. Com. Advertiser. '' His copious and beautiful illustrations of the successive laws of the Divine Mani- festation, have yielded us inexpressible delight.'- — London Eclectic Revieiv. " The distribution and arrangement of thought in this volume, are such as to afford ample scope for the author's remarkable powers of analysis and illustration. In look- ing with a keen and searching eye at the principles which regulate the conduct of God towards man, as the intelligent inhabitant of this lower world. Dr. Harris has laid down for himself three distinct, but connected views of the Divine procedure : First, The End aimed at by God ; Second, the Reasons for the employment of it. In a very masterly way does our author grapple with almost every difficulty, and perplexing subject which comes within the range of his proposed inquiry into the constitution and condition of Man Primeval." — London Evangelical History. III. THE FAMILY; ITS CONSTITUTION, PROBATION AND HISTORY. [is preparation.] ooui.d. kknoai.i, axo i.ixcota'. im" r>!.isn kus, nostov. THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEOLOGICAL SClEIsCE BY JOHN HARRIS, D. D. UTHOR OP "the great TEACHER,' ETC. THIRD THOUSAND. EEVISED AND ENLARGED. BOSTON: GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN. 59 Washington Street. 185 0. 1^3 ANDOTER: JOHN D. FLAQO, 8IEBK0TIPSR AND PEIKTER. CONTENTS. PACK. Preface 7 FIRST PART. Pkimakt Truths 13 SECOND PART. Principles deducible from the preceding Truths . 50 THIRD PART. Inorganic Nature 64 FOURTH PART. Organic Life 129 FIFTH PART. Sentient Existence 176 1* 6 CONTENTS. • NOTES. Note A, referred to in page 13 B « (( u 75 C (( (( u 77 D (( (C u . 131 E u u u 180 F cc u (( . 218 G (C u « . 223 H :( u (( . 231 PAGE. 271 273 282 283 287 290 291 292 *i^* It may save the reader some trouble to be apprised, that the order in which the Principles are stated in the Second Part is not the order in which they are subsequently illustrated. The order in which they are illustrated in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Parts, is the same. PREFACE. The present volume is intended to be the first of a short series of Treatises — each complete in itself — in which the principles or laws hereafter deduced, and applied to the succes- sive stages of the pre-Adamite earth, will be seen in their his- torical development as applied to individual man ; to the family ; to the nation ; to the Son of God as " the second Adam, the Lord from heaven ;" to the church which he has founded ; to the revelation which he has completed ; and to the future pros- pects of humanity. It would not be difficult to state the rea- sons which have induced me to adopt this particular method of exhibiting theological science ; to specify the points in which it differs from those methods which may be considered most nearly to resemble it ; and to enlarge on the advantages, di- rect and indirect, which it is proposed to secure by it. But, besides that such topics, if introduced at all, would require to be treated at considerable length, I would rather that the method adopted should, as it is gradually unfolded in the suc- cessive Treatises, be allowed to speak for itself. If any ex- planatory remarks respecting it are deemed necessary, they will, it appears to me, be more in place at the close of the Se- ries than at the commencement. This first volume consists of five parts. Of these, the first part contains those Primary Truths which Divine Revelation 8 PREFACE. appears to place at the foundation of all the objective manifes- tations of the Deity ; the second, presents the Laws or Gene- ral Principles, which are regarded as logically resulting from the preceding Truths ; and the third, fourth, and fifth parts, are occupied with the Exemplification and Verification of these Laws in the inorganic, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms of the pre- Adamite earth, respectively. From this statement it will be seen that the first two parts are here as introductory, not to the present volume merely, but to the entire series ; and that, as exhibiting the process by which the method has been arrived at, they will not require, except in substance, to be subsequently repeated. As Revealed Theology is here seen in organic connection with natural science, a few remarks explanatory of that con- nection will not be deemed irrelevant. Of the theology itself, I will only say, at present, that it is that which I believe ; but, inasmuch, as it is exhibited in mere human forms of thought and language, I can, of course, expect that others will accede to it only as far as they believe it to be in harmony with " the true sayings of God." Nor can I be insensible that the laws deduced from it will be prejudiced in some minds, by the no- tion that the adoption of them involves the reception of the theology. But as views deducible from the highest grounds are generally found to be inferrible also from lower and ana- logical premises, it should be considered, in the present in- stance, whether these laws might not be accepted on such in- ferior grounds without committing the recipient to any ulterior views. Even less than this, however, is necessary. For, if the reader should demur to adopt the Laws as they are de- duced from the Primary Truths of the first Part, he has to consider whether he is not called on to admit them, as they are sustained and inductively verified by the facts adduced in the three concluding Parts. These facts, I may remark in pass- ing, admit of almost indefinite multiplication, but it has been my aim to adduce only such and so many as appeared essen- tial to the verification of the laws. PREFACE. 9 Of the connection between theology and natural science generally, it may be assumed that every one who admits that there is a true theology and a true science of nature, will ad- mit also that there is a sense, whatever it may be, in which the two are related. The mind which elicits and embraces both, is one ; so that, however distinct the process by which it ar- rives at the knowledge of each, and however different the sources and kinds of evidence on which that knowledge rests, both branches evince their inherent unison, in the unity of the knowing mind itself On this conviction it is that men no sooner begin to think, than they next proceed to examine the laws of thought ; if they collect facts, they next inquire for the causes of those facts ; and when they have succeeded in developing any of the sciences, they then look for the internal bond of union which makes them all one. And for such a nexus they seek under the unquestioned conviction that it exists; for the conviction simply implies that, as reasoning concerning each separate science is possible, so reasoning con- cerning collective science must be possible. Well had it been for theology and philosophy if the bond which unites them had been clearly ascertained, and never dis- severed. But the erroneous views which some have enter- tained respecting the relation of the two, have originated evils only less than those flowing from their unnatural separation. The error of Descartes and his followers consisted, not in mak- ing theology the point of their philosophy, but in regarding their metaphysical deductions as adequate to explain all physi- cal phenomena. By reasoning only, a priori, or proceeding continually downwards from cause to effect, they were, not questioning Nature, but answering for her ; legislating, in effect, where God had legislated already ; and so " building a world upon hypothesis." i There is, however, a wide inter- val between the extreme which makes everything of a prin- ^ Introduction to Butler's Analogy, &c. 10 PREFACE. ciple, and that which seeks security from it, by abandoning the principle altogether. As surely as the mind is one, the truth to which the mind is preconfigured is one. On this ground it is that we argue from the known to the unknown ; approach a subject of inquiry under the guidance of an antecedent probability as to what we shall find in it ; and employ analogy and hypothesis as instru- ments of scientific discovery. " How," inquires Plato, " can you expect to find unless you have a general idea of what you seek ?" " The mind," says Lord Bacon, " must bring to every experiment a ' precogitation,' or antecedent idea, as the ground of that ' prudens quaestio,' " which he pronounces to be the prior half of the knowledge sought — " dimidium scientise." Indeed, is not the Novum Organum itself of hypothetical origin? "When Newton said, * Hypotheses non fingo,' he did not mean that he deprived himself of the facilities of investigation afforded by assuming, in the first instance, what he hoped ultimately to be able to prove. Without such assumptions, science could never have attained its present state ; they are necessary steps in the progress to something more certain; and nearly everything which is now theory was once hypothesis. Even in purely experimental science, some inducement is necessary for trying one experiment rather than another." ^ These hypotheses, as the language implies, are only provisional. They must be of a nature to admit of verification ; and be actually subjected to a test which shall confirm or explode them. In the same provisional manner might principles derived from the domain of revealed theology be advantageously carried into the province of nature. There is a true deductive method in science as well as a false ; and there is a right method of employing theological principles in philosophy, as well as a wrong. Everything depends on the manner in which they are employed. The inductive conclusion must be kept distinct from the speculative assumption. However fruitful the de- ' Mill's System of Logic, vol. ii. p. 18. PREFACE. 11 ductive principle may be, it can be used only for suggestion, not for demnostration ; the proof of the view suggested must be of the samenature with that of the subject investigated or discussed. In the following pages, the principles introduced are to be regarded as employed only in this conditional manner. The reader is to view them, as far as their application to nature is concerned, as entirely tentative or provisional, until their applicabiUty has been tested. If on a comparison of the in- ductive truth adduced, with these deductive principles, their applicability is apparent, let the obvious inference be accepted, that there is a theology in nature which is ultimately one with the theology of the Bible — that there are principles of varied but universal application. The attempt which is here made to deduce such principles, and to apply them to the successive stages of creation, proceeds on the assumption that the whole process of Divine Manifesta- tion, including nature, is to be viewed in the light of a sublime argument in which God is deductively reasoning from princi- ples to facts, from generals to particulars. With the great synthetic Whole ever present to His mind. He is seen unfold- ing the parts of which it consists. In order that man may feel the force of this reasoning, his mind, equally with the Divine Mind, must pre-suppose, or be prepared to admit, the primary truths on which the reasoning depends. But besides these, the Great Argument implies (as in every case of ordinary rea- soning) that there are certain ideas or truths in the mind of God, which are not yet in the mind of man, and which it is the design of the argument to^ convey. For example — whatever exhibits marks of design must have had an intelligent author ; the world exhibits marks of design, therefore the world must have had an intelligent Author. Here, the major is assumed alike by God and man ; the conclusion is, at first, in the mind of God alone, and the design of the great argument is to con- vey it into the mind of man also ; but the attainment of this 12 PREFACE. end depends on the truth of the minor — that the world does exhibit marks of design ; and how is this proposition to be established except by induction? To the infinitely blessed God, then, the entire process of Divine Manifestation is, in its reference to man, a sublime syllogism, of which the last object and the remotest event are already included potentially in the major ; the unfolding of which is destined to occupy the coming eternity. While man, appointed to find the sphere of his activ- ity and improvement in the intermediate space between the Necessary and the Contingent, and unable to rest but in the felt junction of the two, shall derive perpetual accessions of enjoy- ment as he ascends from the Particular to the Infinite with whom it has originated, and in whom is it contained. PRE-ADAMITE EARTH FIRST PART. CHAPTER I. The Great Reason; or, why God is, and must he His own end from everlasting to everlasting. God is not nature ; nor is nature God. Before nature, before any part or being of the objective universe existed, the God of the Bible had existed from eternity in his own self-sufficience. And the absolute perfection which that self- sufficience implies, determines that it shall be, in some sense, the chief reason and last end of everything created ; so that He will continue to inhabit his self-sufRcience through the eternity to come. We believe, indeed, that, while He su- premely regards His own glory, He really regards the well- being of the created universe for its own sake; that this well-being is regarded by God as an end — in the sense of being an object desirable on its own account ; and that He delights in it as such ; but that the ultimate, chief, and all- comprehending end is His own glory.' 1. Had there ever been a period when nothing was, nothing would still have been. Then the Creator of all things is himself uncreated, unoriginated, eternal. "He is from everlasting." Far back, in thought, and beyond the ' See Note A. 2 14 THE PRE-ADAMITK EARTH. limits of time, as we may be able occasionally, and for a single moment, to go, we are ever accompanied by the humbling conviction that we have made no approach whatever to the understanding of His eternity. The discoveries of science lead back our imagination to a period incalculably remote ; but even if each of the countless stars had been formed in succession, and if the time which elapsed between the forma- tion of each had equalled that entire period, the mind which could span the whole — which could dart back a thought to the moment in which the first star beamed on the regions of space, would feel that it had only reached the starting point for the preceding eternity. For if then it should ask, " Where dwelt the Deity before that?" — the answer of the Oracle is, " He inhabited eternity ; " and that star of which it had caught a glimpse, could only be regarded as the first lamp that was lighted up to guide the way back to His dread abode. 2. Then must His mysterious existence be necessary and independent ; i for as there has never been anything, ab extra, to necessitate it, had it not been necessary of and from itself only, it could neither have been, nor have continued to be. The great parent truth, therefore, which He may be regarded as silently repeating, through all the solitudes of space, and through every point of duration, is the sublime affirmation, " I AM — underived, self-existent, absolute Being ; in which sense there never has been, never will be, never can be, any Being besides." All other being can only be derived and dependent. 3. In harmony with the dictates of enlightened reason, the Bible authenticates the deduction that the Being whose exist- ence is eternal and independent, is also absolutely perfect. The power of God must be omnipotence ; His knowledge, omni- science ; His holy benevolence, unlimited by anything incom- patible with perfection. No one kind of excellence can be unlimited unless it be associated with every other kind of excellence ; so that the possession of any one unlimited excel- lence implies the existence, and involves the necessity, ot absolute perfection. 4. But if the infinite nature of the Divine Being precludes the existence of another independent and unlimited Being, the existence of a second would necessarily involve mutual ' See Gillespie's Necessary Existence of God. THE GREAT REASON. 15 limitation; which would amount to a self-contradiction. In every sense, therefore, consistent with 'perfection. He has ever existed alone. Were He to break the silence of eternity. He might demand, " Is there a God besides me ? yea, there is none; /A:/iMy not any.i I, who know all the possibilities of being, know not of such a being ; I, who at this moment am everywhere present throughout illimitable space, find such a being nowhere ; I, who have thus inhabited immensity from eternity, have never, in any point of past duration, beheld the least manifestation of such a being ; I, who am unlimited Being, exclude, by that very necessity of my mature, the pos- sibility of another unlimited being." o. But what finite mind can conceive the conditions in- cluded in Absolute Perfection ! To evolve these will require eternity ; for could they be evolved in less they would not be unlimited. All that we can say, therefore, or shall ever be able to say, is, that whatever the amount of mystery included in the objective universe may ever be, the probability is, that the proportion which it bears to the mystery of the Divine nature will be that of the limited to the unlimited ; that if infinite perfection implies infinite mysteriousness, which it cer- tainly does, then infinite mysteriousness must ever form one of the distinctive excellences of that perfection ; that if the operation of infinite activity (either of love, of power, or of any other excellence) be essential to infinite perfection, and if such activity could not be agent and object at the same time, and in the same act, and yet no object, ad extra, existed from eternity, then must it have existed in the Divine nature itself; in other words, the Divine nature must include a plurality of Jdistinctions, and include it as one of its necessary conditions, or essential perfections ; 2 that if no exercise of the Divine effi- ciency, ad extra, can ever be adequate to its infinite perfection, and yet such adequate exercise, in some way, must always be necessary to infinite perfection, then must it be one of the ex- cellences of the Divine nature, not only that it should include a plurality of distinctions, but that the adequate sphere of its infinite activity should be its own infinite perfections ; that if a * Isaiah, xliv. 6, 8. ' See Howe's Calm Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead. Professor Kidd on the Trinity. Storr and Flatt, B. ii. § 46. § 44. 111. 8. Dr. J. P. Smith's Testimony of the Messiah, (Second Edition,) v. i. c. iv, § 35, v. iii. app, iv. 16 Tllli niL-ADA^illTi: EAUTII. Grod in unity, without internal distinctions, or diversity of modes, be incapal?)le of moral affection, because having had nothing, ad extra, from eternity to love, then such internal dis- tinctions must ever have existed as elements of reciprocal, social, self-sufficient perfection ; and that if such plurality be an excellence, and if unity be an excellence also ; and if there be any respect in which this plurality of one kind can consist as an excellence with this unity of another, then it will cer- tainly be included in absolute perfection. And further, this perfection implies not only that all the excellence which it includes is simple, uncompounded, one, but that God and it are identical : that it is not an adjunct of His being, but His being itself. ^ 6. But for the same reason that His perfection of being and character is unlimited, it must ever have been unchangeable also. Besides which, it must be of the essence of Absolute Perfection that in everything belonging to that perfection, it can neither require nor admit of a change. Though an eter- nity has passed, the Deity is now what He ever Avas ; " without the shadow of a turning." The past has stayed with Him, the future has ever been present to Him : the one could not diminish his perfection, nor the other augment it. " Who by searching can find out God ! " 7. Then the Deity has existed from eternity as His own end. By supposition, nothing as yet has been brought into ex- istence. No ground therefore exists, no occasion has yet been given, for raising the great question as to who or what can be that end. No creative fiat has yet gone forth. Time has not counted its first revolution. In imagination, we are standing in the solitudes of the past eternity. Never has this stillness been broken. No ray of created light has ever penetrated this darkness. This infinite space has never owned a world. No seraph bows before His throne. If these solitudes sHall ever be peopled with finite beings, the purpose is shut up in the mind of God. Boundless as His capacity for happiness must always have been, the consciousness of His own excel- lence, and the contemplation of His own perfections, have ever been sufiicient to fill it. Unlimited and unceasing as must have been His activity. His own nature has been sufficient to exercise and contain the whole. Dateless in His duration, the postponement of creation for ten tliousand thousand ages would not increase that duration, nor would it have been diminished had the fiat gone forth ten thousand thousand ages THE GREAT REASON. 17 before it did. Unshared by anything, ab extra, as His eter- nity, and lonely, in the same sense, as His immensity must ever have been. His self-communion has been sufficient to occupy and replenish the whole with happiness. And incon- ceivably great as the end answered by this infinity and immensity of perfection must have been. His own enjoyment and glory are amply commensurate to the whole. 8. But if he has always been His own end, it follows that He must ever continue to be the same. For on the supposi- tion of any other object becoming that end, then all that had gone before during the past eternity could only be regarded as its own end in a subordinate sense ; while in reference to this other end since developed, it has been only the means. " That which exists merely as a cause, exists merely for the sake of something else — is not final in itself, but simply a means to- wards an end ; and in the accomplishment of that end, it con- summates its own perfection." From which it would follow, that, during a whole eternity. Infinite Self-sufficience stood in the subordinate relation of means to beings not yet in exist- ence ; that during that eternity Infinite Perfection was imper- fect as the means without the end ; and that the addition of imperfect and dependent being was necessary to give perfec- tion to that imperfection. 9. If to be His own end be an antecedent right, antecedent to creation by an eternity ; and if, after enjoying that right for an eternity. He choose to exercise another right — tlie right of creation — the exercise of this subsequent and inferior right cannot affect the primary eternal right. The display of Divine perfection can never impair the original prerogatives of that perfection. That He should lose his right, because of his perfection, is revolting to reason. Render his preroga- tives more evident it may, but destroy them it cannot. For glorious as that display may be, and after it has been augment- ing ten thousand ages. His absolute j^erfection will remain the same as it was before that display began. That manifestation will not have increased it ; for it will be only the objective ex- istence of that which was His subjectively from eternity. Lofty as may be the natures, and countless as may be the myriads which will encircle His throne. He must ever continue to dwell as perfectly alone, in a sense, through the eternity to come, as He did through the sublime and appalling solitude of the eternity past. On account of His incomparable greatness and excellence, never will He be able to bring himself within 18 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. their comprehension. However exalted their natures and attainments may be, the universe will still exhibit the infinite distinction of the One unlimited being, and of orders of limited beings entirely dependent on Him. Retired within the depths of his own immensity, they will never be able to approach and behold Him directly. For all they know of Him, they will ever feel that they are indebted to a medium of His own devising ; and that, without that medium, the whole created universe including themselves, would only have constituted a living altar with this inscription, " To the unknown God." 10. Whatever excellence, natural or moral, the created uni- verse may ever contain, was contained previously in the Divine Nature. Surely His impartation of it cannot give away his right in it ! Rather, He will be laying the recipients under an obligation to love Him as its Giver, and to adore Him as its Source. However vast the amount of excellence may be, it will still be limited, so that they will have to remember at any given moment of their unending being, that they are still infinitely short of His excellence. However vast and various the displays of His glory may be, they will ever have to remember that the universe which displays it leaves more unevolved and undisplayed, by an infinite amount. However much they may be able to comprehend of what He is, from what He has done since they came into be- ing, they will ever have to remember that all the eternity of His past glory remains unexplored. And unless they could exhaust the mystery of the Divine perfections during every moment since they came into being, they will ever have to remember that the mystery is every moment augmenting in their hands ; that time is adding its mystery to the mystery of the past eternity ; and that the mystery of both is to be carried forwards to the still greater account of the eternity to come. However various the orders of their intellect may be, here they will all find themselves on a level ; here they will all and ever find that to reflect is to be lost ; that the very choicest terms which they may employ to denote their knowledge of God, will be only so many tacit confessions of their igno- rance, and escapes from difficulty ; since to speak of Him as eternal, is only to say that His duration had not, like theirs, a beginning ; and to speak of Him as infinite, that His nature is not, like theirs, bounded by limits. 11. Nor will they ever cease to be entirely dependent on Him. Suppose their creation had yet to commence, and we THE GREAT HEASON. 1^ may ask, How can they be ever otherwise than dependent ? During the eternity past, that question has never by possibihty been raised ; for He has existed, and, as to anything ad extra, still remains alone. By what possibility, then, can it ever be raised in the eternity to come ? The fact that God has been His own end in all the past determines the question for all the future. Whence could ever come the principle or the power which should invade, even in thought, this Divine prerogative, unquestioned and undisturbed as it has been from eternity ? Surely not from any being of whom it is true that he has yet to be ; and as to whom the question whether he shall ever be or not, depends entirely on the Divine pleasure; and who, even if it be the Divine pleasure that he shall be, will be as entirely dependent on the same pleasure for every successive moment of being, as he was for the first moment ! The idea of such a being, or of any number of such beings, entering into, and taking possession of the place which for an eternity had been occupied by God, as constituting his own end, is revolting to reason. The necessity of their own nature will forbid it. The only relation which that necessity will sustain to Him is that of dependence more profound, universal, and absolute, than they will ever be able to comprehend ; while the relation of His own nature to that end will always be, what it ever has been — that of self-sufficience. 12. And as His infinite self-sufficience necessitated that He should be His own end during the eternity past, the unchange- ableness of His nature secures the same result during the eternity to come. What He was. Pie is, and what He was and is, He ever will be. However many worlds or systems He may create, they will never do more than display the na- ture of His perfection, they can never be the measure of its amount, much less limit that amount. Now, were He to make only a solitary being, that being could never think that God existed, and had existed from all eternity, for him — and why ? because he would ever feel that God is infinitely above him. But no multiplication of mere finite beings will ever make an infinite being ; and consequently can never affect the right of God to be the end of all things. On the contrary, the greater their multiplication, the more evident his Claim, because they would feel the more vividly that the difference between them, the limited, and Him, the unlimited, is still infinite ; and that after they shall have continued to advance through intermina- ble ages from throne to throne, and shall have come nearer to 80 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. Him at every such advance, the distance between Him and them is still infinite — that God is all in all. And thus we reach the conclusion, from the eternal self- sufiiciency of God, that He must ever be His own End ; or that His nature and glory form the Great Reason of the uni- verse. For there was no reason why it should be, nor what it should be, but what existed in Himself. CHAPTER n. The Ultimate Purpose ; or^ the manifestation of the Di- vine all-sufficiency the la^t end of creation. The preceding Chapter showed that for the great reason of His eternal self-sufficience, God will ever be, w'hat He always has been, His own end. But if He be thus absolutely self- sufficient and infinitely perfect, it follows that He is all-suffi- cient. By which we mean, generally, that, from eternity, He has included in himself all that is or ever wdll be necessary to impart (consistently with infinite perfection) existence and ever-advancing excellence, and happiness, to a created uni- verse. And the object of the present Chapter is to show^ that the manifestation of this glory, by w hich we mean all-suffi- ciency, is the great ])urpose or ultimate end of creation. I. Such a manifestation appears to involve the following conditions : — 1. That the manifestation be progressive. For surely a system which is always in progress both in its own develop- ment, and in the powers of the beings to whom it is made known and who form a part of it, must, by the endless com- binations which it involves, furnish an inconceivably severer test of Divine all-sufficiency, than one Avhich should be in every respect stationary from the beginning. And this anticipates and answers the plausible but incon- siderate inquiry, " If the manifestation of the Divine all-suffi- ciency be infinitely desirable, would it not be equally desirable THE LLTIMATE PtJIirOSE. 21 that the greatest possible extent should be given to the crea- tion, and be given at once ; since, until that be done, how- can it be known that God is all-sufficient ? " In other words, an infinite cause should produce an infinite effect. We reply, that an exercise of the Divine perfections prop- erly infinite can only take place in the Divine nature itself; and possibly involves the mystery of a plurality of distinctions in the unity of the Godhead, to and by which that display is mutually made : that were such an infinite manifestation to be made, ad extra, unless the mind of the creature were adequate to its comprehension — i. e. were infinite — the manifestation to the creature would be limited, limited to the measure of his understanding : and that hence, for aught we know, the manifestation of God made in an atom, while to us it is extremely limited, to Him who sees the end from the begin- ning may be virtually and potentially infinite. So that, (if the hypothesis may be allowed,) were it possible to present such a particle to Him from the hand of another maker. He could say, " The being from whom this came is infinite, eternal, self- existent, and absolutely perfect. His titles are here all writ- ten out at full length, and his perfections embodied. He is all-sufficient. This atom-point is the type and promise of an ever-enlarging and unbounded universe. It contains poten- tially all that the material universe will ever exhibit actually. No additions to this atom-world could ever add to my knowl- edge of him. To me the manifestation is complete." We reply further ; the inquirer is evidently thinking of an all-suffi- ciency of power only, whereas we are speaking of an all- sufficiency of perfection, including wisdom, holiness, and benevolence, as well as power. As to the production of an unlimited effect, ad extra, the supposition of such a thing, as far as it can be understood, is an impossibility. For, first, it would involve the contradiction of two infinities — the infinite cause and the infinite effect ; in which case, the one must limit the other, so that neither would be unlimited ; or, second- ly, it would imply the contradiction of an unlimited something brought within limits, the hmits of time ; and, thirdly, it would involve the absurdity of an independent dependence — of an effect not dependent on any cause — for if dependent, in that respect, the most vital of all, it would be limited. 2. But to say what would be necessary to the full manifes- tation of all-sufficiency, is a task to which none but all-suffi- ciency itself can be competent ; since it supposes a manifestation 22 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. continued tlirougli eternity. Here, then, is another condition of the manifestation, that it be unending. For if it should terminate at any given point in futurity, the proof of all-suffi- ciency for an eternal manifestation would terminate with it ; and then the sus[)ieion might be justly awakened, that if the manifestation had gone on, a crisis might have arrived for which the Deity might not have been sufficient. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, requires infinity and eternity in which to be developed, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than that. And it requires the same, from the very nature and constitution of those to whom the mani- festation is to be made ; for they are capable of interminable progression. To the objector then who should call for an un- limited effect in proof of Divine all-sufficiency, we would simply reply, that when he shall have existed for an unlimited dura- tion, he may consistently expect to behold it. Considering the constitution of the beings to whom the manifestation is to be made, in connection with the infinite per- fection of the Being who is to make it, such a manifestation, then, would seem to require that it should be progressive and unending ; in order that they might be able to go along step by step with the great development ; to hang over the mighty process, and mark how the attainment of one end attains a number of inferior ones placed in a line with it ; how part is linked to part ; how the evolution of one part tends to the evolution of another part, contains the promise of it, leads to it, and predicts another and another yet ; so that all-sufficiency is perpetually making fresh demands on itself, and illustrating itself by perpetually meeting those demands in a way demon- strative of all-sufficiency, constraining them to acknowledge that it has no limits. The remark, then, that the manifestation, not being object- ively completed at once, cannot be regarded as worthy of God, admits of the most satisfactory reply ; for, to allege no other reason, it is a manifestation for a purpose — to be understood ; and its gradual development is that which especially adapts it to this end. The objection would hold only on the supposition that the manifestation was not made rapidly enough for the rapid mental and moral progress of the beings for whom it was made — did not keep pace with their advancing powers of comprehension and appreciation. For if it does meet those demands, to them, in effect, it will be always unlimited and virtually infinite. Had such a thing been possible, then, that THE ULTI.MATK PURPOSE. 23 it could Imve been completed at once, man would not have known more of it ten thousand ages hence, than he will at the same distant point of time, now that it is progressive. While, at every stage of his knowledge, to him, in effect, the display will have been infinite and complete ; for the limits of his comprehension will be always unspeakably within the limits of the manifestation at its every stage. We have said that, in the case supposed, he would not have known more ten thou- sand ages hence than he will now by a progressive manifesta- tion. But we advance further, and remark, that one of the reasons of this progressiveness is that, in the case supposed, he would not have known so much. Nor, as we shall hereaf- ter show, would his knowledge have equally availed him, for it would not have been the knowledge of observation and ex- perience. Experience supposes a process, and a process requires time, and implies advance from one stage to another. 3. And a third condition of this manifestation appears to be that it be all-comprehending — including the revelation of every- thing essential to the Divine nature, and provision for every crisis in the onward history of the creature, as well as the union and cooperation of all orders of being to the one great end. If there be distinctions as well as perfections in the Godhead, and if it would be for the glory of God to reveal them, sooner or later they must be disclosed ; otherwise the manifestation would not be sufficient in this infinitely impor- tant particular. Again, if this all-sulficiency implies the power of meeting every crisis ; and should the creature ever come by some dreadful possibility to question the Divine all- sufficiency — which would be sin — the Deity, by the very fact of being able to meet that moral crisis, would be demon- strating the all-sufficiency called in question. And still further would this Divine perfection appear to be illustrated, if, in an- swering one end, it accomplished many, in sketching before- hand the great outlines of the Divine procedure ; and should there be different orders of accountable beings, in including and uniting them together as voluntary and organic parts of the one great system. II. Here, however, it may be asked, whether this does not imply that, until this all-sufficiency be made manifest, there must be something wanting to the Divine glory which that manifestation is necessary to acquire for it ; and that as that all-sufficiency was not displayed for an eternity, therefore 24 TIIK I'll E-AD AMITE EAllTII. something was eternally wanting to the completion of that glory ? We reply, that the display of this all-sufficiency is no actual augmentation of God's essential glory, but only the objective manifestation of excellence which existed and acted subjectively from eternity ; and that the fact that He should have existed from eternity without manifesting it to the creature, arises solely from the infinite perfection of His own nature which is uncommencing, and from the unavoidable im- perfection of created natures which necessarily imply a begin- ning. His all-sufficience was necessary to the idea of his self-sufficieuce, and was included in it. The objection, then, can acquire force only by erroneously supposing that, having purposed to manifest His all-sufficiency, there was yet (as is often the case with human purposes) a doubt as to whether or not it would be carried into effect : but let it be remembered that we are speaking of all-sufficiency, and the objection turns into absurdity. Further, if the objection have any force with respect to the eternity past, it has the same still, and will have the same through all the eternity to come ; since the manifes- tation of all-sufficiency can never, from the very nature of all-sufficiency, come to an end — and herein consists its perfec- tion. Moreover, there is not a particle of being or of excel- lence in existence now more than existed potentially from eternity, since the whole objective universe is the manifestation of the Divine being and excellence. Great and real as is the satisfaction of the Deity in the existence and happiness of his creatures, the perfection of His nature forbids that it should ever have had to begin. There can never have been a point in past duration in which His purpose has not made such existence and happiness certain, or in which His om- niscience has not made it present to His mind as an object of ineffable delight. Besides which, however much of the Divine excellence be made objective, such manifestation must always fall short of the reality to an infinite amount. And, then, the infinite desirableness, of such a manifestation includes and supposes the infinite desirableness of all the conditions of the manifestation ; so that any alteration would be not only infinitely undesirable, but would be so for this very reason, that it would not be a manifestation of Divine all-sufficience. HI. From the preceding section, and from what has been advanced in the preceding chapter, it is evident that if a crea- tion take place, it can be only by the voluntary act of the THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 25 Godhead. To say that God creates by a natural and unavoid- able necessity, is to deny His self-sufficience, and to make Him. dependent for perfection on an external object ; whereas we have seen that He has existed from eternity in a state of in- finite perfection. Hypotheses of fate and necessity have not been wanting, indeed, from the time of Anaximander downwards. Accord- ing to him, the infinite is necessarily an ever-producing energy, and, as such, is in a constant state of incipiency. The neces- sary spiritualism of Leibnitz, and the necessary materialism of Spinoza, are alike hostile to the Divine free-will. Hegel and M. Cousin, have defended substantially the same tenet. According to the latter, " the distinguishing characteristic of the Deity being an absolute creative force, which cannot but pass into activity, it follows, not that the creation is possible, but that it is necessary." Now as the necessity here contended for, is not that moral necessity or determination which arises from the choice of an infinitely perfect Being, but a physical or natural necessity, it has been ably answered that " to what extent a thing exists necessarily as a cause, to that extent it is not all-sufficient to itself; for to that extent it is dependent on the effect, as on the condition through which alone it real- izes its existence; and what exists absolutely as a cause, exists, therefore, in absolute dependence on the effect for the reality of its existence. An absolute cause, in truth, only exists in its effects ; it never ^s, it always becomes.'^ ^ The God of the Bible, on the contrary, is subject neither to the necessity of acting, ad extra, nor to the necessity of not acting. The universe has been created for his " pleasure ; " not from a necessity which He could not physically resist. And whatever takes place in it of a beneficial nature, takes place " according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will," The only neces- sity, therefore, which can be regarded as obliging Him in respect to a creation, is the moral necessity, that having freely determined to create. He should propose an adequate end, and employ the appropriate means for its attainment. IV. Accordingly, if the Deity create, it seems infinitely desirable that the chief and ultimate design of the creation From a searching and masterly review of Cousin's Cours de PM' 'ie, in the Edin. Rev., vol. 1. p. 213. 26 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH* should be the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency — by which the Divine glory should a})pear equal to all things, even for the greatest — that of being its own end. 1. For, first, in the very nature of things, all the being, ex- cellence, and happiness, which can ever exist, ad extra, and by which alone the Divine manifestation can be made, virtually existed from eternity, ad intra.' It is only in this way that they can manifest Him ; and it is only so long, therefore, as they remain what they are — the means of the manifestation of Himself — that they answer their end; and the more of them there is in the creature, the more do they answer that end. All the relations which may ever bind created beings together ; the laws which may prescribe the duties of these relations ; the excellence which, by obedience to these laws, they may ever possess or be able to acquire ; and the happi- ness wliich, as the result of this excellence, they may ever enjoy — all potentially existed from eternity in the character and mind of God, and existed there as the expression of His mind and character. His nature is the fountain of the whole. So that e\erj authoritative announcement which He may make that such and such is His will, must be founded in the fact that such and such is His nature. From the all-compre- hending perfection of the Divine nature, then, the manifesta- tion of Divine all-sufficiency must have been the chief and ultimate design of creation. 2. But, secondly, as God does nothing which He does not purpose, and as the manifestation of a cause is necessarily the first end answered by an etiect, so the jntrj/ose of making this manifestation must have been, in its own right, the first pur- pose in the mind of God. To speak, indeed, as if the purposes of God observed an order of succession in the Divine mind, is a metaphysical inconsistency ; but it is one which arises from that necessary constitution of our nature by which w^e can conceive of but one subject at a time ; and by which we con- ceive that that which is the first in the order of importance should be, with a perfect Being, the first in the order of in- tention. On this account we conclude that the Divine purpose relative to the design or end of creation must have been the first in the mind of God, since every other purpose could only ^ Admirable remarks on this subject may be found in Howe's Living Temple, part i. c. iv., and part ii. c. ii,: and in Hooker's Eccles. Pol., b. 5. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE. 27 relate to the means for the accomplishment of that end. What we call the various purposes of God, indeed, are, properly speaking, only parts of the same all-comprehending purpose ; so that what we denominate His first purpose, in- cluded the reason of all His other purposes, and determined the order of their successive development. When we say, therefore, that every other purpose could only relate to the means, we do not intend that God had only one end in view absolutely, or in every sense.' It seems to be necessary, in order to satisfy our idea of all-je the theatre of the manifestation, should contain in itself some of tiie elements of tiiat manifes- tation ; that the well-being of the creature should furnish the chief occasion for displaying that all-sufticiency ; and that the very questioning of that all-sufficiency, and the first obstruc- tion offered to it, should bring with it the very occasion wanted to evolve and demonstrate that all-sufficiency, and to augment the happiness of the creature ; so that the well-being of the creature should be as secure of attainment as if it were the chief and only end aimed at, since it is coincident with that end ; — all these are designs worthy of Divine all-sufficiency. Although, then, in relation to the chief end, every other end is subordinate and a means, viewed apart from that chief end, many of the means themselves become important ends ; and it seems, we repeat, worthy of Divine all-sufficiency that in answering its own great end, it should be accomplishing many subordinate ones. 3. And, thirdly, the well-being of the creature required that the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency should be the ultimate design of God in creation. Next in importance to this design, is that well-being itself And hence, some would incon- siderately regard that as the ultimate end of creation. But if, as we have seen, the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency must be, in its own right, the chief end of creation, the very well-being of the creature required that no other end, not even his own well-being, should be that end. For if the creature ' See President Edwards's Treatise on God's chief End in Creation. — Introductory Paragrap/is. 28 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. be himself a part of that manifestation, he is, in so far, a means to that end. His excellence consists in that resem- blance to God by which he is constituted a part of that mani- festation ; and if he be an intelligent being, his happiness consists in his perceiving that resemblance, and in being con- scious that he is answering that end of his existence. The character of his every act depends on its correspondence with that end. The value of every being is to be estimated by its capabilities for answering that end. And the truth of every system or theory, is to be tested by the fact whether or not it contemplates that end, and attaches to it the same importance which God does. For if that end be infinitely greater than all the subordinate ones taken together ; then that theory of things which takes no note of that end, or which assigns it only an mferior place, must be faulty to a much greater de- gree than any arithmetical calculation which professes to give the sum total of a number of figures, but wliich casts up only the fractions and omits the integers. A holy intelligence, therefore, could not be happy under an arrangement which should make his own happiness the chief end of creation, unless he were quite ignorant of the infinite perfection of God. But however happy he might be in that ignorance, it would be only necessary to disclose to him a sight of that perfection in order to render him unhappy; for he would clearly see that he could be his own end only at the expense of right, and that would render him, as a righte- ous being, miserable. His own happiness, then, would re- quire that he should be subordinated to the higher end — the manifestation of the Divine glory ; for he would see that his well-being consisted in it — that he was made for it. So that could the great question be referred to the arbitration of the- holy universe, with one voice they would instantly exclaim, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things ; to Him be glory for ever, Amen." Thus the verdict of the intelligent universe coincides with the primary purpose of the Infinite Mind — that the manifesta- tion of the Divine all-sufficiency is the ultimate end of cre- ation. The work is dedicated to Himself : " All His works praise Him." And thus, from the Eternal Self-sufficience, we reach the grand conclusion that God must be His own end, or that His THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 29 infinitely-perfect nature is the great reason of the universe ; and from a consideration of His all-sufficiency, that His glory, in creation, consists in the manifestation of His all-sufficiency, and that His display of this is His primary and all-compre- hending design. CHAPTER m. The Fundamental Relation; or, the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency, mediatorial. God having determined on the display of His all-sufficiency as the end of creation, the next part of His purpose related to the constitution of a medium, or system of mediation, as the only condition on which and through which the manifestation was to be made. Let it be observed, that we do not here restrict the meaning of the term mediation to the principal or evangelical sense. We now employ the term as equivalent to medial, or that which intervenes between the purpose of God and its accom- plishment, as the means of that accomplishment. While we regard the Atonement, therefore, as the great distinctive act of moral mediation, and as that to which all preceding acts of creation and providence were only introductory, we now employ the term in reference to these preparatory acts as well as to that great act of moral mediation. I. And we find, first, that the constitution of the universe is mediatorial. The creation is represented in Scripture as owing its actual existence and well-being from first to last, not to the invisible and absolute God directly, but indirectly, on account of the assumed relation and voluntary agency of one who stands medially or mediatorially between Him and the dependent universe. " He created all things by Jesus Christ according to the eternal purpose which He pur- posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." " By Him (the Mediator) were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or do- 3* so THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. minions, or principalities or powers ; all things were created by Him and for Hira ; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." II. Accordingly, we find, in the second place, that the insti- tution of the medial, or mediatorial relation, preceded the first act of creation, and was the medium of it. For, " in the be- ginning was the Word, (or Logos,) and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. This ( Logos) was in the be- ginning with God. All things were made by Him, and with- out Him was not anything made that has been made." In verification of our second proposition we remark that it is here stated, 1. That the Logos is in some sense distinct from o Qeog^for He was with o Oeoi,'. Besides which, His personal subsist- ence is manifest from the attributes of intelligence and active power which are here ascribed to Him. 2. That He sustained a relation of peculiar intimacy and union with o Qeog, for He was TiQog tov Oeov ; ngog, equiva- lent here to TzaQU, governing the dative, and denoting rest in a place or an object. But we are by no means dependent on a single proof. Passages to the same effect are so numerous as to require selection. Such, for instance, is the language — <* the glory which I had, TzuQa goI, with Thee, before the world was." And the compound term fAOPoysvrjg — the only-begotten Son — which occurs four times ; and " the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father ; " denoting a relation abso- lutely unique and exclusive, and a state of the most perfect conjunction of knowledge, happiness, and nature.^ 3. That He was Himself God, for 0EO:g tjv 6 loyog. The connection of this clear affirmation with the preceding clause may be expressed thus — " The AVord was with God, in such a manner, that, in fact, the Word was God." Other proofs to the same effect might be easily adduced. 4. That of everything brought into existence, He, in dis- tinction from Omg, was the actual Maker. "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." The affirmation is here followed by the ne- gation, after the Hebrew manner, in order the more emphati- * Authorities corroborative of these views might be cited to almost any extent ; and gome of them by no means unfriendly to Neologist doc- trinos. THE FUNDAMENTAL llELATION. M. cally to declare that every created thing originated with Him ; and, to create, is the scriptural demonstration of Deity. 5. And therefore that the relation or office in virtue of which He created all things preceded the first act of crea- tion. For iv dQX^ — *^ ^^^ beginning — equivalent to the Hebrew r-'^"X'i2 — even then He, already /]f — was. The as- sertion of His pre-existence is included alike in «()/^ and in riv. For when every created thing had yet to be, He already was. He comprehends every beginning in Himself.^ As passages, parallel, in this particular, we might refer to Prov. viii. 23, where to be " from the beginning " is made equivalent with being " from everlasting, or ever the earth was," and to Isaiah xliii. 12, 13, and Hab. i. 12, where to be /rom the begin- ning is regarded as the peculiar prerogative of the eternal and self-existent God. And yet, this ante-beginning, or unbegin- ning existence is here predicated of the Logos, not once only ; in the second verse it is repeated — " this (Word) was in the beginning with God." As if He had said, " This is a truth of the first importance, and I therefore repeat it, that when creation had yet to begin to be, the Divine Logos existed in a state of perfect union with the Divine Nature."^ For, " He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Thus In- spiration, leading us back to the beginning of all created things, points us to the existence of that medial relation which preceded creation, and was the means of its actual origin. HL And, thirdly, as the primary purpose of God is the manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency, this primary official re- lation is represented as in coincidence with, and subservience to, that purpose. This is indicated by the very meaning of the appellation Logos, whether examined philologically, histori- cally, or exegetically. 1. It might be asked, "May not o loyog stand pMlologicalli/f as abstract for concrete, for o )Jycov — the speaker or teach- er ? " To which we reply that Xt'yEtv does not signify directly to teach ; and loyog has only in an indirect manner the mean- ing of doctrine. Much more proper would it be to understand * Qui in principio erat, intra se concludit omne principium. — Aug. Serm. vi. — De Temp. ^ Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, v. iii. c. ii. b. iv. 82 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. Xoyog according to the phraseology of Philo, who distinguishes in God the state o^ thai — being, and that of Xbytaifai — re- vealing Himself. According to which the Logos would be the Divine Revealer.' 2. But that which is much more important to determine, here, than its grammatical, is its historical sense. For the Evangelist speaks of the Logos as of a conception already known, and which he takes for granted his readers will imme- diately connect with the word.^ Now, it is matter of history that by the Logos was then understood, He who is the medium of Divine manifestation. The idea of such a medium appears to have early obtained among the students of the Hebrew Scriptures ; and from them to have extended to other lands, till in one form or another, the idea had become very generally incorporated with Oriental theology. Traces of it are to be found scattered, with more or less distinctness, in the Apoc- rypha, in Philo, in the Cabalistic Writings, and in the Chal- dee Paraphrasts. In the last of these especially it is taught that God never appears acting immediately upon the world, but always through the medium of another. This medium of the Divine acts is called the Memra of Jah — the Word of Jehovah. And although the phrase is sometimes employed idiomatically, to signify merely the Divine Voice, at others, it can denote nothing less than a distinct personal subsistence. While in Philo the doctrine is taught that the Deity has de- veloped His essence through His highest Revealer, the Lo- gos, who is the express image of God — the name and the shadow of God — a representative God. The Evangelist, aware of this familiar doctrine of Jewish theology, declares that the true Logos — He who in the ca- pacity of Logos had made the world as a part of the Divine manifestation, has really and historically appeared with a view to a yet further manifestation. 3. To have selected so unusual a word as Logos in order to express so simple an idea as that of a teacher only, would have been, exegetically considered, most inappropriate. Besides, the idea conveyed is, that the Being intended had, in His ca- pacity of Logos, or, of the Divine lievealer, created the uni- verse; and that He who had done this had now Himself ^ See Professor Tholuck, in he. ' See Professor Burton's Bampton Lecture. THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATION. 83 appeared to carrj on the process of Divine manifestation. Thus understood — and we know no other sense in which we can understand it — how admirably descriptive is the appella- tion, the Logos, of Him who is the medium of the Divine manifestation. What speech is as a means of rational com- munication between one mind and another, that is the Divine Logos between the Invisible Essence and all created minds. He is the utterer of His thoughts, the discloser of His pur- poses, the manifestation of His character. Now the Being who sustains this relation must in every respect be co-equal with God. To be in any sense inferior would be to be infinitely inferior; in which case, the manifes- tation itself would be limited to the capacity of the medium through which it came, and consequently, be infinitely inferior to the Divine original. Accordingly, we have seen, that the Divine Logos is, in perfections, as in name, co-equal with the Father ; he has been with Him, and has so been with Him as to be one with Him, from eternity. To the same effect are those passages of Holy Scripture which describe Him as the Image of the Invisible God ; as the Brightness of the Father's Glory, and the Express Representation of His Essence. For as the internal being and character of a man are expressed in liis face, so God hath given us the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. The doctrine which gives to these and parallel phrases all their force is, that He to whom they relate is the great medium of Divine manifestation. And this prepares us to expect that the manifestation will not be verbal merely. For how can the imperfect medium of speech convey an adequate idea of the invisible God? Besides, the intelligent creatures to whom the manifestation is to be made, had first to be created, and the world they should inhabit to be called into existence; and, as He performed these works in his medial capacity, it might be expected that He would begin the manifestation even in these. This is the right key to the volume of the universe. Properly un- derstood, every material particle is impressed w^th His seal. Every atom is a letter, and every work a word. Every element lectures on his attributes, and each globe is a mes- senger ever moving in His service. Man himself was made in His image. The stars come forth nightly on their solemn embassy to " proclaim the glory of God." And the earth daily affirms wath voices innumerable the "eternal power and Godhead." In harmony with this representation, the d4c THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. Divine Logos is represented as having come into the world, not so much to promote the Divine manifestation by verbal instruction, as by embodying and manifesting Himself in ac- tions. He came to be the manifestation of God. " He that hath seen Me," said He, " hath seen the Father also." He claimed for Himself the exclusive power of revealing the father ; and affirmed that to make this revelation was the great end of His own coming. And, when about to depart from the world, He was heard to say to the Father, " Having declared unto them Thy name, and having thus glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest to me to do." While His disciples subsequently declared, that the Life had been mani- fested, and that they had seen it ; that that which was from the beginning they had handled and seen, even the Word of Life ; that though no man had seen God at any time, the only- begotten Son had come from the bosom of the Father to de- clare Him, and that they had beheld His glory. And thus, be it observed, the very means of external mani- festation became itself the manifestation of a mysterious plu- rality of subsistencies in the Godhead. In the very first step taken to give the universe an economy ad extra, a mysterious economy ad intra was disclosed ; and- which became the ground and means of every subsequent disclosure. Here, then, are the basis and the medium of the Divine Man- ifestation ; for, in relation to God, as we shall presently evince more clearly, it is constituted the ground on which such mani- festation is made ; and is itself, perhaps, to His eye, the mani- festation already and ever perfect. While, in respect to the subsequent creation, it is the means by which the process will be ever conducted. Thus, while the reason of this Re- lation is laid, proximately, at least, in the Divine Purpose, and the reason of the Divine Purpose lies in the Divine Nature, the reason of everything else will be found to be laid in this Re- lation. THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 9B CHAPTER lY. The Primary Obligation ; or, Duty arising from the Me- diatorial Relation. If the manifestation of the Divine all-sufficiency be the object for which the mediatorial relation exists, and if the Being sustaining the relation be infinitely perfect, or equal to the relation, it follows that by voluntarily assuming it, He comes under obligation to do everything which may be ne- cessary for the full attainment of the object proposed. I. For what is obligation but the necessary link which, in a moral sequence, connects the antecedent with its consequent ; or, the indispensable necessity of employing the means proper to attain a requisite end ? Now every relation brings with it certain appropriate obligations ; and these obligations vary in character and amount according to the character of the relations. A relation may be voluntary, or involuntary, and nat- ural. If it be voluntary, he who assumes it is bound to fulfil the obligations which it imposes ; always providing that he either knew, or had the means of knowing, the nature of the rela- tion ; and that he is not physically unable to discharge its du- ties, and thus answer its end. n. Now He who sustains the mediatorial relation, not only possesses, as we have seen, all the requisites for accomplishing the great purpose, but His fitness is the special reason why He sustains that relation ; the relation therefore binds or obliges Him to do everything necessary to the attainment of the end for which it exists. That end may be immeasurably distant, but let the first creative fiat be once issued, and never can His eye be with- drawn from the process which leads to it. Vast as the theatre may be which that process ma}^, in the course of time, come to occupy. His presence must, in some sense, pervade the entire space. Innumerable as the parts belonging to the process may speedily come to be, and receiving as they may innu- merable accessions at every moment after, all of them must be known to Him in their natures, relations, and remotest 36 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. effects. Various, and formidable to finite apprehension, as may be the apparent obstacles to the attainment of the end, arising from the ever-varying combinations of circumstances; from the junctures of events which had their respective causes in different ages of creation, and in different departments of the universe ; and, especially, from the voluntary actions of free agents ; not merely must He be prepared to meet them all, but (as an illustration of all-sufficiency) to render them all condu- cive, as parts of His plan, to the attainment of His ultimate end. Ever receding, and even unattainable (in an absolute sense) as that end, owing to its perfection, must necessarily be, yet as long as there are aspects of the Divine character to be manifested, new creatures must continue to be formed for the purpose of displaying and appreciating them ; or, which would seem to be better still, those already formed must be placed by Him in new situations for beholding it in fresh aspects, and have their powers enlarged for appreciating such enlarged dis- closures ; or — that which would seem to be still more worthy of all-sufficiency — both these conditions might be made to meet in the same order of creatures ; that is, besides taking up into their constitution all that is most important in the consti- tution of the creatures preceding them, they may be made to exhibit something more excellent of their own in addition, and be placed in circumstances favorable to the ever-advancing exercise and development of the whole. And thus the glories which creation may display at any period indefinitely distant from the first moment of the opening manifestation, and the power which the creature may at such period possess for ap- preciating it, will only be the means, in the hand of the Medi- ator, for entering on a new career of Divine manifestation as immeasurably distant, and incomparably more glorious still; and the attainment of that be only the bare prej)aration for another beyond, so much more glorious than the preceding that the eye which had gazed on all the splendors of the past, and the ear which had heard all the speculations and conjec- tures to which that past had given rise, and the heart which had been occupied ten thousand ages in putting all these together into every imaginable form of ideal glory, will yet have to confess that it had never seen, nor heard, nor even imagined, anything to be compared with it — and so on ad infinitum. So that as the manifestation will never have reached a point beyond which it cannot be carried further still, the mediatorial office can never, absolutely, and in every sense, THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 87 cease ; in other words, the relation which the Mediator sustains in the great purpose of manifestation binds or obliges Him to do everything which may be necessary to the full attainment of the great end — and therefore to continue the manifestation for ever. This view of the mediatorial obligation harmonizes with, and is suggested by, that numerous and important class of Scriptures which appears to take such obligation for granted ; and which represents even the self-denial and sufferings of the Mediator, as events which "behoved him " — and which " ought " to take place. The proximate obligation implied in these Scriptures, indeed, may be that which bound Him to the employment of suitable means for the attainment of a particular end. That particular end was the recovery of a race which by voluntarily obstructing the great process of manifestation, and by thus for- feiting all right to the happiness attending it, could be restored to it again only when such restoration could be made as safe to the great process, and as conducive to the great end, as their abandonment to the consequences of their sinful defection would be. And the Mediator, having undertaken to effect that resto- ration, had brought himself under obligation to do all that was necessary to render this particular end consistent with the attainment of the great end. The event showed that suffering and death were the necessary means — and therefore even suffering and death " became Him " and He " ought " to endure them. But this view accounts only for the proociinate obligation. It leaves unanswered the natural and momentus inquiry why such an obligation was incurred ? Whereas, the right answer, I apprehend, would show that this proximate obligation, great and wonderful as it is, resolves itself into one higher and more comprehensive still ; and that to this the class of Scriptures referred to ultimately relates — namely, the all-comprehending obligation to which His mediatorial relation binds Him, of doing everything essential to the great end. In virtue of that relation. He was bound from the beginning, not only to keep the great process in constant activity, but to keep it ever advanc- ing and enlarging ; and this, as we have seen, involved the re- quirement that He should meet every exigency which might arise, and even turn it to the account of the final result. His eartlily humiliation, indeed, is, probably, on many accounts, the central wonder and most amazing part of that duty to which His mediatorial relation can ever oblige Him ; but still it is 1 38 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. only one of an unbroken series of acts, which, beginning with the first fiat of creation, can never end, unless the great manifest- ation itself, on account of which the relation exists, could ever arrive at completion. III. This view seems to place us in an advantageous position for gaining an insight into the very reason of the medial rela- tion — disclosing, not merely what it is, but partially, at least, why it is so. That this subject should be felt to be profound might have been expected, if for no other reason than that it appears to involve, in some degree, the very nexus which unites the internal economy of the Divine nature with the external economy of the dependent universe. Even in the philosophy of our own minds, the mode in which the thinking principle within is related to the world without — how that which is I, can come to know that which is not I, is the great, and, com- paratively, the only difficulty. So that every theory on the mind derives its character from the view which is taken of this starting-point: — one den3dng that there is any subjective; another, that there is any objective ; another affirming that they are identical ; and a fourth, that they are not identical but inexplicably related. Precisely in like manner, some have denied that there is any Originating Mind, and regard the universe as eternal ; others have affirmed that there is no material universe, but that God alone exists ; others, that God and nature are identical ; and others, that they exist distinctly, but are inexplicably related. Now Divine revelation discloses the vital fact that they are related, and that the relation is, properly understood, not direct but medial. 1. Ikit what is the reason of the fact? Is it a natural rea- son merely ; one, that is, arising from the disparity of nature between the created and the infinite Invisible ? Such was the theory of many of the emanative systems of the East ; indirectly derived, but perverted, from the Hebrew Scriptures. They taught that as the Highest Being is, in himself, incomprehensi- ble and unapproachable, there can be no immediate transit from Him to a world of created existences ; that, consequently, it became necessary that there should be found in God some transition-point to make His fulness comprehensible and com- municable ; and that this was found in Himself from eternity in a Being like Himself, through whom the concealed God was manifested. And this opinion, slightly modified, and repro- duced in some of the early Christian creeds, has continued to THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 89 exercise a powerful influence on the theology of this subject down to the present day. That it involves some truths we readily admit ; but, if it is to be regarded as the whole truth, the reply to it is obvious — namely, that if the supposed medi- um be infinite, the natural chasm intended to be filled up be- tween God and the creature remains, for one infinite is as un- approachable as another ; and that if it be not infinite, it no less remains, for a finite medium necessarily leaves the gulf as it was — infinite. 2. Is the reason, then, a moral one ; and, if so, what is its specific nature ? The general reply would doubtless be in the affirmative, and to this effect — that the constitution of a uni- verse worthy of an Infinitely Perfect Being involved the exis- tence of free agents, and therefore of a moral administration ; that under such an administration righteously administered, for- giveness, in the event of sin, would be impossible, unless such a compensation should be provided as would render forgiveness as safe and honorable to the administration as the infliction of the merited punishment would be ; and that God, therefore, foreseeing such an event, and determined on the illustration of His infinite grace, devised a system of mediation, at once safe for His government, suited to the exigency of the sinner, and glorious for His own character. Now, not only is this true — it is inestimable truth. To a sinful world it is Gospel. But to regard this as the whole of the reason, would be to limit the reason to a single act or class of actions ; whereas, if our pre- ceding views are correct, that reason is to be found in the pur- pose of Divine manifestation, just as the ground of that is to be found in the great Reason of all — the Divine Nature. 3. For the sake of distinguishing the original ground of the mediatorial relation, then, from that just named, and yet avoid- ing the employment of a term liable to misinterpretation, we would designate it simply as the primary moral reason, in con- tradistinction from the last, which we regard as the proximate moral reason ; and this primary reason we conceive to be, he- cause nothing else than the institution and voluntary assumption of the subordinate office, understood hy the mediatorial relation, would have adequately manifested the infinite Holiness and Lwe of God, or His all-sufficiency for the well-being of an intelligent and accountable universe. That other reasons for this amazing arrangement are dedu- cible from Scripture, is gladly admitted. There is that great proximate reason, to which we have just adverted. There is 40 THE PUE-ADAMITE EAUTll. also the reason, that we might not he discouraged, by a sense of God's ineffable majesty, from approaching Him. And there is the weighty reason of the moral influence arising from the Me- diator's example of willing subordination to the Father. That He should be seen standing in the view of the universe — seen by his own creatures — in a station of obedience ! Who else can refuse to obey ? That He, of his own free-will, should consent to serve ! — what creature- will but must feel constrain- ed to yield ? That He should find glory in this subordination ! — does it not point the intelligent universe the only way to perfection — namely, by its coincidence with the Divine will ? But these reasons, and others which might be named, are all included in that which I have designated as the primary moral reason. And I venture to repeat, that, not only is the mani- festation of the Divine all-sufficiency that primary reason, but that nothing else than the mediatorial relation can be conceiv- ed of as furnishing an adequate manifestation of that all-suffi- ciency. That the Divine Being might have abstained, had He so pleased, from all external manifestation, I believe to be a doctrine of Scripture ; but I believe also that, having deter- mined on the manifestation, nothing less than the voluntary subordination of one of the persons in the Godhead could ade- quately express the resources of all-suf&ciency. Had the suf- ficiency of God been limited ; or had He designed that the manifestation should have been of any amount of His excel- lence short of all-sufficiency — i. e., had He himself been im- perfect, or had He determined on an imperfect manifestation — an arrangement inferior to that of the system of mediation might have sufficed ; but if God all-sufficient is to be revealed, this would appear to be the adequate and only exponent. And still farther, so effectually does the mediatorial arrangement provide for the purposed manifestation, that the mere willing- ness o/" the Mediator to sustain the relation, apart from all that He has done in consequence, and, hypothetically speaking, even short of His actually sustaining it at all — His mere will- ingness to sustain it, could that have been signified to the uni- verse, would have given us a deeper insight into the character of God, and have furnished a brighter illustration of His all- sufficiency, than it could ever have entered into the mind of man or angel to conceive. The wonder is, then, not so much that He should fulfil every condition to which His mediatorial rela- tion obliges Him, as that He should be found sustaining the relation at all from which that obligation takes its rise. To THE PRIMARY OBLIGATION. 41 say that He foresaw these conditions, is only saying that He is equal to the relation which He sustains. And to say that He yet voluntarily undertook that office, is only saying that He who is at the head of a system of free agency is Himself a free agent. But that He should have done this, I repeat, that He who had known no necessity but that of being, and of being what He was, should have brought himself under obli- gation ; that He who had known no relation but that of the ineffable union of the Godhead, should oblige Himself to sus- tain a relation to a created universe — to become the centre of an ever-enlarging system of such relations ; and to do every- thing necessary to the well-being of such relations ; that the cause of all things, ad extra, should have voluntarily assumed that office as an effect of a previous purpose ; that " the Be- ginning of Creation " should range Himself in a line with His own creatures — subjecting Himself to His own laws — as the first term in a series of means, for the accomplishment of the end which that purpose contemplated ; — this can be account- ed for only by supposing that the end is the illustration of the Divine all-sufficiency. Nor is this final reason unfrequently or obscurely adverted to in the word of God. To this effect, ultimately, are those pas- sages to which reference has been made already. So also is the inspired declaration, that in the most self-denying acts of the Mediator, the eternal Father was allowing or appointing that which " became Him ; " but, then, the capacity or relation in which it became Him is distinctly stated, as " Him, by whom are all tilings, and for whom are all things," — as Him who is His own end, and the end of everything else, even of the sys- tem of mediation, with all that it includes. And to this view the Mediator Himself sets His seal in all those passages, cited in the last chapter, in which He declares, that whatever He said, did, or suffered, the whole was for the disclosure of the Divine glory. (1.) Then, it is to be inferred, that the character of the Father is perfectly free from that unlovely and invidious light which some views of mediation are charged with unjustly casting on it. The object of the Father in appointing, and of the Son in voluntarily assuming the relation, is one — the ful- filment of the great purpose. So that the arrangement is re- quired by a principle rather than by a person ; is rendered, on the one hand, for the very same reason that it is required . 4* 42 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. on the other — = namely, that the full manifestation of the Divine glory to the universe might be made possible. (2.) That as the appointment of such an arrangement ar- gues no deficiency of benevolence on the one hand, but the reverse, so the accession to it, on the other, argues no absolute loss of original prerogatives, or entire renunciation of ante- cedent rights. These, as they belong to the Divine nature, can never be detached or diminished, but are as unchangeable as the nature to which they belong. Besides, these preroga- tives constitute the fitness of the Mediator, or His infinite ade- quacy, for the mediatorial ofiice, and enable Him to discharge it ; and surely His rights are not to be regarded as annulled because of His perfections. And it is because of His retain- ing these original prerogatives, as well as on account of His manifestation of God, that He is often spoken of in Scripture, interchangeably, as acting both in His original and in His offi- cial capacity. (3.) That the mediatorial obligation will never terminate. As its sole design is the manifestation of God, its duration must run parallel with the manifestation ; so that unless the universe were to be blotted out, or the perfections of Deity to be exhausted, it can know no end. Commencing prior to the introduction of sin, it will continue, in some sense, after all the probationary perturbations of the moral system have ceas- ed, as the indispensable and everlasting proof of the Divine all-sufficiency. And what a view does this wonderful economy affi)rd us of the all-comprehending glory of that end which could justify the adoption of such means in order to fulfil it ! (4.) And how inevitably does the arrangement suggest that if the primary relation gives rise to obligation, every subordi- nate relation will do the same ; that the Creator will not be the only being under obligation ; that all His creatures, in propor- tion to their relation to Him and to each other, will be under obligation also. THE SUPREME RIGHT. CHAPTER V. The Supreme Right ; or, Mediatorial Authority and Happi' ness commensurate with the discharge of Obligation. If the primary obligation be commensurate with the media- torial relation, it may be expected that the discharge of that obligation will be associated with corresponding rights, so that if the Being discharging it, do everything necessary to a con- stant approximation towards the great end, it will follow that he should meantime enjoy, or possess a right consistently with that end, both to whatever is necessary to the prosecution of his object, and to whatever flows from it. Here is a two-fold right ; the first part, presupposing obligation, and the second, presupposing its discharge. I. Independently of His original and unalienable rights, the nature of the Great End invests Him with a right of the highest order in relation to whatever may be included in the mystery of the Godhead. For example, if there be a distinc- tion or subsistency in the Divine nature, designated the Holy Spirit ; if the attainment of the end require the disclosure of this mysterious fact ; and if this disclosure can be only effected, consistently with the end, by His employment of the agency of this Divine subsistency. His office entitles Him to avail Him- self of that agency. His right is commensurate with His obli- gation. The end at which He aims being unlimited, all limita- tion must be removed from the means ; so that all the resources of the Divine nature are to be considered as at His disposal. II. 1. If He call any order of intelligent creatures into ex- istence, with a view to their subordination to the great end, (and for no other purpose can they exist,) He has a right to their proper activity and service. If He Himself be under obligation to attain a certain end ; and if that obligation in- clude the production and employment of appropriate means, the same obligation rests on the means, provided they are capable of obligation, as necessary steps to the attainment of the end; for without them, the end cannot be attained. This is the very condition of their existence ; for had it not been 44 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. for that end they would not have been called into being ; had it not been for the mediatorial constitution on which that end is pursued, they could not have existed ; and were it not that they are intended to serve as means to that end, they would not have been constituted what they are. They hold exist- ence, therefore, and tlieir particular constitution of existence, on the prime condition that they answer the great end for which they have received both ; and to do this is at once their excellence and their happiness. He who has imparted both, has in no sense parted with His right in either. The excel- lence and happiness now found in the creature, existed poten- tially in the Creator before they came into the creature ; but in imparting them to the creature, the Creator intended, not that His own glory should be thereby left unaffected, but that they should answer an end by which both they should be in- creased, and the Divine glory be thereby augmented. 2. If, then, any of the creatures are so constituted that their activity increases their power of subserving the great end of their existence. Pie has a right to the whole of that increase ; for it is owing entirely to His having constituted them as they are, that they are capable of such increase ; and the great rea- son why He did so, is the same as that for which He constituted them at all — to subserve the great end of the Divine mani- festation. 3. If, again, owing to the providence or plan on which the end will be sought, and the consequent relationships in which successive creatures will stand to each other, their power of subserving that end should be augmented. He will, for the same reason, have a right to the whole of that augmentation. For, as the great system of means advances from one stage of development to another, it will be only the gradual unfolding of a plan which had always existed in His infinite mind. And as it existed there only with a view to the end, so whatever may be gained by the accomplishment of a preceding part of the plan, is so much gained for the part succeeding, and so on to the end. 4. If, again, owing to any of the free agents, which the plan contemplates, abusing their free agency, and withholding their power, and thus violating the condition of their existence, the progress of the plan and the attainment of the great end should be thwarted, or, in any sense, endangered ; and if, then, owing to his interposition in any way, the derangement of the system should be remedied, and be even turned to the account of the great end. He would have a right to all the advantage which THE SUPREME RIGHT. 45 that gracious interposition would give Him. Absolute as His right to their activity and devotedness was before, He has now established a new right of peculiar cogency. Before, He had called them from nothingness into happy existence, now he has called them from misery to happiness. But for the first act, they would never have been ; but for the second, they would never have been ought but miserable. Whatever may be the amount of their new obligation, therefore. He is entitled to the result of it ; — of all the additional moral influence which it gives him over their minds, of all the new motives to obedi- ence which it should call into existence, and of all the increase of power arising from the stimulating influence thus shed over the great system of means. in. The Mediator has a right also to whatever satisfaction can arise from the contemplation of His own conduct in its re- spective relations to God and to the creature. 1. There is the happiness of beholding His ideas or designs objectively realized — He has a right to that. Accordingly, He is represented as having contemplated the first objects even of the material world, as they came forth from His hand, with Divine complacency. He looked on them as visible re- alizations of eternal types. On comparing them, so to speak, with the archetypes in His own infinite mind. He beheld the perfect resemblance, and was satisfied. He regarded them as exponents or signs of certain corresponding qualities, infinitely greater in the Divine nature. And He beheld them in their prospective application ; serving as indexes or memorials of that infinite greatness to myriads of minds which He purposed to create, and so to constitute that each of all these things should operate on them suggestively. He knew, therefore, all the lofty thoughts which these objects would ever suggest, and all the exquisite delight those thoughts would occasion, and all the holy admiration which the perception of this relation between things that differ would ever produce. He looked on those objects also as the first in an endless series yet to come. In His first acts of creation, the great architect was laying the foundation of an all-comprehending and eternal temple ; and His infinite mind is to be regarded as having embraced, by anticipation, all the sublime results. The worshippers, the homage, the temple filled with the glory of the Divine manifestation — all were present to His mind — and He rejoiced in the glorious prospect. 46 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 2. There is the happiness of prospectively beholding the activity, enlargement, and progress of the whole system of creation and providence — He has a right to the enjoyment of that. Not more certainly is the earth perpetually speeding on its destined course through space, and carrying with it all the momentous interests of humanity, than His plan, freighted with an eternal weight of glory for the creature, and with a weightier revenue of glory to God, is in constant progress. Never for a moment does it retrograde — never pause — never linger. Look on it when He will. He beholds it arrived at that stage where, a thousand ages ago. He foresaw it would be ; and look forward to what distant age He will, He beholds it, in anticipation, already there arrived. Hence, He is often represented in Scripture as foretasting the happiness arising from the contemplation of this progress. Out of the depths of eternity, He looked onward to the period when creation should commence. " From everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, when there were no depths, no fountains abounding with water, when as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world,*' i He anticipated the period when all these would be. Beyond this, He looked on to the remote period when the earth should be prepared for the reception and sustenance of animal life. He saw its forests wave ; its waters roll ; its surface clothed with verdure ; and the whole replenished with various orders of sentient beings. Ages beyond, and when, by successive creations and mighty intervals of change, the earth should have been slowly prepared for the reception of a being such as man. His eye fixed on the time when, in order to that event, He should " prepare the heavens, arid set a compass upon the face of the deep ; when He should establish the clouds above ; and when he should give to the sea His decree that the wa- ters should not pass His commandment." Already, in His prescient view, the sun had received its final commission to shine, and earth had received its general outline of Alp and Apennine, and Himalaya — of Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediter- ranean. Already Eden bloomed, and " a river went out of it to water the garden." Man's mansion was prepared, but where was the great inhabitant ? The theatre was ready — where was the being on whose introduction the mighty drama should begin? Already, in intention. He saw that creature come, ' ban n'l'iS? lliii'n — Pwv. vii. 26. Rendered by Gesenius the first (earliest) clod' of the earth — i. e. which was the first formed. THE SUPREME RIGHT. 47 radiant in his own image — the crown of creation : and, as He saw, He already heard " the morning stars sing together ; " saw earth's first sabbath dawn ; beheld man's earliest act of adoration; and pronounced the whole to be "good." Even then, though existing only in His Divine purpose, "He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men." He foresaw His blessing enlarginj^ Japheth, and causing him to dwell in the tents of Shem. His purpose had formed the great continents of the earth, had smoothed the valleys where nations should be cradled, and given direction to the course of the rivers whose banks should become the seat of empire. The actual distribution of Canaan among the tribes of Israel was only the transcription of an eternal plan. " Remember the days of old, consider the years of many gen- erations ; ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance ; when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of tlie people according to- the num- ber of the children of Israel." Before Mases — before Pisgah itself, from which Moses looked down on the promised land, existed — His eye had looked down from the height of His sanctuary, and had beheld prospectively that Sinai whence His law should be given ; that Zion which should be crowned with His temple ; that Calvary which should sustain the mystery of the cross. Now that the prospect of the development of His great plan affords him profound satisfaction is evident, not only from the Scriptures already quoted, but from the fact that he has sought, at times, to inspire His church with an ecstasy of de- light by affording them glimpses of its onward course. All the sublime disclosures of prophecy are merely revelations of that future on which His eye is perpetually fixed ; and by the pros- pect of which He would fain admit the faithful to a fellowship in His own delight. And all the satisfaction those disclosures have ever yielded to an Abraham, who " saw His day, and was glad ;" to a David, an Isaiah, an Ezekiel, a Paul, a John, en- tranced with the vision — to the whole church, which " having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, and embraced them," and died in exulting faith — all this is only a particle of the boundle-ss "joy which they have ever set before him." 3. To Him also belongs the happiness of prospectively be- holding the effects of His gratuitous interposition for human salvation. If, owing to no defect in the original constitution 48 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. of the great plan of Providence, any part of that plan be vio- lated by man ; and if, owing to no original defect in man, but owing to an abuse of his necessary free-agency, that viola- tion take place ; and if, therefore, without any claim on the interposition of the Mediator, He yet determined to remedy the evil, to take advantage of it in a way which shall accrue to the infinite good of the very beings who had introduced the evil, and to the furtherance of the great end of Divine mani- festation — surely He has a right to the happiness arising from a view of the effects of His own interposition. Accordingly, there is a class of Scriptures which represents Him as rejoic- ing in the prospect of this interposition. And the satisfaction which He derives from the contemplation of that prospect, is heightened by the vivid contrast in which it ever stands before his view with what must have been the dreadful alternative if He had not interposed. And when He anticipates the day in which " He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and ad- mired in all them that believe," He " sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied." 4. Then He is entitled to the grateful homage of all who share the effects of His gracious interposition. Hence His own language, " that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father." 5. The happiness flowing from the fact that on account of His mediatorial work, He is the object of the Father's infinite delight, is greater still. For He estimates that complacency at its proper worth, which is infinite, absolutely infinite ; and therefore greater than the intelligent creation, though its capa- city be always enlarging, will ever be able to experience. C. And then there is the happiness derivable from knowing that He is attaining the greatest of all ends — the manifesta- tion of the Divine all-sufficiency. Now, if this end be so great, that every other stands to it only in the relation of means ; if this is infinitely greater than all other ends combined, the hap- piness arising from the attainment of it must be infinitely greater also. The happiness flowing from the spectacle of a redeemed and happy creation must be great ; for He knew not only what would be the exact measure of its happiness at this moment, but how happy it will be ten thousand ages hence, when its capacity for happiness will be increased ten thousand- fold — with all the happiness it will have enjoyed in the inter- val, and so on for ever. But inconceivably high as He values that complacency, more highly still does He value that glory THE SUPREME RIGHT. 49 on account of the manifestation of which that complacency ia accorded to Him. He estimates everything as the eternal Father does ; so that if the manifestation of the Divine glory be so dear to the Father that He pours His complacency on the Son for undertaking it, the Mediator Himself regarding it in the same light, must derive from the contemplation of its attainment His highest delight. The prospect of beholding a universe of dependent beings hanging on independent all-suffi- cience ; every heart a channel through which a fulness of de- light is constantly streaming from the great central source, and every moment enlarging to receive more ; every sin forgiven, every evil remedied, every want supplied ; the whole reflect- ing, and replenished with, the Divine glory — this is the con- summation of that glory which is set before Him. Much as He may delight in the favor of Deity, He rates the glory of the Deity higher still : for it is that which gives even to His favor all its value ; so that to be the means of manifesting it to the universe is the crown of His mediatorial happiness, as it is the end of creation. And thus by a circularity in the nature of the mediatorial constitution we are brought back to the point from which we set out — that the glory of God is the chief end of creation. It must necessarily have been so independently of all appoint- ment ; and even had there been (supposing an impossibility,) an appointment to the contrary. For even if a decree had appointed that the ultimate end of all things should be the well-being of the creature, the infinite capacity for enjoyment of the Divine Being would not have allowed it to be the greatest end ; since God in beholding, that well-being and the manifestation of the Divine glory which it carried along with it, would by right and necessity of nature, enjoy more than all the creatures together — infinitely more. And if God, and not the creature, would thus have been, by necessity of nature, the great end of all things, we are to suppose that He is so by choice ; or that He approves of, and proposes to himself, as an end, that which the infinite excellence of His nature conditionally necessitates. The great reason, then, accounts for the primary purpose ; the purpose originates the medial relation ; the relation imposes the great obligation ; and the obligation is followed by the right oi the being discharging it;> that is, the last ensues on the attainment, or, in proportion to the attainment of the first : and thus the Mediator, as sueh^, finds His own end in attaining the great end. '5 SECOND PART Principles deducible from the preceding Lectures ; or, Laws of the Manifestation. From the preceding scriptural views of that which is predi- cable of the Deity, considered as prior to the manifestation of the divine all-sufficiency, and in order to it, the following general deductions seem logically to result. Certain other intermediate principles, indeed, might with equal clearness, be inferred ; but, for the present, it is proposed to deal only with general truths. That every divinely originated object and event is a resvk. of which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine Nature. By which we mean that, not only is a reason for it to be found there, — this would only acquit the Maker from a charge of folly — but, that the ultimate and adequate reason why it is, and what it is, is to be found there. For, if the origin of everything which may exist must be traced to him as the great first cause, everything will, in some sense, be like him ; i. e., it will he, and will he what it is, when it proceeds from him, because he is what he is ; for before it was produced, it was potentially included in him. Additional reasons may be found in itself, and in other parts of creation, to account for its exist- ence. And of vast significance may many of these reasons be to the creature. Yet all these will be found subordinate and traceable to that infinite reason which includes, but is inde- pendent of them all, as belonging to the infinite nature of God. These subordinate reasons may be only coexistent with the respective natures in which they are found, — beginning and ending, therefore, in some cases, within the space of a few short LAWS OF THE >IANIFE8TATrOW. 51 hours — soon, and perhaps forever, to be forgotten by all the rest of creation : but the infinite reason of their being at all existed from eternity in the nature of God, and can never cease to exist. However insignificant, comparatively, any given creature may be, not only is the reason of its existence to be sought in God, as prior to, in the order of time, and causative of, that existence ; but as a reason which approved itself to, and, in some sense, expressed a property of the divine nature. So that even if there were no purpose of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency, — but the creation were to be limited to the pro- duction of a single creature — still, as every effect must be in some sense like its cause, that single effect would be, (not formally but virtually,) a manifestation, pro tanto, of the Divine Nature : in other words, its ultimate reason would be found in God. And on the same ground, every expression of His will, however it may be made, whether by word or act, will be a manifestation of something anterior, viz. of the Divine Nature. n. Thai everything sustains a relation to the great purpose, and is made subservient to it. If our view of the Divine purpose be correct, it will follow, that besides the former law of the creature's existence, by which it is what it is, because God is what he is, and which law can never be superseded ; there is another law, arising from the Divine purpose, which makes it a primary condition of the creature's existence that it should contribute in some measure to the Great Manifestation. We can conceive, then, of a two- fold reason for everything, ad extra : — the one, arising from what God is, the other from what he purposes — the former a natural reason, the latter a moral necessity or reason of Divine appointment — the former looking back to its origin, the latter looking onward to its end. For if the design of the whole be to manifest the Divine All-sufficiency, every part of the whole must of course combine to the same end. And as nothing which may exist, can have a separate, exclusive, and indepen- dent end of its own, everything will find its own end, in answer- ing His. 52 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. in. That the Manifestation will he carried on hy a system ofmeans^ €T medial relations. If our view of the great relation be correct, we may expect, that that relation, as constituting the medium of the Divine Manifestation, will itself be manifested ; or that, in harmony with that primary relation, the whole manifestation will consist of, or be carried on by, a system of corresponding medial rela- tions, (relations rising with the rising nature of the being sus- taining them ; ) otherwise, that great relation itself will be but partially disclosed, if it be not even entirely, and for ever unknown. Another reason for the medial constitution of the Creation, is, that the Great Relation is not merely the medium of the manifestation, but an important part of it ; just as the sun, besides being the medium of vision, is also the most glorious object of creation. Now as everything exists for the Divine Manifestation, of which that relation itself is a vital part, everything may be expected to manifest that Relation by itself sustaining a medial relation. And, as everything is to express something of the Divine nature, and the Great Relation involves an infinite disclosure of that nature, everything may be reasonably expected to bear, in some respects, the stamp of that Relation. And further, — if, as we have shown in a previous chapter, the Great Purpose requires that the Manifestation should be progressive, it follows that it must consist of a succession of events, in which each part will necessarily hold a relation to all the parts preceding, and following ; just as the Primary re- lation is medial between the purpose and the end. For we can neither conceive of an event which must not be conceived of, as being, in some sense, an effect ; nor of a succession of events which must not be conceived of as medially dependent and related. So that viewed in connection with the second law, which determines that everything sliall subserve the great end, this determines the mode or form in which that subser- viency shall be rendered — by everything sustaining a relation, not merely to that end, but to everything else contributing to that end — a relation of mutual dependence and influence. LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. ffS IV. That everytJdng will be found either promoting^ or under an obligation to promote, the great end commensurate with its means and relations. If our view of the Great Relation be correct — that it brings him who sustains it under obhgation commensurate with his means of answering the great end — we may expect to find, that every subordinate relation will be accompanied by obliga- tions corresponding in their number and amount with its pow- er of promoting the end. For, according to the Jirst law, it will necessarily express something of the Divine nature ; and according to the second law, it receives existence on the condition of manifesting that resemblance, and of contributing towards the Great End ; and according to the third, it is placed in a system of Medial Relations, in order that such manifestation may be made poa- sible. IViai everything will be entitled to an amount of good, or of well-being, or will be found in the enjoyment of it, proportionate to the discharge of its obligations, or^ to the degree of its con- formity to the laws of its being. For as, according to the first law, everything will necessarily express something of the Divine nature ; and according to the second, will come into existence in order to express it ; and according to the third, will receive and sustain a relation in which to fulfil this law of its being ; and according to the fourth, will be held under obligation to this effect ; it will fol- low, according to the ffth, that it cannot fulfil this law of its being without enjoying well-being. For, to manifest whatever its nature is calculated to exhibit of God, is to stand related on one side to the greatest of beings, and on the other to the greatest of ends ; so that to fulfil the law of its being, or to find its own highest end, is to answer the Great end ; nor could it be supposed to be in any way deprived of its right, while thus fulfilling the law of its being, without the great end itself being, in so far, defeated. And here is the coincidence of the creature's happiness with the Creator's glory. For example ; if the intelligent creature can do the same thing in obedience to different laws, his happiness can nevor 54 THE PKE-AD AMITE EARTH. rise above the law which he fulfils ; and if that law be a lower one, when it might, and therefore ought to be a higher one — i. e. if the higher be sacrificed to the lower, — though obedi- ence to the lower may not be unattended with reward or grat- ification, — the painful sense of having violated, or disregarded the higher, will more than counterbalance the gratification. According to these five laws, then, everything may be viewed, in its origin ; its ultimate design ; the way in which it answers that design; its obligation to do this as the necessary means to an end ; its consequent share in the great end. Or, in it- self, as a separate and isolated product of the Divine Being ; in its intended subserviency to the great end ; in the nature of that subserviency, or the relations which it sustains in the great system of mutual dependencies ; in the obligatory fulfilment of this great conditional law of its existence ; in the natural and necessary results of such fulfilment, in its own well-being. The jir&t law determines that it shall he — bear a resemblance to God. The second^ why it shall be — as a manifestation of that resemblance, in subserviency to the Great End. The third, how it shall do this — as a part of a great system of means. The fourth, the indispensable necessity of doing it — as means to an end. And the fifth, what shall result to it from answering that End. According to the first law, it may be said, that everything looks back to its origin. — According to the second, forwards to its ultimate end. — According to the third, around, to its medial relations. — According to the fourth, on the duty consequent on these relations. — And according to the ffth, within, on its own well-being, or particular end, as the result of answering the Ultimate End. VI. Hiat everything will he found to involve the existence of neces- sary truth. By necessary truth is meant that of which the proposition not only is, but must be true, and of which, therefore, the ne- gation is not only false but im'possihle ; so that it exists neces- sarily, and therefore universally, independently of the exist- ence of the individual intellect which contemplates it. The origin of our knowledge of it, whether by induction, or other- wise, is a question for separate consideration. The possibility of the manifestation, for example, pre-sup- LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 55 poses the existence of certain necessary truths. It pre-supposes the existence of space and duration in which this manifestation is to be made — pre-supposes them as conditions of the mani- festation. For, as nothing outward can be conceived of, with- out space — and nothing existing, without time in which to exist, it follows that everything must be, in some sense, related to space and time, or be included in them ; and therefore space and duration must have existed prior to, and independently of, the manifestation. It pre-supposes also the possibility of caus- ation, for it involves the necessity that every event shall be, in some sense, an effect ; and this proposition, therefore, would have been true, even if the manifestation had never taken place. It pre-supposes, then, the existence of the Great First Cause or Being to be manifested, whose absolutely unlimited perfection, suppose infinite space and infinite duration ; and, consequently, whose existence would have been a truth even if the manifestation had never been made. And thus as the purpose refers us to the Great Reason of which it is simply and necessarily the expression, and as the Great Reason is all that it is necessarily, or independently of everything ad extra, so every event included in that purpose, being an eifect or ex- pression of that reason, will sustain some relation to the neces- sary and the independent. vn. That everything will be found to involve the existence of coU' tingent truth. By contingent truth is meant that of which the existence is not necessary, but conditional — true, because something else is true ; or dependent for its truth on something else. As the possibility of the manifestation pre-supposes the ex- istence of necessary truth, so the purpose of the manifestation implies the existence of contingent truth — contingent, that is, in the sense already explained, as opposed to absolutely neces- sary. For had the manifestation been necessary in any other sense than that of being infinitely desirable, or morally neces- sary, no purpose of manifestation needed to have been formed. And then, as the great purpose itself was contingent on the Sovereign will of God, so every part of the internal arrange- ments of the plan {provided they secure the fulfilment of the purpose, or the manifestation of divine all-syjfficiency,) must be contingent also, or dependent on " the good pleasure " of that 56 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. will in which the purpose itself originated. For if, in the sense described, the whole be contingent, the parts must be also ; nor could such contingency remain unknown, without defeating the ultimate end of the manifestation. vra. That everything will he found, hy necessity of nature, and as a relative perfection essential to the manifestation of Divine aU- sufficiency, to involve truth surpassing the perfect comprehension of the finite mind — i. e. there will be ultimate facts. For if it were absolutely and in every sense comprehensible, it could be only, to created minds, the representation of some- thing absolutely finite and limited. But such a thing is incon- ceivable. For as everything must be related, in some respect, to time, space, and causation, as well as to every other thing included in the plan, — in consequence of these relations, if in no other respects, it will stand connected with the infinite, and incomprehensible. So that while the Great Purpose requires that it should manifest something of God, its relation to the Great Reason will leave it involved, in some respects, in the necessary and the universal. And thus it will at once proclaim its origin and answer its IX. That the manifestation be progressive ; or, that the production' of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, be itself a Law of Manifestation. For were it to terminate at any given point, the proof of all-sufiiciency for unlimited manifestation would terminate with it. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, re- quires infinity and eternity in which to be developed, for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than these. But if the development of the Great Purpose, or the attainment of the Great End, be in its very nature progressive, this is only say- ing that the process must ever be kept open to receive the addition of new effects, or the superinduction of new laws. - So that the law of uniformity itself will always be subject to, or bounded by, this more general law of Progression: just as this more general law itself will always be subject to the law of the end, to which all particular laws owe their existence, LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 9^ and from which they derive their authority. And this again is only saying that the end shall not be subject to the means : but that the Great Purpose shall be carried into effect. So that, that which is commonly regarded as miraculous in- terposition may be itself a law of the manifestation — not the exception, but the rule — or if the exception to us who view things only on the scale of a few days, to Him who views them on an unlimited scale it may be the rule. X. That the manifestation, besides being progressive, will be con- tinuous ; or will be progressive by being continuous — leamng no intervals of time, or of degree, but such as the modifying influence of other laivs may require or account for. For were it to leave such intervals, except on such condi- tions, the proof of all-sufficiency for filling them up would be wanting. Besides which, if all-sufficiency requires infinity, and eternity, in which to be developed, intervals in the mani- fesfation of time and of degree are inadmissible ; unless on the supposition that such intervals or pauses in the manifesta- tion would themselves contribute to the manifestation of all- sufficiency. It may be expected that it will be impossible to lay one'3 finger on the line which separates any one province of knowl- edge from that which lies next. To complain of a theory, therefore, that it combines and synthesizes, is to complain that it treats of things as they are ; or, as God has made them. Since it belongs to the perfection of these things, that they should not admit of isolation ; if they did, they would not and could not belong to a system of progressive and continuous manifestation. XL That the Continuity of the manifestation requires that all the laws and results of the past should in some sense, be canied for- wards ; and that all that is characteristic in the lower steps of th^ process should be carried up into the higher — as far as it may subserve the great end ; or unless it should be superseded by some- thing analogous and supenor in the higher, and the future. For if it were not, the manifestation would be neither pro- gressive, nor continuous, but would be every moment begin- 58 THE PllE-ADAMITE EAR-TH. ning de novo. Everything would be isolated. After the man- ifestation had continued for untold ages, all the past would be unknown and lost to the present, and to all the future. And the proof of all-sufficiency, for such a continuity of manifesta- tion as that expressed in the proposition, would be forever wanting. xn. Thai everything will be found to manifest all that it is calcU' laiedto exhibit of the Divine Nature^ by developing, or working out its own nature. For as, according to the First law, we are to expect that everything, per se, and separately considered, will exhibit some- thing of God from mere necessity of nature — just as the purpose of manifesting Divine all-sufficiency brought to light necessarily, and independently of all intention, the Divine self- sufficiency, so, according to the Second law, we are apt to ex- pect, that as it is only by the activity of the Divine Nature, that that nature is made manifest, every being will be found to manifest all that is calculated to exhibit of God's nature, by properly manifesting, or, working out its own. The mere formation of the purpose implies the acting of the Divine Mind ; the accomplishment of that purpose, especially as it is a purpose of self-manifestation, clearly supposes selt-activity also ; — the manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency evidently requires that that activity should be constant, unending, and all-comprehensive. A creation, then, devoid of regulated ac- tivity, could be no manifestation of an everliving and ever- active God. Such a creation (were its existence possible) would less represent him than would the absence of all external ob- jects ; for, as a Divine manifestation, it would essentially mis- represent him. For how could that which neither moved nor was moved — which evinced no adaptation of means to an end — no capacity of enjoyment — that which couH receive nothing from without, and which involved nothing from within — that, therefore, which knew nothing, did nothing, and, in effect, was nothing — do anything but misrepresent Him who is All in All ? The existence of such a universe is inconceivable. It is only by a universe of activity, then, that He can be manifest- ed to whose activity the universe owes its existence. Still more may an active nature be expected in that order of creatures whose distinction it is to be, that not only l^ them, LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. 69 but to them, the manifestation will be made. For such activity may be looked for in them if only to help them to understand, by sympathy, the same property in the Divine Nature. And still more complete would this resemblance to their Maker be, if certain possibilities of active excellence could be stored up in them, and if these could in some way be put at their dispo- sal, or under the power of their will ; so that, as the Divine activity, ad extra, has been voluntary, their activity might resemble his in this essential respect — that it be voluntary also. The grounds which the other laws afford for the same ex- pectation of activity in the intelligent creature are too obvious to require extended notice. For if the first provides for it by imparting to him a measure of Divine resemblance, and the second by making his manifestation of that resemblance the condition of his existence, the third enables him to fulfil that condition, by placing him in a constitution of medial relations, where his activity will be felt, the fourth makes such activity obligatory, and the fifth rewards it in his own well being, or attainment of the Great End. xin. That the same property or characteristic which existed in the preceding and inferior stage of the manifestation, he superior in the succeeding and higher stages, or else be applied to additional or higher prirposes, (if it be not altogether superseded by some- thing superior;) or, that it he in the power of the succeeding, and the higher, so to render or to apply it. For as, by the great law of the Manifestation, everything is in alliance and dependence ; and as everything looks on to an end beyond itself, its nature, or its relations and results, may be expected to advance, the further it proceeds from its original starting-point towards the distant end, for the sake of which it exists. XIV. That as every law will have an origin or date, it wiU come into operation on each individual subject of it, according to its priority of date in the great system of manifestation. For as, by the law of continuity with progression, every law has come into operation in orderly succession, that order of 60 THE PRE-ADA3IITE EARTH. succession is itself a law : and as laws operate uniformly for the same reason that they operate at all — viz., for the pur- pose of manifestation — the order of their introduction at first into the general system, could not be dispensed with in any of the subsequent stages or parts of the manifestation, without defeating the design of their introduction at all. XV. That everything will occupy a relation in the great system of means, and possess a. right in relation to everything else, accord- ing to its power of subserving the end ; or, everything will bring in it and with it, in its otvn capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it — a reason for the degree in which they should be influenced — and for the degree in which it, in its turn, shoidd be influenced by everything else. For if, according to the first law, everything, by necessity of nature, expresses some property of the Divine Nature : — if, according to the second, it possesses that resemblance on the sole condition of manifesting it in subserviency to the Great End : — if, according to the third, it is medially related to every- thing else, that it may be able to make the manifestation : — and if, according to the fourth, it is bound to fulfil the Great Pur- pose, according to its means and relations, then everything will sustain an active and a passive relation, or will have a right to influence everything of inferior, and a susceptibility of being influenced by everything of superior, subserviency to the Great End. So that (according to the all-Connecting purpose) co-exist- ence implies co-relation, co-relation involves mutual obligation or subserviency, determinable as to kind and degree, in every instance, by the subserviency of the subjects of it to the Great- End. - XVI. TTiat, every law subordinate in rank, though it may have been prior in date, be subject to ecvch higher law of the Manifestation, as it comes into operation. *^ "' '" " •••--•..,, This, indeed, is a corollary from the preceding, and is only Baying, in effect, that in no case shall the means be put in the place of the end. But if the means are to be always suborcK-l 61 LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. ^ nate to the end, then, as everything is related, every inferior law must sustain a relation of subordination to every higher law of the Manifestation. xvn. That the whole process of manifestation be conducted uniform^ ly^ as fai- as the end requires, or according to the operation of laws. (By law is meant a constant relation, or an order of sequence, according to which, if one event occur, another will follow.) This, the great reason requires, for it supposes that every event will be, in some sense, an effect, (which is itself a law) : and that divinely originated effect will, when traced back to its or- igin, be found to express something in the Divine nature. The Great Purpose requires it : for it is only by the uniform- ity supposed that the immutability of the Divine nature, or even the Divine existence, could be evinced ; or indeed, that proof of any kind could be made possible. Farther, the Great Pur- pose necessarily supposes a series of effects : and that as often as God should will, the same effect would follow from the same volition ; otherwise He could not be certain that the end would ever be attained. Besides which, as the purpose of an infi- nitely perfect being, it is pursued on a plan, and a plan sup- poses the orderly arrangement and concurrent operation of distinct sequences of events, for the attainment of a certain end. It was only on the same supposition, of the operation of general laws, as far as the end requires, that the Mediator could assume the great Relation^ or undertake to discharge the Obligation, or calculate on the enjoyment of his exalted Right. Indeed, the proposition that the manifestation will b.e conducted by general laws, is involved in the statement of all the preceding laws ; for each of these statements is an attempt to define them. xvni. That every part of the manifestation be analogous to every other part, or according to a plan. (By analogy is here meant, generally, a similarity of rela- tion between things in some characteristic respects, when in other respects, the things are different.) The truth of this proposition may be inferred from the per- fl THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. vading operation of general laws : from the primary relation, according to which he who is to conduct the great process sus- tains his office expressly as the Logos or manifestation of God ; so that everything else can answer the end of manifestation only as it is analogous, according to, or, in some respect, re- Bembling the Logos : from the Great Purpose ; for, if the whole creation is to be, in some sense, an analogue of the Divine na- ture, (and in no other way can it mjinifest God) then, every separate portion of it must be similarly related to every other part, otherwise the whole will not resemble Him. If the first act be an act of manifestation, and every subsequent act be a counterpart to all that has gone before, then the last of any given series will, to some extent, correspond to the first — each will be a measured resemblance of all, that the whole may be a manifestation of God. If the whole is to be a manifesta- tion, it must be known; if known, classed; (for only a ver);- few things could be known if each were isolated and unlike everything else) and if classed, possessing similarity of re- lation. XIX. TTiat the law of ever-enlarging manifestation he itself regulated hy a law determining the time for each successive stage and ad- dition in the great process. The time for the change in any given department of the Divine manifestation, will of course be determined in a man- ner, and for a reason, differing with the particular nature and design of the department: — by each existing stage passing through all the combinations and changes of which it admits, before another begins ; or, by its existing long enough to show that it involves all the necessary possibilities for answering such and such ends, if its continuance be permitted ; or, until it has sufficiently taught the specific truth, and attained the proxi- mate and particular end, for which it was originated. But, whatever the particidar reason for determining the pe- riod of change may be, it is evident that the law of the time and the occasion for every change must harmonize with the Great End of the whole — the manifestation of the Divine All- sufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifestation to be re- called or replaced a moment before it had, in some way, demon- strated the all-sufficiency of God for that particular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered. LAWS OF THE MANIFESTATION. OS From which it follows that no such change or interposition takes place arbitrarily ; but, as the laws of progression, and of the end, require it. And that the length of the time which may be allowed to elapse, after the introduction of one law or change, before the introduction of another, so far from growing into an objection against any further addition or change, becomes, in a progress give system, an ever-increasing ground for expecting it. XX. That the beings to whom this Manifestation is to he made, and by whom it is to he understood^ appreciated, and voluntarily prO' moted, must he constituted in harmony loith these laws ; or, these laws of the objective universe will be found to have been establish- ed in prospective harmony with the designed constitution and the destiny of the subjective mind which is to expound and to profii by them. The truth of this proposition, if not self-evident, will receive abundant illustration when, in a subsequent volume, it comes under consideration. m THIRD PART. ORGANIC NATURE The First Stage of the Manifestation, POWER. 1. Order of the Manifestation. — The great end of creation, then, is supposed to be the gradual manifestation of Divine all-sufficiency. Now, travelling back, in thought, to the eve of creation, " Here," we might say, " here is an infinite expanse of unoccupied space in which the great end is to be realized ; what will be the first step ? or with what will the manifesta- tion commence ? In what order, and at what rate, will it pro- ceed ? What extent of space will it occupy ? What possibil- ities will it involve ? Of how many parts or stages will it consist? Will it, or will it not, have any special scene or scenes of operation ? " That these are subjects which occupied the Divine mind — not, indeed, as questions which admitted of hesitation — but as parts of His one great purpose, is evident ; for they are actu- ally suggested by the fact of what He has done ; and He does nothing which He has not purposed to do. Now, imagining ourselves in the situation supposed, and taking along with us the laws which we have derived from the Scriptural view of the Nature and Purpose of God, we might have justly reasoned that if the Divine purpose requires that the creation be pro- gressive, it might be expected to detennine also the order of the progression, or what perfection of the Deity shall be first displayed, as well as the act or means by which the display shall be made. In the nature of the case, there is nothing, al extra, to determine either with what the manifestation shall begin, or how it shall proceed. Even if there were, inasmuch INORGANIC NATURE. 65 as the great object of creation is the manifestation of the Divine perfections, the order of the process must be regulated by the order prescribed by the object of the Divine purpose — the means must be made subservient to the end. But there is nothing ah extra, so that there is a necessity as well as a rea- son, why the order of the manifestation should take the order best adapted for the attainment of the Divine purpose, and prescribed by it. Whether there is any order, then, in the Divine purpose, and, if so, what that order is, are among the very things to be manifested. Now, according to the constitution of the human mind, we are led to the conclusion that such order exists ; and that the earliest display of the Divine Nature will be that of a perfection fundamental to all the rest, namely. Power. It may here be proper to observe, though it is only, in effect, the repetition of a remark in our first Part, that by the Divine perfections we do not understand " a congeries of separate and separable attributes, like the members of an organized body," one of which may be exercised at one time and another at another ; but the same one unitive perfection, exhibiting itself in a variety of phases and aspects with a view to entire mani- festation. And according to the constitution of our minds, there is a certain order in which these different aspects may be viewed ; by which we gain sight of an additional character- istic or perfection at each view ; and are prepared by each foregoing perfection for the contemplation of each succeeding one. Now the first and the only simple attribute of whose mani- festation we can conceive is that of Power. The display of every other attribute supposes the co-existence and manifest co-operation of this in order to its display. But the exercise of this does not necessarily suppose the manifest co-operation of any other. For although, in the case of an infinitely per- fect Being, we can never conceive of power exercised apart from intelligence, we can conceive (and the case before us is one in which we are conscious of the conception) of an act of combined intelligence and power,' of which, while the power should be so self-evident and awful as suddenly to fill us with ' Indeed, if this were the place, it might be shown that even the infer- ence of design, is subsequent to the observation of the adjustments and adaptations of nature, as that again must necessarily be subsequent to the production of the things adjusted. 0* 66 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. amazement, the intelligence which it involved, owing to its very depth, should be completely hidden from our view, and require the lapse of ages for its development. In this case we should contemplate power in its simplest form — that of causa- tion; — a mighty moral cause producing a stupendous effect. ^ 2. Antiquity of the Earth. — If, according to our first law, every divinely-originated event is a result of which the supreme and ultimate reason is in the Divine Nature, it might have been expected that the order of the Divine perfections, or else the nature of the Divine Purpose, would determine the order of the creative process, and that the opening act would be a dis- play of power. But if, by one law, we arrive at the conclu- sion that the first act of manifestation will be a display of power, the law of progression suggests that that display will be made by an act to which we can conceive no act antece- dent; one which is not merely introductory to every other, but preparatory to the whole — first in the order of nature as well as of time. Now revelation and science harmonize with reason, and are decisive on the subject that, as far as the visible universe is concerned, the formation of its material preceded the forma- tion of everything else. Turning first to the inspired record to ascertain the origin of things as they now are, we learn, of our earth, that it assumed its present state a few thousands of years ago, in consequence of a creative process, or of a series of creative acts concluding with the creation of man, which extended through a period of six ordinary or natural days. Possessed of this fact respecting the date of man's introduc- tion on the earth, we proceed to examine the globe itself. And here we find that the mere shell of the earth takes us back through an unknown series of ages, in which creation appears to have followed creation at the distance of vast intervals be- tween. But though in the progress of our inquiries we soon find that we have cleared the bounds of historic time, and are mov- ' I believe that we derive the idea of causation — voluntanj or efficient causation — from consciousness : that besides the constant connection which we observe between physical causes and effects, we are conscious of exerting a power in the effects which we ourselves produce on matter subject to us; that this consciousness awakens the idea of voluntary causation; and that this idea leads to the belief in the existence of a First cause. But the psychological views to wliich the discussion of this question would lead, belong to another treatise. ,#r INORGANIC NATURE. W ing far back among the periods of an unmeasured and immea- surable antiquity, the geologist can demonstrate that the crust of the earth has a natural history. That he cannot determine the chronology of its successive strata is quite immaterial. We only ask him to prove the order of their position from the newest deposit to the lowest step of the series ; and this he can do. For nature itself — by a force calculable only by the God of nature — lifting up in places the whole of the stupen- dous series in a slanting, ladder-like, direction to the surface, has revealed to him the order in which they were originally laid, and invites him to descend step by step to its awful found- ations. Let us descend with him, and traverse an ideal section of a portion of the earth's crust. Quitting the living surface of the green earth, and entering on our downward path, our first step may take us below the dust of Adam, and beyond the limits of recorded time. From the moment we leave the mere surface-soil, and touch even the nearest of the tertiary beds, all traces of human remains disappear, so that let our grave be as shallow as it may in even the latest stratified bed, we have to make it in the dust of a departed world. Formation now follows formation, composed chiefly of sand, and clay, and lime, and presenting a thickness of more than a thousand feet each. As we descend through these, one of the most sublime fictions of mythology becomes sober truth, for at our every step an age flies past. We find ourselves on a road where the lapse of duration is marked — not by the succession of seasons and of years, — but by the slow excavation, by water, of deep val- leys in rock marble ; by the return of a continent to the bosom of an ocean in which ages before it had been slowly formed ; or by the departure of one world and the formation of another. And, accordingly, if our first step took us below the line which is consecrated by human dust, we have to take but a few steps more, before we begin to find that the fossil remains of all those forms of animal life with w^hich we are most familiar, are diminishing, and that their places are gradually supplied by strange and yet stranger forms ; till, in the last fossiliferous formation of this division, traces of existing species become extremely rare, and extinct species everywhere predominate. The secondary rocks receive us as into a new fossiliferous world, or into a new series of worlds. Taking the chalk form- ation as the first member of this series, we find a stratification upwards of a thousand feet thick. Who shall compute the 68 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. tracts of time necessary for its slow sedimentary deposition ! So vast was it, and so widely different were its physical condi- tions from those which followed, that scarcely a trace of animal species still living is to be found in it. Crowded as it is with conchological remains, for example not more than a shell or two of all the seven thousand existing species are discover- able. Types of organic life, before unknown, arrest our atten- tion, and prepare us for still more surprising forms. Descend- ing to the system next in order — the oolitic — with its many subdivisions, and its thickness of about half a mile, we recog- nise new proofs of the dateless antiquity of the earth. For, enormous as this bed is, it was obviously formed by deposition from sea and river water. And so gradual and tranquil was the operation, that, in some places, the organic remains of the successive strata are arranged with a shelf-like regularity, re- minding us of the well-ordered cabinet of the naturalist. Here, too, the last trace of animal species still living, has vanished. Even this link is gone. We have reached a point when the earth was in the possession of the gigantic forms of Saurian reptiles, — monsters more appalling than the poet's fancy ever feigned ; and these are their catacombs. Descending through the later red sandstone and saliferous marls of two thousand feet in thickness, and which exhibit, in their very variegated strata, a succession of numerous physical changes, our subter- ranean path brings us to the carboniferous system, or coal for- mations. These coal strata, many thousands of feet thick, consist entirely of the spoils of successive ancient vegetable worlds. But in the rank jungles and luxuriant wildernesses which are here accumulated and compressed, we recognise no plant of any existing species. Nor is there a single convincing indication that these primeval forests ever echoed to the voice of birds. But between these strata, beds of limestone of enor- mous thickness are interposed ; each proclaiming the prolonged existence and final extinction of a creation. F'or these lime- stone beds are not so much the charnel-houses of fossil organ- isms, as the remains of the organisms themselves.' The mountain masses of stone which now surround us, ex- tending for miles in length and breadth, were once sentient ' See a memoir " On some of the Microscopical Objects found in the Mud of the Levant, and other deposits : with Remarks on the Mode of Formation of Calcareous aud lafusprial Siliceous Kocks." By W. C. WilliamsoTi. Esq. Jl'. INORGANIC NATURE. 19 existences — testaceous and coralline, — living at the bottom of ancient seas and lakes. How countless the ages necessary for their accumulation ; when the formation of only a few inches of the strata required the life and death of many generations. Here, the mind is not merely carried back through immeasur- able periods, but, while standing amidst the petrified remains of this succession of primeval forests and extinct races of ani- mals piled up into sepulchral mountains, we seem to be encom- passed by the thickest shadow of the valley of death. On quitting these stupendous monuments of death, we leave behind us the last vestige of land-plants, and pass down to the old red sandstone. Here, too, we have passed below the last trace of reptile life. The speaking foot-prints impressed on the carboniferous strata, are absent here. The geological char- acter of this vast formation, again, tells of ages innumerable. For, though many a thousand feet in depth, it is obviously derived from the materials of more ancient rocks, fractured, decomposed, and slowly deposited in water. The gradual and quiet nature of the process, and therefore its immense dura- tion, are evident from the numerous " platforms of death,"i which mark its formation, each crowded with organic struct- ures which lived and died where they now are seen; and which, consequently, must have perished by some destructive agency, too sudden to allow of their dispersion, and yet so subtle and quiet as to leave the place of their habitation un- disturbed. Immeasurably far behind us as we have already left the fair face of the extant creation, while travelling into the night of ancient time, we yet feel, as we stand on the threshold of the next, or Silurian, system, and look down towards " the foundations of the earth," that we are not half way on our course. Here, on surveying the fossil structures, we are first struck with the total change in the petrified inhabitants of the sea, as compared with what we found in the mountain lime- stone ; implying the lapse of long periods of time, during the formation of the intervening old red sandstone which we have just left. But still more are we impressed with the lapse of duration, while descending the long succession of strata, of which this primary fossiliferous formation is composed, when we think of their slow derivation from the more ancient rocks ; ^ Mr. Hu^h Miller's " Old Red Sandstone," (1841,) p. 234} a work of peculiar interest. -*: --^mm^m'^ i% THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. of their oft repeated elevation and depression; of the long periods of repose, during which hundreds of animal species ran through their cycle of generations, and became extinct ; and of the continuance of this stratifying process, until these thin beds had acquired, by union, the immense thickness of a mile and a half. Next below this, we reach the Cambrian system, of almost equal thickness, and formed by the same slow process. Here the gradual decrease of animal remains admonishes us that even the vast and dreary empire of death has its limits, and that we are now in its outskirts. But there is a solitude greater than that of the boundless desert, and a dreariness more impressive than that which reigns in a world entombed. On leaving the slate-rocks of the Cambrian and Cumbrian formations, we find that the worlds of organic remains are past, and that we have reached a region older than death, because older than life itself Here, at least, if life ever existed, all trace of it is obliterated by the fusing power of the heat below. But we have not even yet reached a resting-place. Passing down through the beds of mica schist, many thou- sand feet in depth, to the great gneiss formation, we find that we have reached the limits of stratification itself. The granitic masses below, of a depth which man can never ex- plore, are not only crystallized themselves, but the igneous power acting through them, has partially crystallized the rocks above. Not only life, but the con(Htions of life, are here at an end. Now, is it possible for us to look from our ideal position, backwards and upwards to the ten miles height — supposing the strata to be piled regularly — from which we have descend- ed, without feeling that we have reached a point of immeasur- able remoteness in terrestrial antiquity ? Can we think of the thin soil of man's few thousand years, in contrast with the suc- cession of worlds we have passed through ; of the slow form a tion of each of these worlds on worlds, by the disintegration of more ancient materials and their subsidence in water ; of the leaf-like thinness of a great proportion of the strata ; of the consequent flow of time necessary to form only a few per- pendicular inches of all these miles ; or of the long periods of alternate elevation and depression, action and repose, which mark their formation, without acknowledging that the days and years of geology are ages and cycles of ages ! Let us conceive, if we can, that the atoms of one of these strata have formed the sands of an hour-glass, and that each grain count- »|s INORGANIC NATURE. ft" ed a moment, and we may then make some approximation to the past periods of geology; periods in the computation of which the longest human dynasty, and even the date of the pyramids, would form only an insignificant fraction. Or, re- membering that only two or three species of animals have, so far as we know, died out during the sixty or seventy cen- turies of man's historic existence upon earth, can we think of the thousands, not of generations, but of species, of races, which we have passed in our downward track, and which have all run through their ages of existence and ceased ; of the re- currence of this change again and again, even in the same strata ; and of the many times over these strata must be re- peated in order to equal the vast sum of the entire series, without feeling that we are standing, in idea, on ground so im- measurably far back in the night of time, as to fill the mind with awe ? " How dreadful is this place !" Here, at as incalculable a secular distance, probably, from the first creation of organic life, as that is from the last creation — here, silence once reigned : the only sound which occasionally broke the intense stillness being the voice of subterranean thunder ; the only motion (not felt, for there was none to feel it) an earthquake ; the only phenomenon, a molten sea, shot up from the fiery gulph below, to form the mighty framework of some future continent. And still that ancient silence seems to impose its quelling influence, and to allow in its presence the activity of nothing but thought. And that thought — what direction more natural for it to take than to plunge still farther back into the dark abyss of departed time, till it has reached a First, or Efficient Cause ? 3. The earth not eternal. — But, although we seem to be thus conducted almost into the frontiers of eternity, the moment we glance our eye in that direction, all the cycles of geology dwindle to a point. In the presence of Him, with whom a thousand years are as one day, we recover ourselves to per- ceive that these cycles are immense only in relation to our- selves. Accordingly, every step of our downward path has been suggestive of a beginning ; for everything speaks of deri- vation. Each rock, for example, points downwards to its source. We can trace the lineal extraction of each successive stratum. And even now, having reached the crypt of nature, and standing at the bases of her gneissic columns, should the question be asked, — "Whence their derivation?" geology points to tiie older granitic masses, of who^e water-worn crys- 72 THE PRE-AJ)AMITE EARTH. talline particles they are evidently composed. " But whence that granite ?" Mineralogy shows that it is composed of three very distinct mineral substances. Crystallography demonstrates, next, by cleavage, or mechanical division, that each of these three substances is compounded of atoms or molecules inex- pressibly minute, and each of these again of others still more minute, and so on to an indefinite extent ; yet that each of these possesses a determinate geometrical figure, and combines in fixed and definite proportions. Chemical analysis now takes up the process of reduction, and shows — taking the carbonate of lime, for example — that each of these integrant molecules is divisible into two compound substances. And, still farther, it shows that even each of these is a compound body. But here the process of decomposition ends. The elementary molecules thus obtained — of calcium, carbon, and oxygen, — are three of the fifty-four or fifty-five substances which, to us, are indivisible and ultimate ; and which, as it has been beauti- fully expressed by Daubeny, deserve to be regarded as the alphabet, composing the great volume which records the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. i The ancient atheistic theory of a fortuitous concourse of atoms is thus exploded ; since it is demonstrable, as we have seen, that all crystalline mineral substances exist only under fixed geometrical forms, and unite only in unchangeably definite proportions. Fortuity has no existence here. We are in the region of law ; and law implies a lawgiver. Here, too, the sceptical theory which would substitute an eternal nature for an eternal God of nature, stands exposed and condemned. To say notliing of the logical absurdity which the theory involves, in professing to account for the ex- istence of a vast magazine of exquisite contrivances without a contriver ; we have only to recall the fact, that in our subter- ranean descent we passed the actual beginning of species after species, down to a state of the globe in which life was impossi- ble. Thus Nature herself, disclaiming the honor thrust upon her at the expense of her Maker, emphatically declares, " It is not in me." The compounded state of the inorganic masses, down to the crystalline granite, joins also in affirming the same truth ; and it is with the argument from inorganic matter that we have, at present, to do. Now, it cannot be affirmed that matter has always existed in a compounded state ; for, unless 1 See Dr. Bixckland's Bridf^ewater Treatise, vol. i., c. xxiii. INORGANIC NATURE. f3 it could be proved that its compound is its necessary state, it would follow that, at some period or other in past duration, it must have been in a simple state. But chemical analysis de- monstrates that a compounded state is not a necessary condition of its existence ; for it can be analyzed and exhibited in its elements. From which it follows, either that there was a period when matter existed in its uncompounded simple ele- ments — and then the questions arise, whence the existence of these mysterious substances ? and whence the multiplied laws by which they began to combine in so varied, definite, and complex a manner, that, to bring one of them to light, immor- talizes the discoverer for his sagacity and wisdom ? or else, that matter has never existed otherwise than in a compounded state, and has thus always confessed itself a made, originated thing. Indeed, the non-eternity of the planetary system, or the fact that the present order of things had a commencement, might be argued from the admitted existence of a resisting medium in space. The argument is mathematical, and may be regarded as the continuous summation of infinitely small quantities. For, only admit that planetary motion encounters resistance ; and though it be so small as to be inappreciable within a thousand millions of years, still, if it had been from eternity, the motion resisted must have come to an end. Now, the motion of Encke's comet, as well as that of the comet discovered by M. Biela renders the existence of such a medium almost certain. True, its effect even on the wisp-like vapor of a comet may be so small as to require between twenty and thirty thousand years to reduce the cometary motion to one-half its present value. To reduce the present velocity of Jupiter by one-half might require a period of four hundred and ninety millions of years. Still, as that reduction has not taken place, the planet cannot have existed from eternity. Its motion must have had a be- ginning. The chronometer of the heavens must have been wound up within a limited time, for it has not yet run down. The object of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace — which supposes the earth, and the system to which it belongs, to have arisen from the gradual condensation of a diffused, vaporous, nebula — professes to take us back to a beginning, but only a beginning of existing motions. Its immediate design was merely to suggest analogically the possible origin of the motions of the solar system. It says nothing whatever — it can say nothing -—in disproof of the Divine origination of matter. It may 7 74 PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. trace back th*e mass to an anterior state, which " was itself preceded by other states, in which the nebulous matter was more and more diffuse. And in this manner m'c arrive," savs Laplace, " at a nebulosity so diffuse, that its existence could scarcely be suspected. Such is, in fact, the first state of the nebulas, which Herschel carefully observed by means of his powerful telescopes." Superior telescopic power, indeed, has recently thrown discredit on the hypothesis, by resolving many of the supposed nebulae into clusters of stars ; a fact suggest- ing the probability tnat a still superior telescopic power would resolve other nebulous appearances and bring new ones to light ; and so on without end. So on at least, until we possess that which we have not at present, nor are likely to obtain, a telescope — an instrument for viewing the end or limit. But even allowing the hypothesis to become a demonstra- tion, it has only removed the origination of matter to an epoch farther back in past duration. Having professedly conducted us back to its earliest nebulous condition, the hypothesis leaves us. This is the ultimatum of physical science. Respecting the anterior, the primitive, state of matter, we are still left in ignorance. Transferring our inquiries into those depths of past time to which the hypothesis would conduct us, we still have to inquire, whence came that nebula ? Why is it where it is ? Whence the cause of its condensation, separation, col- location, and motions ? — processes ^^'ilich, under the circum- stances, no laws we are acquainted with are sufficient to ex- plain. Having traced the history of the earth back through numerous changes to its supposed nebulous state, we ask, with the confidence that we are so much the nearer to the beginning, what was the primary change — the first effect ? The very fact, that our examination has disclosed to us the^ proximate beginnings of previous states of the earth, suggests the idea of a primary beginnin'g, and prepares us to hear of it. We do not expect, be it remarked, that science will ever be able to conduct us knowingly to such a commencement. ^ Even if permitted to gaze on the primordial elements of things, science could not of itself be certain of the fact. If, while the astron- omer was searching the depths of space with his instruments, a nebulous body were to be strictly originated under his gaze, his science could not assure him that the body has come wan- ' See Dr. Whewell's excellent Treatise on the Indications of the Crea- tor, pp. 150—171. INORGANIC MATURE. tS dering tbither from some distant quarter, where it had existed under other conditions. The fact that it must sometime have had a beginning, might be instinctively felt by him as a truth of reason ; but, in the nature of things, the fact could be made known to him only as an authoritative announcement, and that announcement could come to him only from another and a higher source — from the Divine Originator himself. All that we look for at the hands of science is, to admit the analogical evidence which the natural history of the earth affords of a true and real beginning ; and to satisfy the intellectual neces- sity, the imperative requirements, of reason, by admitting that such a commencement there must have been preparatory to the due reception of the sublime and inspired affirmation. In the heginning^ God created the heavens and the earth. 4. From a careful consideration of the subject, my full con- viction is, that the verse just quoted was placed by the hand of Inspiration at the opening of the Bible as a distinct and in- dependent sentence ; that it was the Divine intention to affirm by it, that the material universe was primarily originated by God from elements not previously existing ; and that tliis ori- ginating act was quite distinct from the acts included in the six natural days of the Adamic creation.^ 5. Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be proper to notice two objections to the great antiquity of the earth, although they are not of a directly Biblical nature. The first relates to the geological evidence of that antiquity, and may be expressed thus : Why might not God have created the crust of the earth just as it is, with all its numberless stratifi- cations and diversified formations, complete ? And the anal- ogy for such an exercise of creative power is supposed to be found m the creation of Adam, not as an infant, but an adult ; and in the production of the fulUsized trees of Eden, To which the reply is direct : the maturity of the first man, and of the objects around him, could not deceive him by implying that they had slowly grown to that state. His first knowledge was the knowledge of the contrary. He lived, partly, in order to proclaim the fact of his creation. And, could his own body, or any of the objects created at the same time, have been sub- jected to a physiological examination, they would no doubt have been found to indicate their miraculous production in their very destitution of all the traces of an early growth; 1 See Note B. 76 THE PRE-ApAMITE EAKTIT. whereas the shell of the earth is a crowded storehouse of evi- dence of its gradual formation. So that the question, express- ed in other language, amounts to this : Might not the God of infinite truth have enclosed in the earth, at its creation, evi- dence of its having existed ages before its actual production ? Of course, the Objector would disavow such a sentiment. But such appears to be the real import of the objjection ; and, as such, it involves its own refutation. 6. The second relates to the long period during which the earth was, according to geological disclosures, comparatively unoccupied, and amounts to this : Is it likely that so long a period would have been allowed by the Almighty to elapse, after the creation of the earth, before the production of the hu- man race ? Now, if this be said from a regard to the relative importance of man, as if all created time were lost till he ap- peared, it is sufficient to reply, that he has still an eternity before him ; and that had he been created a myriad of ages earlier than he was, there would yet have been an eternity behind him. If it be said, in the spirit of homage to the Cre- ator, it should be remembered that to Him " who inhabiteth eternity," there can be neither early nor late ; that to Him " a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years." Besides which, the pre- Adamite antiquity of the earth is not, as the objection seems to imply, useless to man. On the con- trary, he is indebted to the processes which were then taking place, for all the principal means of his material civilization. And, then, as a creature in whose mind ideas succeed each other, how eminently calculated is the mere attempt of open- ing his imagination to let a procession of ten thousand ages pass through, or of the events of such a period, to subserve his highest interests, by elevating his conceptions of the Being who has superintended the whole. Other beneficial results might easily be specified. And unless the objector knew all the ends which were answered by the long periods of the earth's existence, prior to the Creation of man ; and all which will be derived from it in the eternity to come, he is not in a situation to pronounce on the subject. For aught he knows, a disclosure of all those ends would convert his present scepti- cism respecting the antiquity of the earth, into a feeling of wonder that the periods of geology had not been of longer du- ration than they were. INORGANIC NATURE. 77 I. The First Effect. — Assuming, on the grounds stated, then, the great antiquity of the earth, let us go back in thought to that " beginning " when God created the material universe. Up to the moment of its origination there had been only one substance ; for " God is a Spirit." Not more amazing, there- fore, as a display of power, would the origination of a third substance now be, differing from the two already existing as much as these two differ from each other, than was the origina- tion of matter as the opening act of the visible creation. Here, according to our first law, was an effect of which the supreme and ultimate reason must be in the Divine Nature. 1. It is by no means important for us to inquire, whether or not the Being who spake this immensity of matter into ex- istence and activity, separated it from the first into masses, and distributed those masses into the places and proportions and harmonious relations which prevail at present ; or, whether he merely produced a vast central and aggregate chaos, as the material from which stars and systems should subsequently issue, by a series of distinct creative acts. If it should appear that the first was the fact, it might indeed be considered that the collocation and adjustment of the celestial mechanism, by furnishing a grand display of the knowledge of God, impeached our general proposition that the primary act of creation was chiefly a manifestation of power. But to this it would be suf- ficient to reply, that the knowledge which such a distribution of matter would have displayed from the first, would only show- that the power was intelligent and not a blind fate ; that it was a knowledge distinct from the wisdom displayed in the second or organic stage of creation ; • that it would not the less, but the more, illustrate the power which effected it — " knowl- edge," in this instance, would be " power ; " that we do not claim for the first stage of the manifestation a display of power exclusively, since every act of an infinitely perfect Being must virtually, include the effect of every attribute of which that per- fection consists ; that such a virtual inclusion of wisdom and goodness in power, as well as of power in wisdom and goodness, is essential to that continuity of divine manifestation which it is our aim to illustrate ; but that we claim for it the exhibition of power principally and supremely ; and that God himself is ^ See Note C. • 78 THE FKE-ADAMITE EARTH. often found to Jippeal to the work of creation as his own chosen proof of power. 2. According to the nebular hypothesis, however, such a distribution of matter was not simultaneous with its origina- tion. Now, whatever may be the merits of this hypothesis in relation to the whole universe of matter, it is certain that the shape of our own planet — that of an oblate spheroid, or a sphere flattened at the poles — is precisely tliat which a fluid body would assume by rotation about an axis. And, on exam- ining the constitution of the primary rocks, it is, as we have seen, found to be the result of a state of fusion. They are all crystallized ; and many of the series above them are found to be almost as crystalline in their texture. 3. Now, let us suppose that we had been admitted, not only to contemplate the first act of the Divine manifestation, but to study that display in the whole of this first stage, distinguished as it must have been by elemental conflicts and volcanic ex- plosions beyond all human conception, in what other light could we have regarded the phenomena than as signs or expressions of unknown power ? We are not now to speak of the extent of the power to be inferred from the supposed scene — whether it be limited or unlimited. This view belongs to a subsequent part of the subject. At present we have to do only with the origination of matter and its planetary formation, as an expres- sion of power. Every property, indeed, which was now brought to light, and every idea which can be supposed to have been truly suggested and represented, expressed a spiritual corres- pondence in the Divine Creator. Thus, the bare existence of the dependent substance, matter, pre-supposed the existence of the Independent and Infinite Substance. The laws which the planetary motions exhibited were His laws ; and proclaim- ed him to be " the God of order." For, no being can impart that which he does not, in some sense, possess. But even the origination of the substance, and the j)rescription and main- tenance of the laws, were preeminently demonstrations of power. Here was the first objective effect — the origination of matter; irresistibly awakening the conviction of the First Cause : the solemn utterance of the Deity on the subject of causation. Here was the universe of matter in motion, awa- kening the idea of force ; it was the great practical lesson of the Deity on dynamics — the doctrine of force producing motion. Every property of matter, every process by which its proper- ties were developed, every law which regulated these pro- INORGANIC NATURE. 7l> cesses, every elementar}^ particle and every revolving planet, was lecturing on the power which imparted that force. Nor could we have looked on the geological, planetary, and astral motions — the systems of motion — the complicated and bound- less whirl of motion, in its multitude, variety, velocity and extent, and have referred the whole to its origin and support, without feeling the deep emphasis of the declaration, " Power belongeth unto God." n. The past h'ought forward. — One of our principles requires that the laws and results of the past be carried forwards ; and that all that is characteristic in the lower steps of the process be carried up into the higher as far as it may subserve the ultimate end ; or unless it be superseded by something analo- gous and superior in the higher and the future. (As we are only, at present, in the first stage of creation, it is obvious that our means of illustrating this law can be derived from nothing antecedent ; but are restricted to the earlier operations of this opening stage, as related to its later periods.) Thus the law of attraction had collected matter around a centre. But it knows nothing of selection ; holding the most heterogeneous masses together by the one common bond of gravitation. But having brought the particles of which the masses are composed so near together, another law — that of chemical affinity — appears. Two of the leading principles of chemical affinity are, that it is elective — passing by one par- ticle to coalesce with another ; and definite or constant, — each element uniting only with a certain fixed proportion of the element elected. And, then, as chemical affinity is an advance on attraction, crystallization is an advance on chemical affinity ; and to this we are indebted for the granitic foundations of the earth, and all the ten thousand symmetrical forms which matter assumes. The first of these laws does not more prepare the way for the second, than the second for the third. For " bodies never crystallize but when their elements combine chemically ; and solid bodies which combine, when they do it most completely and exactly, also crystallize." i The matter which was merely ' Professor WliewcU's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i p. 353. 80 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. held together by attraction — is sorted by chemical affinity — and, in crystallization, according to Berzelius,! it assumes its definite forms by a presupposed effort of the particles, not simply to unite, but to unite at certain points. But when the perfect crystal is formed, be it remarked, no law is repealed."" It is no less in the all-grasping hand of attraction than it was at first. m. Progression, — One of our principles is, that the production of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, will be itself a law of the manifestation ; in other words, that the system will be progressive. Accordingly, when we reach the second stage of the process, we shall be able to show its advance as com- pared with the first. But as we are now merely entering on that first stage, we have nothing prior with which to compare it. We can only regard inorganic matter as something, an existence ; and, as such, an advance on nothing, or on non- existence. In this light, we have simply to speak, first, of its constitution. But if, then, taking our stand at a period to- wards the close of this stage, we look back on the succession of changes which the material system is supposed to exhibit ; we may speak also oi progression in relation to these changes. 1. Over the physical constitution of every planet except our own, there hangs a deep obscurity. We may be able to weigh them, and to measure their volumes ; but this is nearly the sum of our knowledge concerning them. Here, however, we find ourselves in contact with matter ; it courts and compels our attention. To the observant mind the earth is a vast laboratory, in which the great processes of chemistry are in constant operation. Accordingly, the researches of science have brought to light between fifty and sixty forms or modifi- cations of matter. Each of these, having hitherto resisted all endeavors to resolve them into any others, is termed a simple or undecompounded body. It is deemed probable that these bodies exist ultimately as atoms or indivisible particles. And easy as it may be to change, in any given instance, their state and appearance, they are, as far as we know, indestructible. 2. The properties of matter have been divided into the primary and secondary. The first, including extension, impen- ' Essay on the Theory of Chemical Properties, p. 113. INORGANIC NATURE. gl etrability, and inertia, are such as belong to all kinds of mat- ter, and without which we cannot conceive of its existence. The second, are those by which one kind of matter is distin- guished from another. To this class belong light, heat, elec- tricity, magnetism, molecular attraction, crystallization, and gravitation. 3. These properties are developed, and operate according to laws. Viewed as merely existent, or in relation to space, matter presupposes a cause ; viewed in its fixed relations, and its uniform successions, it exhibits laws, and therefore presup- poses a lawgiver also. Thus, the most general law, with which we are at present acquainted, in the chemistry of Na- ture, is, that all the elementary bodies of which we have spoken, besides exhibiting what may be called preferences, enter into combination with each other, not arbitrarily, but only in Jlxed and definite proportions, by weight. So that having discovered a new elementary substance, and ascertain- ed its chemical properties, we can foretel all the proportions in which it can enter into combination with all the others. Into some of these combinations, it may have never yet entered. But our knowledge of the law respecting it enables us to fore- see what the Author of Nature has ordained that it shall do in such circumstances. The law governs our anticipations. " This use of the word law, has relation to us as understand- ing, rather than to the materials of which the universe consists as obeying, certain rules." Our mind discovers the mind of the Creator on the subject, even before the thing created has been made, in the particular case, to illustrate His will. And thus we obtain a view of the constitution of matter which effectually destroys the idea of its eternal and self-existent nature, " by giving to each of its atoms the essential characters, at once, of a manufactured article, and a subordinate agent "^ 4. The laws which regulate the changes and combinations of matter are brought to light by those changes themselves ; such as solution, evaporation, rarefaction, decomposition, and combustion. The combinations of which the elementary sub- stances are susceptible are endless. The principal forms, in- deed, in which matter is found at the surface of the globe, are, the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous. Into the composition of the solid earth there enter but eight or ten of the elementary substances in any larc/e quantities. The water, which covers * Sir J. Herschel on the Study of Nat. Phil., §§ 27, 28. 82 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. about three-fourths of the earth, is made up chiefly of two of tliese substances. And the atmosphere, which envelops both the earth and the water, is composed principally of two also. Indeed, there are grounds to beheve that all inorganic sub- stances unite by what is called the Unary principle of combin- ation ; so that, however numerous the inorganic elements in union, in any instance, may be, they will be found to exhibit a progressive combination of pairs of substances, simple and compound. But, we repeat, the combinations of which the fifty or sixty elementary bodies admit, are inconceivable ; like the letters of the alphabet, whose union in words and senten- ces admit of a diversity which no speaking or writing can ever exhaust. In the great laboratories of Nature, every descrip- tion of chemical process is doubtless iA activity, by which compounds of every kind are continually forming. By far the greater part of the rocky crust of the globe is made up of the fragments and powder of an incalculable variety of sub- stances, mingled together in all degrees of proportion, and in such a manner as to defy separation. Nor can it be doubted that this round of change has been going on from the begin- ning. 6. This brings us to remark, secondly, on that progression in the state of the primitive earth, indicated by its mineral and chemical changes. If, for the sake of illustration, we adopt the nebular hypothesis, we shall admit that there was a time when the original planetary material was yet circulating in diffused and undetached masses around the sun. Then came the period when the planets, aggregating into separate bodies, occupied their respective orbits, and received their appropriate impulses ; impulses involving phenomena so traceable to the liand of the Creator, that Laplace has said, respecting a cer- tain class of them, " It is iniinity to unity that this is not the eflfect of chance." 1 7. Or if, dispensing with the nebular hypothesis, we sup- pose the planetary bodies to have existed in their assigned orbits from the first, our imagination will yet take us back to the dateless period when the earth was passing from its vapor- ous foi-m to that of incipient consolidation. The phenomena exhibited by certain comets — -especially by that of 1744, and by Halley's comet, on its last appearance in 1835 — have been supposed to justify the inference, that they are passing through ' Syst, vol. ii. p. 366. INORGANIC NATURE. 83 a rapid succession of formative processes. The secular cool- ing down of the insufferably high temperature of the earth was followed by the formation of its shell, or the crystalliza- tion of its rocks ; and this again by their decomposition by mechanical and chemical means. Then came the period when, as the process of consolidation went on, the volcanic forces began the transformation of the older strata, and produced new and strange admixtures — gneiss, and mica slate, and granular limestone. — Every repetition of the process was fol- lowed by new combinations of old materials. The vast rifts and chasms in the crust of the earth closed up, or gave room for the elevation of mountain chains. The external signs of volcanic activity, if they did not contract in range, diminished in intensity. The central heat given off from the surface of the earth was greatly reduced ; life became possible ; and the earth approached nearer and nearer to its present configura- tion. And thus, on each imaginary visit we make to the an- cient earth, we find it in progress. The activity we behold is not in reality chaotic. Every change is only the result of a new chemical combination, or the evolution of a new law, or the effect of a force newly come into operation. IV. Continuity. — According to another of our hypothetical laws, it may be expected that the manifestation, besides being pro- gressive, will be continuous, or will be progressive by being continuous, leaving no intervals of time, or of degree, but such as the modifying influence of other laws may require or account for. 1. I am well aware of the metaphysical, as well as mathe- matical, universality which has been ascribed to the law of continuity ; and of the errors and evils arising from such an unqualified extension of its application. It was first applied to motion. Galileo i — referring the idea to Plato — affirmed that a body cannot pass from a state of rest to a certain de- gree of velocity without passing through all the intermediate degrees of motion. Leibnitz not only asserted the law in a more general form,'^ but carried it on from matter into the domain of mind; adducing it to demonstrate that the mind never ceases to think, even in sleep ; and that death, in an * Dialog, iii. 150; iv, 32. ' Opera; i. 366. 84 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. absolute sense, is an impossibility.^ Bonnet, in harmony with the maxim, Natiira non operatur per saltum, deduced from the law of continuity the conclusion — not indeed entirely unknown to philosophy before — that creation must consist of a scale of being, graduated downwards, without any saUus, or leap, from the Creator to the unorganized atom. And, subsequently, Helvetius applied the law to the progress of human improve- ment.2 Nor have writers since been wanting to press it still farther — to the illustration of that doctrine of necessity, which regards all the phenomena of human life as concatenated in a chain of iron mechanism. And even beyond this, it has been made to countenance a theory of development, according to which, an unbroken chain of gradually advanced organization has been evolved, from the crystal to the globule, and thence, through the successive stages of the polypus, the mollux, the insect, the fish, the reptile, the bird, and the beast, up to the monkey and the man.3 2. But while, on the one hand, we avoid being led away by a dazzling generality, or being offended by a wild speculation, reckless alike of inductive facts and of moral consequences, let us not, on the other, reject a principle which, when viewed in subservient relation to other principles, may prove to exist, and to have a place in the reality of things. Such a view I have expressed generally in the announcement at the head of this section. The actual modifications to which I believe it to be subjected will become apparent as we advance, from stage to stage, in our examination of its history. For the present, we have only to do with its application to unorganized matter. 3. What was the primordial constitution or condition of the material universe ? That it existed, at first, in a gaseous, dif- fused, and nebulous state, is only an hypothesis ; and an hypo- thesis, as has been remarked already, employed by Laplace, chiefly for the purpose of accounting for the motions of the solar system. And the fact that the space-penetrating power of Lord Rosse's telescope has resolved many of the supposed nebulae into starry systems, requires us to keep the hypothesis still at a wide distance from the realities of science. Lideed, it awakens the conviction that, in the present life, we can never arrive at certainty respecting the nebulous formation of systems ; for were our telescopic power to be multipUed a ^ lb. ii. 51. 2 j)g FEsprit, dis. iv. c. i. ^ Among sucli speculators may be named the author of the " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." INORGANIC NATURE. 95 thousand-fold, so that we could resolve all the nebulae within the extended range of our present observation, we could not be sure that nebulous bodies did not exist beyond ; and were our power of observation to be then doubled, we should pro- bably still behold in the horizon of space other nebulous ap- pearances — realms of apparent star-dust — defying our utmost powers of resolution. All that we can hope for is an approx- imation to the truth. Now such an approximation, however far it may be from the actual attainment of the truth, does appear to be made by the nebular hypothesis. It harmonizes with what appears to be the formative processes, going on at present in certain com- etary bodies. It hypothetically accounts for the motions of the planetary bodies, as masses thrown off from the central body. It agrees with the geometrical form of the earth ; its oblate- ness seeming to reveal the pristine fluidity of the body ; for such is the figure which it would assume as the consequence of a centrifugal force operating on a soft rotating mass. So that " its figure is its history ;" for it indicates the mode of its origin as formed, under the conditions supposed, by gradual condensation. And " surely the vision of these unfathomable changes, of the solemn jiiarch of these majestic heavens from phase to phase, obediently fulfiUing their awful destiny, will be lost on the heart of the adorer, unless it swells with that humility which is the best homage to the Supreme ! Between us and the Highest there is still vastness and mystery. To take wing beyond terrestrial precincts, perhaps, is not wholly forbidden, provided we go with unsandaled feet, as if on holy ground. An order hanging tremblingly over nothingness, and of which every constituent fails not to beseech incessantly for a substance and substratum, in the idea of One who liveth FOR ever !" 1 It has been affirmed, indeed, that the planets show " a pro- gressive diminution in density from the one nearest the sun to that which is most distant ;" that the motions of the solar sys- tem are " all in one direction — from west to east ;" and that " the distances of the planets are curiously relative."^ But Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens. * Vestiges of Creation, pp. 9, 10. The period of the newly-discovered planet Neptune is now ascertained to be 166 years, and its mean distance 30 terrestrial radii, instead of 38. So that Bodc's empirical law of the " curiously relative" distances of the planets, has failed with regard to Neptune. 8 86 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. such continuity has no existence in nature. The density of the sun itself is only about a fourth of that of the earth. The densities of Venus, Earth, and Mars, are nearly equal. While the density of Uranus is greater than that of Saturn, which is nearer the sun. The motion of the satellites of Uranus is retrograde — from east to west. And the relative distances of Mercury and Venus, and of the only satellites which admit of comparison, — those of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, — from their primaries, exhibit no such uniform disposition as the statement implies. The collocation and motions of the sys- tem cannot be referred to chance, because of its calculated uniformity ; nor to natural law, owing to its departures from uniformity. 4. The law of continuity, in a modified form, has been ap- plied, not only to the formation of material systems by passing from a fluid state through all the intermediate stages to that of the separation and solidification of their parts, but also to the subsequent history of the earth as one of these parts. Thus, MaccuUoch and others employed it to show that the rocks called trap rocks were not of sedimentary origin, but that, as they were found in all the intermediate stages between the igneous and that most nearly resembling the sedimentary form, they constitute a connecting link between these two extremes, and form a transition series. Lyell has employed this principle of gradation, in opposition to the catastrophists, who suppose that the present state of the earth has been rapidly attained by violent changes and paroxysms, to show that all geological phenomena have been produced slowly, by causes which are still acting on the surface of the earth. According to this view, the present condition of our planet has been reached, not by the wide leaps of geological causes, but by their con- tinuous and gradational operation. 5. The true view, probably, iB that which reconciles both methods ; and which sees alike in the steady operation of laws leading, in the lapse of ages, to a geological catastrophe, and in the catastrophe preparing the way for the resumed and steady operation of these laws, the uninterrupted progress of the great design. Thus interpreted, science joins with In- spiration in asking, " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ?" No pause occurred through all the unmeasured periods of the geological process ; no revolution, which rendered it necessary to begin the work ajrain. INORGANIC NATURE. 87 6. Descending even to the chemica,! properties of matter, we find a gradation in the nature of its elementary substances. For convenience, indeed, these fifty or sixty substances are divided into the metallic and the non-metallic. But there is no such a break in their characteristics as to justify this divi- sion. Arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, selenium, sulphur, con- stitute a connecting chain between the two series. Activity. — Another of our laws prepares us to find the uni- verse of matter in a state of activity. 1. Accordingly, even the present repose of nature is only apparent. Not an atom, not a world is at rest. The simplest and minutest body is the subject of internal movements among the particles composing it. The interior of the earth is inces- santly reacting on the exterior. Waves of motion pass through it. The bursting forth of hot springs, jets of steam, mud volca- noes, the up-heaval of dome-shaped mountains, the appearance of new eruptive islands, the processes of rock formation, and the steady rising in its level of Sweden and other portions of the earth's surface, proclaim the constant action of an elastic vapor within. " Could we obtain daily news of the state of the whole of the earth's crust, we should, in all probability, be- come convinced that some point or another of its surface is ceaselessly shaken ; that there is uninterrupted reaction of the interior upon the exterior going on."^ By the operation of the various forces and modifications of the law of attraction, everything is changing its relations or its place ; the granite itself yields ; and nature is kept in mutual action and reaction. " Electricity, as a chemical agent, may be considered not only as directly producing an infinite variety of changes, but, likewise, as influencing almost all which take place. There are not two substances on the surface of the globe, that are not in different electrical relations to each other ; and chemical attraction itself seems to be a peculiar form of the exhibition of electrical attraction ; and wherever the atmos- phere, or water, or any part of the surface of the earth, gains accumulated electricity of a different kind from the contiguous surfaces, the tendency of this electricity is to produce new ar- rangements of the parts of the surfaces."^ * Humboldt's Cosmos, p.221. ^ Sir Humphrey Davy's Consolations in Travel, p. 271. 88 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. All is in motion around and beyond the earth. Climate is the aggregate result of an unknown variety of agents and laws in constant play. The comparative repose of the complicated atmosphere depends on the incessant activity of its elements. The northern light is a magnetic storm — "a terrestrial activity raised to the pitch of a luminous phenomenon," — as lightning is evolved by an electrical storm. The fall of meteoric stones indicates the forces which are at work in the regions beyond our planet. A solitary star shooting across the blue vault of heaven tells us that the realms of space, calm and dream- less though they look, are realms of all-pervading, burning activity. But, at times, these " fiery tears " of the sky are seen to fall in showers, and even streams ; awakening the idea of an ever-circulating ring composed of myriads of luminous meteoric bodies, intersecting the orbit of the earth. The zodi- acal light circles round the sun. The pulsations which tremble through the tail of a comet millions of miles in length, are probably only apparent, and produced by our atmosphere ; but the nuclei of those comets " bind, by their attractive power, the very outermost particles of the tail that is streaming away at the distance of millions of miles from them." The motions of the double stars reveal the presence of the gravitating force, in the remotest regions of space. The solar system changes its place in the universe. Stars appear and disappear. The astral universe moves. " If we imagine, as in a vision of the fancy," says Humboldt, " the acuteness of our sense preternatu- rally sharpened even to the extreme limit of telescopic vision, and incidents, which are separated by vast intervals of time, compressed into a day or an hour, everything like rest in spacial existence will forthwith disappear. We shall find the innume- rable hosts of the fixed stars commoved in groups in different directions; nebulae drawing hither and thither, like cosmic clouds ; the milky way breaking up in particular parts, and its veil rent ; motion in every part of the vault of heaven." 2. Now this ideal picture may help us to conceive of scenes which actually existed in the earlier stages of the material universe. If matter first appeared at the Omnipotent call, in nebulous masses, or if the heavenly bodies generally have pass- ed through changes similar to those of our own planet, space must have been the theatre of dynamic activity and conflict beyond all our present powers of iUustration. The crust of the earth tells its own eventful history. Time was when that solid bm still thin crust ever quivered and undulated with the concussive INORGANIC NATURE. fUS^ forces within. Earthquakes shattered and rifted it, and opened, in all directions, volcanic communication between the molten interior and the surface. Through the yawning and abyss-like fissures which traversed it, mountain chains were uplifted ; or else eruptive matters were poured forth from unknown depths — granite, porphyry, and basalt — an ocean of rock. Sedi- mentary formations took place, through mechanical and chem- ical action of an intensity incomparably greater than that which obtained in later eras. Subterraneous forces repeatedly lifted these ever-thickening strata from the beds of the primi- tive waters, and allowed them to sink back again. But besides unheaving these masses, dislocating and rending them asunder, the eruptive rocks chemically transformed them into new species of rocks. In the great subterranean laboratory, the metamorphic process was ever proceeding on a scale immeasu- rable. And while this mighty action from within was penetrat- ing outwardly and changing the nature of the older strata, causes of equal potency without were maintaining the antag- onist process of stratification. Vast beds of alluvium or drift were formed ; and inland lakes and pent-up seas, displaced by the upheaval of some new range of Alps or Apennines, rushed tumultuously down, displacing, in their turn, the mountain masses which obstructed their course, and hastened to resume their office of chemical deposition. The history of all these changes, we say, is legibly incribed in the earth itself. It is only by beholding the effects of such activity, as preserved from the morning of time, and still con- tinued in our presence, that we know anything of the laws and properties of matter. A dead, motionless expanse of matter — if such a thing were possible — would be a petrifying blank. It would reveal nothing of itself, and could say nothing of its Maker. But such an anomaly is unknown. Matter is full of the life of motion. Geology admits us into the laboratory of the past ; and we behold, laid up for our inspection, the results of activities and powers, which fills the mind with awe to imagine. We see that the great antagonist processes of sedi- mentation and crystallization have never paused. The endless admixtures of matter have maintained its forces in ever-vary- ing play. And still its multifarious chemical diversity evokes the spirit of change and motion. Its particles essay to arrange themselves in regular forms. In its ever-shifting restlessness, it discloses relations to light, to heat, and to the phenomena of electro-magnetism. In a word, its activity reveals its laws 8* 90 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. and develops its properties ; and the record of these is the record of the Power which originated and keeps them all in motion. VI. Development. — Here, also, according to another law, the same property which existed in the preceding, or inferior part of the stage, is not only carried up to the higher, but is there applied to a new and a higher purpose. Cohesion finds its complement in affinity ; and affinity finds its perfection in crys- tallization. This appears to be the highest state of mere inor- ganic matter. It involves the idea of numerical and developed symmetry. A body perfectly crystallized, and exhibiting not merely geometrical symmetry of outward shape, but showing, by its cleavage, its transparency, its uniform and determinate optical properties, that the same regularity pervades every por- tion of the mass, is an object for the production of which every great physical law and element of nature appears to have com- bined — suggesting to the imagination a beautiful pre-intima- tion of the coming flower. vn. Relations. — Another of our laws warrants us to expect that every object and event in the material universe will be found to be variously related. Accordingly, not an atom floats apart in isolation ; no change, however slight, is self-originated, or terminates with itself. 1. Matter has relations internal and coexistent; — by the attraction of cohesion, for example, the particles of masses are kept together even when in violent motion. It has also rela- tions external and coexistent ; for, by gravitation, these masses themselves are bound to each other. " When we contemplate," says Sir John Herschel, " the constituents of the planetary sys- tem from the point of view which this relation affords us, it is no longer mere analogy which strikes us — no longer a gen- eral resemblance among them, as individuals independent of each other, and circulating about the sun, each according to its own peculiar nature, and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The resemblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness ; they are bound up in one chain — interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious agreement — subjected INORGANIC NATURE. |i| to c«ie pervading influence, which extends from the centre to the farthest limits of that great system, of which all of them, the earth included, must henceforth be regarded as members." i 2. Matter has relations internal and successively existent ; chemical changes which take place in all inorganic bodies by motions which are not sensible, or at least not measurable. And it has relations external and successively existent ; and which proclaim themselves in the sensible and measurable mo- tions of bodies. If, instead of confining myself to the bare illustration of the law now under considei*ation, it were my object to enlarge on the relations of inorganic nature scientifi- cally regarded,^ this would be the place for their introduction and methodical distribution ; for the coexistent phenomena of matter belong to natural history, or are related to space ; and its successively existent phenomena to natural philosophy, or are related to time. 3. Among the relations more obvious and interesting to a dweller on the earth, I would merely advert to the relative quantities of land and sea, a relation which, as it was often changed in the early geological periods, must have produced corresponding changes upon the distribution of temperature ; to the relation between the velocity of the earth's rotation on. its axis, and the degree of its mean temperature ; and, to the geological relations between the interior and exterior of the earth — between the aqueous formations without, and the igne- ous processes within, by which rocky masses, granitic, porphy- ritic, and serpentine, forcing up their way from below, have burst through the sedimentary strata, hardening, changing, or variously commingling them. 4. In fine, every object and event in the material universe is all-related. Action and reaction, relations of coexistence and of sequence, are everywhere. In the process of generaliza- tion, science discovers that the relations of physical cause and effect are only secondary, or phenomenal ; that they are pro- perly medial, referring it back to something higher, more gen- eral and comprehensive still. The discovery of the law of attraction, enabled man to generalize many inferior laws, and to point out their subordinate place and their relations. But does not attraction itself sustain a relation to something prior and more general still ? To ascertain this is the office, and * Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopcdi.a. ^ See Mrs. Somerville's Connection of the Physical Sciences, passim. 92 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. the present occupation of science. Man only knows — as a fact of reason — that, generaUze the relations of matter as he may, there must be a point at which the wliole coexistent series merges in the will of the great Originating Cause ; and that, of the whole series of sequent relations, there is no point from which that agency is absent. The most absolute, comprehen- sive, and profound, of all the relations of matter, is that of the dependence on the will of God. vin. Order. — As each of the physical laws to which we have adverted may be supposed to have come into operation, in the opening stage of creation, in succession ; so, according to anoth- er of our laws, in the same order of succession they operate still. The crystalline state of the body may be destroyed, and yet the affinity and the gravitation remain ; the affinity may next be destroyed, and yet the gravitation remain. Each prior law acts, in so far, independently of that which succeeds it; each sub- sequent law is dependent on pre-existing laws, or is generated by them, and yet harmonizes with them, or subordinates them to itself. This is seen alike in the formation of the crystal, in the laboratory of the chemist, and in the granite masses which we find thrust up from the subterranean laboratory, through the crust of the earth. rx. Influence. — We may expect also that everything will bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it ; a^ reason for the degree in which they should be influenced by it ; and for the degree in which it, in its turn, should be influ- enced by everything else. The manner in which one law may be said to wait on another, we have seen. And the way (tak- ing our example from gravitation) in which the lighter mass may be said to be subordinated to the heavier, is equally evi- dent ; for matter attracts directly as the mass, and inversely as the squares of the distance. So that it does not follow, from the superior gravity of the earth, that the mote floating near the surface has no weight. The earth and a gossamer mutu- ally attract each other, in the proportion of the mass of the earth to the mass of the gossamer, but only in that proportion. INORGANIC NATURE. 99 Every mass finds a place, and every action produces reaction ; but, for the same reason that the one is related to space at all, and the other to motion and time, the relation of each is pro- portioned, definite, regulated by law. Subordination. — In harmony with the last named law, we are led by another of our principles to expect that everything subordinate in rank, though it may have been prior in its ori- gin, will be subject to each higher object or law of creation. The facts adduced under the two laws immediately preceding will, it is presumed, sufficiently exemplify this principle. Dlus- trations of it, as applied to organic nature, will be found in their proper places, in the subsequent part of this treatise. XI. Uniformity. — According to another of our principles, nat- ural laws, though originally contingent, as opposed to absolute- ly necessary, are, as far as we know them, uniform and uni- versal. "Not one faileth." 1. The same law which forms the tear into a globule, pro- duces the spherical form of the vast masses which people space. All the phenomena of the material system, as far as we know them, are reducible to mathematical laws. The rotation of the earth in twenty-four hours has not varied by the one-hundredth part of a second, since the age of Hipparchus — full two thou- sand years ago. Newton, indeed, inferred that the irregulari- ties arising "from the mutual actions of comets and planets upon one another will be apt to increase, till the system wants a reformation." i He left these perturbations to be calculated by his successors. And Lagrange and Laplace, by a profound analysis, established the great principle that these variations are limited within certain periods, and that they alternate with periods of restoration. This has been called " the stability of the planetary system." And thus laws, originally contingent on the will of God, are made, by the same will, permanent and universal. 2. In affirming the invariableness of the laws of nature, then, it is to be distinctly understood ; first, that this constancy * Optics, Query 31. 94 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. involves no idea of eternal or independent existence, but the contrary. " The question, — vhat are the laws of nature ? may be stated thus : what are the fewest and simplest assumptions, which, being granted, the whole existing order of nature would result ? . . . When Kepler expressed the regularity which ex- ists in the observed motions of the heavenly bodies, by the three general propositions called his laws, he, in so doing, pointed out three simple volitions, by which, instead of a much greater number, it appeared that the whole scheme of the heavenly motions, so far as yet observed, might be conceived to have been produced." i Laws of nature, then, strictly speak- ing, is a phrase denoting only the uniformities existing among natural phenomena. To speak of these uniformities as if they were producing or regulating powers, is obviously absurd. They simply presuppose such powers or volitions, and are their manifestations. The first sequence was a thing produ- ced, and proclaimed a producer. Secondly, the regularity of the laws of nature is quite compatible with the numerical in- crease of their manifestations, and even, conditionally, with the numerical increase of the volitions which they manifest. Un- less the universe was flashed into existence, entire and com- plete, at once, the phenomena of nature must have become more complex and multiform, as time has advanced. Nor, thirdly, is the stability of nature inconsistent with apparent de- rangements and partial perturbations ; for these very pertur- bations are only manifestations of other created laws. Still, however, it must be admitted that they are of a kind to inti- mate, that all which is now understood as included in the sta- biHty of creation, may prove to be included in a still more comprehensive law of change. And hence, fourthly, the reg- ularity of nature for unnumbered ages, is quite compatible with subsequent changes in its constitution. As its laws w ere originally contingent on the Divine appointment, so may be their continuance. Its present stability may be only provi- sional. And they who would abandon its phenomena to ca- price, are but little more blameworthy than they who deem its law6 for ever unalterable. The laws of nature are uniform and universal, but only conditionally so. * Mill's System of Logic, vol. i. p. 384. INORGANIC NATURE. 91^ xn. Obligation. — One of our laws prepares us to expect that everything belonging to the great system of creation will be found, either promoting, or existing under an obligation to promote, the great end, commensurate with its means, and re- lations. 1. Of course, obligation can be predicated of inanimate matter only in a metaphorical sense, similar to that in which the same material nature is said to be governed by laws. Now laws, strictly speaking, are moral rules ; " rules for the conscious ac- tions of a person ; rules which, as a matter of possibility, we may obey or transgress ; the latter event being combined, not with an impossibility, but with a penalty. But the Laws of JVature are something different from this ; they are rules for that which things are to do and suffer ; and this by no con- sciousness or will of theirs. They are rules describing the mode in which things do act ; they are invariably obeyed ; their trangression is not punished, it is excluded. The language of a moral law is, man shall not kill ; the language of a Law of Nature is, a stone will fall to the earth." Here " all things are ordered by number, and weight, and measure. ' God,' as was said by the ancients, ' works by geometry;' the legislation of the material universe is necessarily delivered in the lan- guage of mathematics ; the stars in their courses are regulated by the properties of conic sections, and the winds depend on arithmetical and geometrical progressions of elasticity and pres- sure." 1 2. As " the laws of nature," then, can only properly denote those rules by which God is pleased to regulate the phenomena of nature — rules revealed by the mode of His own working in nature ; so, if obligation be predicated of nature, it can only denote the necessity which He is pleased to incur to operate uniformly in harmony with those rules, in order to the attain- ment of a proposed end. Thus, if the planetary system is to be maintained as it is, certain conditions must be fulfilled. With a perpetual tendency to fly off in a straight line from its solar centre, the physical well-being or continuance of the sys- tem depends on its mechanical obedience to an opposite law. The stability and physical progress of the whole depend on the perfect balance of laws apparently opposed to each other ; * Professor Whewell's B. Treatise, chap. ii. M THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. and accordingly the balance is allowed to know no material disturbance. " For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven : Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They con- tinue this day according to thine ordinances : for all are thy servants." ' xm. Well-being. — By another of our laws we are led to expect that everything will enjoy an amount of good, or exhibit a degree of well-being, proportionate to the degree of its con- formity to the laws of its being. Here, again, our language, in its present application, must be understood metaphorically. We are still in a domain in which obedience is only mechan- ical, and from which the possibility of transgression is ex- cluded. It might, indeed, be remarked, that even here we meet with many things which are at once suggestive of an ideal physical perfection, and which yet exhibit departures from it — orbits elliptical, motions with perturbations, spheres bulging, depress- ed, and even the surface of such a sphere rising and sinking with Himalayan irregularities. But all this is according to prescribed law ; and, as such, is a part of the material system. As far, therefore, as the principle now under consideration has any application here, it can relate only to the necessary changes and apparent conflicts which the material phenomena exhibit. The composition of a chemical body, for example, depends on the presence of certain conditions, a mechanical force disturbs or destroys one or more of these conditions, and the composi- tion is at an end. Certain stars have disappeared from the firmament ; a fact, proclaiming, at least, that the laws on which their visibility depended are no longer in operation in relation to them, but have been overborne by some counteracting power. Certain changes have been going on in the motions of the heavenly bodies from the first records of science ; — the eccen- tricity of the earth's orbit has been diminishing; the moon has been moving quicker and quicker ; and the obliquity of the ecliptic becoming less. But, according to Laplace, the distur- bance never passes a certain limit. The system contains a provision for complete restoration, so that the continuance of Ps. cxix. 89— 91. INORGANIC NATURE. 0? the system depends on the certainty of that provision, and on its mechanical conformity thereto.* XIV. Analogy. — We may expect that the whole creation, as it is to answer a purpose, is arranged on a plan, and is therefore analogous in all its parts. Accordingly, relations of resem- blance form the subject of the science of physical induction. " These are a grammar for the understanding of nature ;" 2 the perception of such resemblances, and the conviction of their infinite extension, form the ground of that antecedent proba- bility of success which encourages the inductive inquirer to advance from the known to the unknown. Induction is not a random aggregation of instances, it involves the idea that na- ture is at unity with itself, and thus suggests the direction of his inquiries. Every addition to his knowledge is an additional clue to future discovery ; " for nature is very consonant and conformable to herself "3 Now, here, in this opening stage of creation, analogies already abound; numerical analogies, glimpses of which, from Pythagoras to Kepler, have disposed the loftiest minds to indulge in mysticism ; and analogies, which, by the scientific use of general symbols, or algebraic formulae, have led to discoveries 4 at which the discoverer himself was not aiming. Here, analogies of motion exist ; suggesting to a Newton, a relation between the falling of a stone to the earth and the circulation of the moon around the earth ; the period- ical return of comets ; the union of the planetary system. Here are remarkable points of resemblance, if nothing more, between electricity, galvanism, and magnetism ; striking par- allels between light and sound ; and, indeed, such resemblances as have not merely ever been the only legitimate guide of man in his interpretations of nature, but have enabled him to theo- rise in advance of his facts — to announce the existence of a law afterwards to be discovered. Often, too, have they forced * Hence the apostrophe of the philosophic poet of nature in his Ode to Duty: " Stern lawgiver ! Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong." ^ Bishop Berkely's Siris, p. 120. " Newton; 31st Query at the end of Optics. ^ Professor Forbes on Polarization of Heat ; Edinb. Trans., vol. xiii. 9 W THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. him from the arbitrary distributions of facts in which he had taken refuge, and have conducted him, as by a clue, to the natural classifications of the Creator himself 2. Here, in this primitive stage of the Divine Manifestation, the Deity appears casting the moulds, sketching the outlines, and constituting the relations of future things. As the laws as yet in operation are few and simple, hints and shadows of tlie nobler things to come are all that can be expected. But, like a hieroglyphic language in its early state, every color is a symbol, every form expressive of an idea, and, as in such a language too, to be subsequently employed to represent loftier truths not yet disclosed. Here — could we have looked on the scene with a prophetic eye — here, we might have said, the poet will find many of his most impressive images ; the reasoner his comparisons ; and hence the scientific theorist will derive his prolific suggestions. To these mountains Divine Faithfulness will point and say, " It is like the great mountains, and it reacheth to the heavens." Divine Immutability, point- ing to this firmament as an image of its own stability, will declare, " If the heavens can pass away, then my covenant shall fail." And creating power, deriving a proof of omnipo- tence from the magnitude of the material universe, will simply affirm, "I the Lord made all these things." God is here sowing the seeds of things for all the future. 3. Classification. — Laplace has said that " an intelligence, which, at a given instant, should know all the forces by which nature is urged, and the respective situation of the beings of which nature is composed ; if, moreover, it were sufficiently comprehensive to subject these data to calculation, would include in the same formula, the movements of the largest bodies of the universe and those of the slightest atom. Noth- ing would be uncertain to such an intelligence, and the future, no less than the past, would be present to its eyes." And Leibnitz, before him, had gone still farther, representing the Eternal Mind as incessantly occupied in the solution of this problem — The state of one monad, or elementary atom, being given, to determine the state, past, present and future, of the whole universe. Now, to conceive of truths physical and moral as being linked together mathematically, changes ethics into physics, and is alike repugnant to philosophy and religion. Nor is it less so to conceive even of the laws of mechanical force and motion as if they were superior to the Will which produced them, and were as necessarily binding on Him as on INORGANIC NATURE. 9^ the phenomena of matter. We freely admit that all mechani- cal actions are thus open to the calculation of the Supreme Intelligence, for they are only the expressions of His own laws ; but we would always accompany the admission with the remarks that His knowledge of material phenomena is inde- pendent of such calculations, and that the phenomena them- selves never pass from His control. 4. Such a knowledge of the material universe is the unat- tainable ideal of human science; and every new discovery, however minute, seems to bring us a step nearer to it. But a perfect physical science would require a knowledge of all the properties of matter ; the processes which develop these properties ; the laws of these processes ; the number of ele- mentary or undecompoundable substances ; the combinations of which they admit ; together with the original quantities and relative positions of each. Now, were we possessed of such knowledge, the principles of our theory would enable us to classify inorganic phenomena according to the method in which they have been arranged and employed in nature. For we should place them according to the order in which they come into operation ; and according to their relative value, or to the nature and number of the properties which they include, and of the changes which they are capable of producing upon others ; so that no property would be regarded as absolutely valueless. 5. According to this method, 1. No inorganic characteristic is to be regarded as absolutely valueless. If minerals are to be classified, their external characters of hardness, specific gravity, color, lustre, and crystalline forms, as well as their chemical constitution, are to be taken into the account. 2. That property, or union of properties, is to be held as the most important which contributes most to distinguish and individual- ise the body to which it belongs, and is most capable of affect- ing naturally other things. 3. Such property cannot be arbi- trarily assigned, but must be determined by observation or experiment ; for it may be the most unobvious and antecedently unexpected property. 4. As even inorganic elements exhibit a great system of relations, an arrangement formed on one true principle will not be found at variance with an arrange- ment formed on another true principle. True, much of the knowledge essential for such a classifica- tion, is still wanting ; knowledge as essential as that of the laws of mechanics, and of the law of definite proportions, which we do possess. But not the less important is it that 100 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. material plieiiomena should meantime be arranged, as fa? as we knoiv (hem, according to the principles suggested ; th&l a supposed elementary body, for example, should be regarded as such until it can be proved to be otherwise, since its power of resisting attempts to decompose it shows that it is a body of primary importance in the economy of nature. For, if our method of classification be correct, it cannot fail, by calling attention to those leading properties on which it is founded, to bring before us the effects resulting from their operation, and thus to increase our knowledge ; which increase of knowledge again would enable us to test and improve our classification. XV. Contingent. — In harmony with another of our Laws, the constitution of the material system may be expected to befourid contingent — i. e., resolvable into the sovereign will of the Divine Creator ; and, as such, to be ascertainable by observation and experiment alone. 1, For example, under the present collocation and motion of the solar system, or of any similar system, the simultaneous existence of every mass of matter composing it was mathe- matically necessary ; but this does not prove that the existing balance of motions might not be a change from some previous arrangement; or that it might not have been an originally selected balance. The laws of motion cannot be shown to have been inevitable. No reason can be assigned why they must obtain. Gravitation, as it is, does not exist necessarily ; in many respects it is a unique law, characterized by peculiai* properties ; and, for aught w^e can see, it might have been vari- ously modified. " Its being found everywhere is necessary for its uses ; but this is so far from being a sufficient explanation of its existence, that it is an additional fact to be explained." That peculiarity of the satellites, by which their motion of ro- tation is exactly equal to their motion of revolution, being cal- culated, by Laplace, according to the laws of probability, it was found that there is more than 2000 to 1 that this is not the effect of chance. ^ 2. That the sun, which is the centre of attraction to our system, should be also the grand centre of illumination and of heat, cannot, as Newton pointed out,'^ be shown to be a neces- ' Syst. vol. ii. p. 327. ' Letter I. to Bentley ; "Works, vol. iv. p. 430 . INORGANIC NATURE. 101 sary arrangement. There is no apparent connection between its mass and its luminousness, its central position and its dif- fusion of heat. The direction of the satellites and of their primaries from west to east is not necessary ; the satellites of Uranus move from east to west. The molecular constitution of matter, with all its admirable and complicated adaptations to the economy of nature, is by no means a necessary condi- tion of its existence. 1 Leaving to it, for example, hardness, and weight, and motion, we can yet conceive of the laws of these properties being very different from what they now are, and can specify some of the consequences which would result from such difference.^ 3. Why such and such natural agents were originated, and no others, " or why they are commingled in such and such a manner throughout space, is a question we cannot answer,"3 by any study of the things themselves. As to the precise amount of matter which should exist, or the space which the whole should occupy — what but the Sovereign will of the Creator was to determine ? In a word, both the internal and external constitution of the material universe, the properties of its particles, and the distribution of its masses, the nature of its laws and the magnitudes (sometimes called arbitrary) which those laws regulate, were alike contingent on the Divine appointment. No being existed to challenge His right. As He was the absolute originator, so He was the sole Disposer of the whole. 4. Here, then, was scope for the exercise of the same " good pleasure" on which the whole purpose of the Divine manifes- tation had depended. And thus the creation, while it presup- poses those necessary truths which are the condition of its existence, exhibits the Creator meting out all its internal ar- rangements with the line and balance of His Sovereign ap- pointment. XVI. Ultimata. — The mention of the dependence of matter in- troduces another law — the law of ultimate facts. 1. By an ultimate fact is meant a truth, or an event, not ' Front's Bridgewatcr T., c. iii. '■^ Whewell's Bridgewater T,, b. ii. pp. 20, 223. '* Mill's Logic, vol. i. p. 417. |09 THE FBE-ADAMITE EARTH. derivative from anything of the same kind, and which, by necessity of nature, admits of no physical solution. And the difference between necessary truths and ultimate facts is, that the former exist independently of any external manifestation, and, therefore, antecedently to creation ; the latter are the facta which, to our view, touch that necessary truth, or stand next to it, being immediately related to it, and dependent on it. The former is unconditional ; the latter are conditional on the former : for, as we have seen already, we cannot conceive of body without space ; of succession or motion without time ; nor of either body or motion without a causal Power. Space, is the condition of body ; time, of motion ; while Power is not only the condition, but also the cause, of both. And the ulti- mate truths belonging to this first stage of creation respect the relation of the Divine power to matter as connected both with space and with time. Here all objective mystery begins. 2. In the order of nature, matter is to be viewed, first, con- temporaneously in its relation to space: — how came it really and objectively to be ? what relation did the Divine power bear to its creation ? We may, or may not, be able to resolve it all into its primordial elements ; — but how came these ele- ments themselves to exist, and what is their nature ? Having found, for instance, that a salt is composed of an acid and an alkali, and having decomposed the alkali into oxygen and a metallic base, we seem to have reached an impassable barrier — an ultimate fact. Beyond these elements we cannot go. They include nothing in themselves to account for their own origination. Could we have looked on them in the first mo- ment of their existence, we should have seen intuitively, that the only ground of their existence must be the will of God. 3. But if the first moment of the existence of the material universe would have awakened the question, how comes it to be ? — the second moment would have brought the correspond- ing question, how comes it to continue in being ? The first moment revealed a creation ; the second moment revealed a providence, or the causing of the created material to continue. If the first exhibited it in relation to space, as coexistent, the second exhibited it in relation to time, as successively existent — for all its paits are in motion. Attraction, repulsion, trans- formation, cliange of physical relations, are constant and uni- versal. What is the relation of the Divine power to the forces employed in all this motion ? Here we come to ultimate laws. When we have traced back the order in which the sequences INORGANIC NATUltE. W^ in any particular class of natural phenomena occur, till we have reached the highest and the last of the series — that which, in the order of time, is presupposed by all the rest — we have reached our physical ultimatum. And we are conscious of the instinctive conviction that the continuance of the world, no less than its origination, has its ground in the will of God. 4. But does the Divine will act in this case by a primary appointment only, or does it act also by an ever-present agency? Is motion only the prolonged result of an original impulse : or is the power which was put forth in the great original act, directly operative still ? There are those who entertain the former opinion. And although they may sometimes have been charged with thus magnifying second causes to the oblivion of the First Cause — and often, it is to be deplored, with justice — not only is the opinion in question not incompatible with true piety, no doubt piety has, in some instances, erroneously led to its adoption. I speak not now, of course, of any theory such as that propounded in the " Vestiges of the Natural His- tory of Creation ;" and which represents the universe in its present state as the result of a gradual unfolding of an origi- nal germ, or the natural development of a principle, without any subsequent creative interposition. This is to render crea- tion an independent existence. After the primary act, accord- ing to tliis view, the Creator might have ceased to be — as far as the created universe was concerned. Rejoicing in its own independence, it could proceed, ad eternitatem, without Him.^ 5. Now, not only in opposition to such a theory, but even to that qualihed view which, while it admits of creative interpo- sitions, yet regards the sequences of nature as ascribable only to the action of matter upon matter, according to a primary appointment — in opposition to such a view, we regard these sequences as owing to the constant concurrence of the Divine will. We believe that the same power which originated mat- ter with all its properties, its selected quantities, and combina- tions, maintains it in operation, not indeed by separate acts of power in each particular case, but by a constant regular voli- tion acting according to conditionally established laws. And we believe that this ever-present concurrence of the physical agency of the Deity with material phenomena differs, accord- * And as Newton aflBrms in his Scholium, at the end of the Principia : " Deus sine dominio, providentia, et causis, finalibus, nihil aliud est quam Fatum et Natuka." 104 THE niE-ADAMlTE EARTH. ing to che differing nature of the properties and laws which they have, from tlie first, exhibited. 6. With any of the moral objections which may be supposed to lie against this view, we have not now to do ; except to re- mark that any hypothesis which essays to remove them from pressing against Providence, only transfers and leaves them to press equally against an original creation. As to the physical objections, it cannot be justly alleged that the regularity of the mechanism of nature is opposed to our view :i we recognise that regularity as much as the other party ; we even rely on it in evidence of the truth of our views. Order is natural to Him ; He needs not to aim at it. The only question between us is, does the power which that regularity evinces, belong, at present, to the machine or to its Maker ? Nor does our view affect the instrumentality of what is properly meant by second causes. The subordination of the parts of the great mechanism, is still supposable to any extent : but their orderly operation is viewed as always in dependence on the continuance of the Divine will to that effect. The se- quences of nature, however derivative and particular ; and the laws of nature, however general ; are the laws which He, in His wisdom, is pleased to prescribe to His own agency .2 7. But, is it worthy of God — it is sometimes asked — to * It may be worth the consideration of those Avho regard the universe as a self-acting machine — of which we have no true analogy — whether they are not misled by confounding regularity with explanation — law with cause — a perceived uniformity of sequence with the manner or principle of the sequence. " What is called explaining one law of nature by an- other, is but substituting one mystery for another ; and does nothing to render the general course of nature other than mysterious : we can no more assign a why for the more extensive laws than for the partial ones. The explanation may substitute a mystery which has become familiar, and has grown to seem not mysterious, for one which is still strange. And this is the meaning of explanation in common parlance The laws thus explained or resolved, are sometimes said to be accounted for ; but the expression is incorrect, if taken to mean anything more than what has been already stated." — MiWs Logic, vol. i. pp. 559. 560. Yet the or- dinary fallacy is, that to discover the law of a sequence is to discover its cause ; and that having discovered the natural or proximate cause, no other cause need be thought of ; that the discoverer has taken it out of the hand of God and of mystery at the same time ; whereas, not only is the law where it was before in relation to the Lawgiver, but the mystery is often numerically doubled — the discovery being the unveiling of a new mystery. ^ Sir John Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 37. INORGANIC NATURE. 1^ perform certain creating and sustaining acts of an interior de- scription ? Is it not beneath the Divine dignity ? Thus, the author before alluded to, represents it as " a most inconceiva^ bly paltry exercise"^ of the power of God to create one of the lower species. But, to account for the existence of the said species by ascribing it to the evolution of a natural law, is only an adjournment of the difficulty. For, unless it be sup- posed that in originating that natural law, the Deity was put- ting a power into operation of which He knew not the effects, the production of that species must have been originally con- templated by Him as one of its effects ; so that the charge of paltriness would be only carried back from the creation of the animal, to the prior origination of the supposed law which produced it.'-^ Besides, who shall undertake to graduate a scale of great and little things for the Deity ? This is to " anthro- pomorphize"3 God ; to assimilate Him to a poor earthly poten- tate who has to save his artificial dignity by a constant com- pliance with etiquette ; who retains caste not so much by doing, as by not doing. In comparison with infinite greatness, every- thing is little ; the entire creation — not any of its parts mere- ly — infinitely little. It is only as those parts belong to an all-comprehending plan, that their existence is to be account- ed for. Apart from that plan, the noblest parts of the uni verse, and even the universe as a whole, is utterly insignificant. But viewed as an integral part of that plan, nothing is insigni- ficant. It is an all-related part of a system which hallows all which it encloses, and ennobles all 'that it employs. 8. The preceding objection belongs to an anthropomorphiz- ing view of the JDivine dignity. There is another, which springs from a similar view of the Divine ability^ viewed in * Vestiges, etc., p. 164. Third Edit. * So when others, instead of dispassionately arguing the question, aim to stigmatise the doctrine of creative interpositions by affirming that it represents the Creator as " mending" His own work, they forget that the atheist may fasten the same epithet on their own view of the subject. For if the creation exhibits change and progress, it matters not to him whether the change aud progress, (and this is all that is meant by the " mending,") be said to be etfected by the natural operation of a law .originally appointed by the Creator, or by the direct agency of the Law- giver ; whether it be mended, or be self-mending. " Why," he will ask, " should any mending, change, or progress be necessary ? Even if it take place according to natural law, still, as you profess to believe that law to have been of Divine appointment, you only remove the difficulty involved, from the God of providence to the God of creation." ^ Vestiges, etc., p. 147. 106 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. analogy with the powers of a human artist. It expresses it- self thus — the theoiy of God's perpetual agency does not ap- peal* to afford such exaUed views of the Divine power and skill as that which represents him as originating a law, or creating a vast mechanism, capable of self-activity and devel- opment, for as long a period as he might choose to keep aloof from it. Hence, we are assured that " it is the narrowest of all views of the Deity, and characteristic of a humble class of intellects, to suppose him constantly acting in particular ways for particular occasions."^ We reply, that such a supposition is a figment of the author's own, if (as it would appear) he imagines, that there is no alternative between it and his own theory. Our own view expressly provides against both. We will add, that to suppose the Deity not capable of acting in the manner described, if He please, and of acting thus without distraction, " is the narrowest of all views respecting Him, and characteristic of a humble class of intellects." And yet the only ground which is generally assigned for the theory which exempts Him from such action is that of exonerating Omnipotence from labor. Hence, it is thought to be a very un- fitting " mode of exercise for creative intelligence, that it should be constantly moving from one sphere to another."^ Here the anthropomorphism of the reasoning comes out. When man has constructed a, so-called,^ self-acting machine, that which constitutes the triumph of his powers is, that he should have so built it as to be himself left at liberty to be absent from it, ' Vestiges, etc., p. 160. '^ Ibid. p. 165. * There is an inconsistency, " with which all those philosophers are justly chargeable, who imagine that, by likening the universe to a ma- chine, they get rid of the necessity of admitting the constant agency of powers essentially different from the known qualities of matter .... The falseness of the analogy appears from this, that the moving force in every machine is some natural power, such as gravity or elasticity : and, consequently, the very idea of mechanism assumes the existence of those active powers, of which it is the professed object of a mechanical theory of the universe to give an explanation." — Stewarfs Prel. Diss, to the En. Biit., p. 125. Indeed, the mechanical theory cannot, in the nature o^ things, find any analogy in the universe. For man originates no motion whatever. In his most complicated machinery, he merely avails himself of pre-existing forces — properties which existed before he came into being. Now, the theory requires support from some analogy to these very properties which it assumes to be self-sustaining. But as the sup- posed parallelism of a piece of human mechanism fails, it can nowhere be found. To my own mind, the idea of a created universe existing in absolute independence of the Divine agency, is simply inconceivable. INORGANIC NATURE. IXff and to turn his attention to other objects. He, a being of limit- ed power, has constructed a machine which does not limit or detain that power, but which acts independently of it. Where- as, in this very particular, the analogy is totally inapplicable to the divine Creator. His presence with one object, or in one place, does not imply his absence from another ; for his energy is omnipresent. Besides which, is not our admiration, in the case supposed, excited rather by the wondrous mechanism than by the me- chanist ? At all events, would not our estimation of Ms powers be greatly enhanced, if, after examining the machine which was supposed to work alone, we discovered that he, though distant from it, held secret lines of communication with it; that these lines, on which its activity depended, were never out of his hand, by night or by day ; and yet that, without any apparent limitation of his powers, he was occupied in the con- struction and movement of a similar machine elsewhere. Won- derful as we should deem the mechanism, we should regard the mechanist as more wonderful still. And the very feeling we are conscious of, of the impossibility of any human power being able to accomplish such a thing, is so much homage to the Divine power which can effect it. If the god of Epicurus had made the world, he would, doubtless, have retired from the cares and painstaking of sustaining and controlling it ; that is to say, he would have acted the part of a great human crea- tor. To be able, on the contrary, to originate the universe, and then to pervade it by an ever-present agency, unconscious of effort, is a perfection so far beyond our ordinary range of thought, so entirely unique and divine, that the mind does not easily reach the conception. 9. If, however, it be said, that the theory which leaves the universe to work entirely alone, enhances our views of the skill of the Creator, much more than tliat which supposes His ever-present and all-pervading agency, it seems sufficient to reply, first, that the display of His skill may not be (as the hypothesis supposes) the only, or even the highest, end aimed at in creation ; and if it be not, the remark loses its force. But, secondly, while the skill of the Creator is sufficiently obvious, whichever view be taken of the present subject, it is clear also that the Divine skill has been actually employed, not for itself, but in subserviency to ulterior aims. Who can question, for example, the ability of the Creator to have complicated the proofs of His skill in the operations of nature much more than 108 THE IHE-ADAMITE EARTH. He has actually done ? or to have brought the world into exis- tence at first in a more advanced state than He appears to have done ? Tiie reason why He did not, must then have rela- ted to an end or ends, distinct from the mere exhibition of His creative skill. And, thirdly, we can easily conceive of such ends, and shall have hereafter to enlarge on them ; ends analo- gous to those, for example, attained by the family constitution, in which He has been pleased to arrange that the children shall not be bom into a state of independence, (which they might deem the highest display of Divine skill) but that they shall owe their best advantages to the benevolent provision which keeps them dependent for years on their parents. 10. We entertain the belief, then, of the pervading agency of the Divine Being throughout the material universe, not in exclusion of, but in addition to, the doctrine of primary appointment ; for He does that which He decrees. We believe this, because there are no valid objections to be urged against the view which do not lie equally against the theory of devel- opment by natural law ; because the idea of an entirely self- sustaining universe is destitute of all true analogy ; because we cannot conceive of a self-sustaining universe, any more than we can of a self-originated creation — dependence is its characteristic in relation to time, as much so as in its relation to space ; and because (if the question is to be argued on the ground of what may be most honorable to the Divine perfec- tions) we deem the view which represents the material uni- verse as directly dependent on the Divine agency, more exalt- ing to God than that which views the universe as released from such dependence ; not to say that the reasoning which " compliments " Him out of the material universe not unfre- quently ends in excluding Him from the throne of His moral government. Other reasons in corroboration of this view will come to light as we proceed. For the present, it may suffice to suggest to the believer in Divine revelation, first, that the opposite view, if it does not necessarily deny the existence of the Divine attributes, denies, at least, their objective exercise — representing the Omniscient as if he saw nothing, the Omni- present as if he were universally absent, and the Omnipotent as doing nothing. And, secondly, it seems impossible to har- monize such, an abandonment of the universe to natural laws, with the testimony of Scripture, and with the evidence of geol- ogy to successive creations. INORGANIC NATURE. 109 11. If to this it is replied that the Divine Being is not sup- posed to detach himself entirely from the universe, that he is yet regarded as being "virtually present in the natural world by a providential inspection and superintendence "^ of it, we can only add, that this seems to fall very little, if anything, short of the ever-present and pervading agency which we advocate. At least, the arguments which would establish such a relation of the Deity to the material universe, as amounts to a virtual presence with it, a constant inspection and actual super- intendence of it, and the necessity for such an agency, would go far to establish the sustaining and pervading nature of that agency. And this apparently near approach to the admission of such an agency, in the very act of denying it — a not un- frequent thing — only shows the difficulty of saying how^ much more or less relatively we affirm in a proposition of our own, unless we knew precisely how much is denied in the contrary position of another. 12. Before proceeding to the next law, let me recall atten- tion to the important distinction which has now been disclosed to us, between the relations of matter to space and to time. One important distinction is disclosed to us under the law relating to necessary truth — the distinction between the subjective and the objective ; the infinite mind and the created universe ; the latter presupposing the former, having existed potentially in the mind of God before it existed objectively as a purpose realized. Here, we are called to regard the twofold relation which He sustains to it as it is viewed in connection with space and time. As it is regarded contemporaneously, or irre- spective of time, and in relation only to space. He is its crea- tor ; but as it is viewed in relation, not only to space but to time, or as successively existent. He is its preserver. Creation introduces us to auniverse of objects ; Providence to a uni- verse of objects and events. By the first originating act, matter was made to take possession of space, as an objective reality ; a moment after, and it had taken possession of time, as objective and successive. 13. But if this distinction be well founded, it follows that the properties and the distribution of matter, as constituted by ' Jones's Philosophy, 'quoted in a note in Tateham's " Chart and Scale of Truth;" one of the Bampton Lectures, vol. i. p. 169. So also Boyle, while comparing the universe to a vast machine, yet speaks of it as " man- aged by certain laws of motion, and upheld by His ordinary and general concourse.^'' — Inqidry into the Vulgar Notion oj' Nature. 10 110 PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. creation, are distinguishable from the laws of matter as contin- ued by Providence. The constitution of matter placed it in relation to space ; the sequences of matter, in relation to time. True, we may know nothing of the properties but by the opera- tion of the laws ; nothing of the constitution of matter as crea- ted, except as disclosed by the sequences of matter as contin- ued ; just as the constitution of the mind may be known only as manifested in its operations. But as the laws or operations of the mind presuppose its constitution, so the sequences of matter presuppose the properties or constitution originally given to it. xvn. Necessary truth. — The existence and motion of the material masses imply the existence of necessary truth. Supposing that we had received and sustained the sublime and complicated impressions derivable from the contemplation of the new-made universe, what would have been the legitimate operations and consequent state of our minds ? 1. We could not have beheld the unorganized masses, either as coming, or as come, into existence, without regarding the change as an effect. Nor could we have come into contact with a small portion of one of these masses, and have put it into motion by an act of muscular exertion, without regarding the .cause of all the motion we saw around us as something more than a mere antecedent to it ; as an efficient connection or power — an energy which has had a real operation. We could not have contemplated these masses without per- ceiving that they were things distinct from ourselves, withoui us, external to us : but, our apprehending them as without us, takes for granted their existence in space. We could not, by sight, and touch, and muscular extension, have ascertained that they had figure, without perceiving their relations to space ; for the line of one dimension, the plane of two, and the solid body of three dimensions, are all modifications of the concep- tion of space. We could not have thought of space as the negation of all these things ; as existing only that other things may exist in it ; or as a condition without which the masses themselves could not exist ; without regarding it as infinite in all its dimensions, and as indestructible. We could not have ascertained their figure, and externality, and solidity, without feeling that they existed independently of us, so that no act of INORGANIC NATURE. Ill our mind could make or destroy them. And as we should have perceived that these properties and special relations of the masses depended not on our perception of them, so we should have perceived that if these things themselves had never exist- ed, the portions of space which they now occupy, would have borne the same relations to infinite space which the things themselves actually do — i. e., that the two sides of a triangle would have been greater than the third, even if there had never been a material triangle. 3. We could not have thought of the creation as new, or in connection with its former non-existence, or have marked its progressiveness, without being conscious of a sense of success- iveness, or of time. Nor could we have reflected on time, as that in which both our perceptions and their objects exist, without feeling that time itself is independent of both. The first stage of creation, then, as far as it exhibited the existence of matter in motion, involved, at least, three necessary truths. For we cannot conceive of succession, without time ; of body, without space ; nor of effect, without the power which caused it — i. e., a Being or Substance potential to the effect produced. Time, space, power, are necessary ideas. All phenomena pre- suppose them ; are not intelligible without them. They them- selves cannot be resolved into anything antecedent ; have no conceivable conditions ; but exist independently, and as the conditions of everything else. 4. Here, an important distinction comes to light. While space is only the condition of body, and time of motion, power, as we have implied, is not only the condition, hut the cause of both. As condition, it could not but be ; as cause, its existence was contingent on the Divine will. As condition, it was from eternity ; as cause, it commenced the succession of measurable time. As condition, it is a property of the infinite Substance — an attribute of the Divine Nature ; as cause, it is the objective manifestation of that property, the creating exercise of that attribute. As condition, its activity from eternity was only subjective ; as cause, its activity becomes objective also. Here, then, we have the subjective and the objective ; for that which was possible has become real. What must that be, to which the real has always been possible ? and what is that which, having been only possible, has now become real ? What are the relations between the two ? or, how do they co-exist ? This is the domain of ontology — the doctrine which relates to the Substance of being. 118 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. xvni. Secular Change. — But will this stage of the Divine opera- Hans be sooner or later succeeded by another ? For, according to one of our principles, the production of new effects, or the introduction of new laws, will be itself a law of the manifesta- tion. For, were it to terminate at any given point, the proof of the Divine all-sufficiency for unlimited manifestation would terminate with it. Besides which, all-sufficiency, from its very nature, requires infinity and eternity in which to be de- veloped ; for it implies sufficiency for nothing less than these. If, then, the development of the Great Purpose be in its very nature progressive, this is only saying that the process must ever be kept open to receive the addition of new effects, or the superinduction of new laws. 1. Now, however, a new — an analogical ground for expect- ing an additional stage in the Divine operations has come to light. For, as we have seen, the activity of the primitive ma- terial universe has itself been the activity o? progression. Nor can we imagine ourselves surveying this activity of progres- sion, without more than suspecting that we are looking on the successive steps of a scene preparatory for a new stage of the Divine Plan. All that we behold — complicated and stupen- dous as it is — is only the play of inorganic matter, unconscious of its own existence and activity. The Divine Purpose and the Divine procedure alike combine to point us to the future. 2. The preceding section reminds us of the great principle that the law of ever-enlarging manifestation to which it relates is itself regulated ly a law determining the time and manner of each successive stage of the advancing process. In the origi- nal statement of this law, I remarked, that the time for this change in any given department of the Divine Manifestation, will of course be determined in a manner, and for a reason, differing with the particular nature and design of the depart- ment : — first, by each existing stage passing through all the combinations and changes of which it admits, before another begins ; or, secondly, by its existing long enough to show that it involves all the necessary possibilities for answering such and such ends, if its continuance were permitted ; or, thirdly, until it has sufficiently taught the specific truth, and attained the proximate and particular end, for which it was originated. But, whatever the particular reason for determining the pe- riod of change may be, it is evident that the law of the time INORGANIC NATURE. 113 and the occasion for every change must harmonize with the Great End of the whole — the manifestation of the Divine All- sufficiency. For, were a stage of the manifestation to be re- called or replaced a moment before it had, in some way, de- monstrated the all-sufficiency of God for that particular stage, the Great Purpose would not be answered. From which it follows that no such change or interposition takes place arbitrarily, but, as the laws of progression, and of the end, require it. And that the length of the time which may be allowed to elapse, after the introduction of one law or change, before the introduction of another, so far from growing into an objection against any further addition or change, becomes, in a progres- sive system, an ever-increasing ground for expecting it. 3. Even those who advocate the natural-development hy- pothesis, cannot consistently entertain any valid objection against this law. For, even if the great changes which have marked the progress of the material universe have been, as they imagine, only the development of a law, or laws, origi- nally impressed on matter, all these changes must have been foreseen — must have been actually included in the plan of the glorious Deity. But if their occurrence was designed, for the same reason that they were designed to occur at all, there must have been a right time for their occurrence. And this is the substance of the law now under consideration. 4. What was it, then, which made the time thus divinely selected, the appropriate time for a distinct advance in the great process ? We have said that " no such change takes place arbitrarily ; but, as the laws of progression and of the end require it." Here, then, is a two-fold law to be satisfied. Now, the requirement of the law of progression, in the pre- sent instance, is obvious ; — the event declared it. The inor- ganic world was designed by the Divine Creator to become the scene of organic forms — of life. When, therefore, the earth had passed through such foreseen changes, and had at- tained to such a condition, as adapted it to the existence of or- ganic life, the law of progression might be expected, in har-' mony with the Divine Plan, to receive a new illustration. " The proximate end of the origination of this earth had been attained." It was in a state to become the means for the at- tainment of another particular end, if the Divine Creator chose so to employ it. 5. But is this the appropriate time for the change, accord- 10* 114 THE FRE- AD AMITE EARTH. ing to the law of the end ? That is to say, admitting that th-i design of the creation and maintenance of the material uni- verse is to manifest the Divine Omnipotence, is that ultimate end, in any sense, attained ? Evidently, the first of the condi- tions of its attainment, which I have specified, is not fulfilled ; — inorganic matter has not " passed through all the combina- tions and changes of which it admits." Vast and complicated as they have been, they are still in progress. And as long as the earth continues, these changes will go on multiplying. And who shall say whether, before the material system reaches a close, it will not have passed through all the great changes and combinations of which it admits ? If, as the existence of a resisting medium implies, the period will come — immeasura- bly distant in the depths of futurity as it may be — when the planetary system, in its present form, will come to an end, who shall say that by that inconceivably remote period, the con- dition in question may not be literally fulfilled ? Possibly, the limit of planetary existence, and the fulfilment of this condition are destined to coincide. The proof of the Divine All-suffi- ciency, for upholding the worlds which He had made, through all the great combinations and changes of which they severally admitted, would then be historically worked out and completed. Possibly, too, this awful crisis of the material system will ar- rive, only to be followed by its reconstruction in other forms, and for other ends, and for other immeasurable cycles. Solemn as these conceptions are, doubtless, something analogous, and as solemn, awaits our contemplation in relation to the material system, in the distant future. 6. But if the first of the conditions specified had not, — and, from the nature of the Divine Plan, could not have been com- plied with, at the time of the change, had the second condition been fulfilled ? That is, were the creation of the inorganic universe, and the mighty changes which it had passed through, taken in connection too with the changes which it was yet to be conducted through prior to the arrival of man, sufficient to warrant the inference of the omnipotence of the Divine Crea- tor ? Let it be observed that the question is not whether Om- nipotence had demonstrated its existence by doing all that it could do ; by exhausting itself j so to speak, in its acts of physi- cal creation. Yet this is the kind of evidence of the Divine Power which many persons inconsiderately suppose them- selves entitled to look for. Whereas the existence of such evidence is not only inconceivable in itself, but, as we have be- INORGANIC NATURE. 115 fore shown, would, if it were possible for it to be realized, defeat the very end of its existence. For, the attainment of that end — the display of omnipotence in the eyes of finite in- telligence — requires that the display be progressive; that it include displays of power other than the creation of mere in- organic matter, and additional to it ; — this is implied in the supposed existence of the finite intelligences themselves ; and that it include power equal to every crisis that may occur in in the system created — otherwise it would be objected that proof of all-sufficiency was wanting in a most vital point. Accordingly, the manifestation of the Divine Power is still in progress ; Power, not for the production of physical effects only, but for the attainment of other and higher ends. The manifestation of the Divine Wisdom, or Goodness, does not terminate that of Power ; they co-exist and co-operate to- gether. The question is, therefore, whether the creation of the material system, and the series of changes in it which we Jhave referred to, furnish an adequate illustration, of the hind, ■of the Divine omnipotence. 7. That the power of God had demonstrated its sufficiency for the production of certain effects is evident ; for these ef- fects had taken place. But had all the effects taken place, which, under the circumstances, might have been expected ? Novel as this question may be, and unanswerable, in a defi- nite and categorical respect, as it must be, it appears to me that it involves that proof of all-sufficiency of which we speak, and that an approximation to a satisfactory reply is by no means impossible. In order, indeed, to a reply arithmetically accurate, it would be requisite — in reference to the earth, for example — to know (setting aside the power necessary for the origination of its material) how many changes that material could pass through, and the length of time necessary for the process. That is, we must know the number of the simple substances of which it is composed ; the properties of each sub- stance — its density, gravity, cohesion, elasticity, its relations to heat, electricity, and magnetism, together with all its chemical affinities ; and the definite amount of each substance included in its constitution. With these data in our possession, we must determine the number of terrestrial changes possible ; and then, having ascertained the lapse of time from the Great Originating Act to the period of which we speak, and the num- ber of the terrestrial changes during the interval, we should be in a condition to furnish an answer to the question pro- posed. 116 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 8. Now, although such a reply, with our present limited means and powers, is not attainable, an approximation to the truth, sufficiently near, is not impossible. If it should appear, for example, that, of the number of terrestrial changes possi- ble, a vast variety had taken place prior to the production of organic forms, and between that period again and the creation of man ; that the number of inorganic changes which have since occurred, are as nothing in the comparison ; and that the degree of all subsequent changes is as insignificant as the num- ber ; we may safely infer in favor of the affirmative of our question. If it should appear probable that the number and variety of our terrestrial changes are only a specimen of simi- lar changes through which worlds and systems, beyond our powers of calculation, have been variously conducted from the beginning, the affirmative reply will be still further warranted. And if it should be made probable that cosmical changes, in every stage of revolution, and on a scale beyond our powers of conception, are still in process — what more could be desired to complete our conviction of the sufficiency of the Divine Power for the number of the physical changes in question ? 9. That evidence of the truth of these suppositions exists in abundance will, doubtless, be freely admitted. Astronomy as- sures us of vast nebulous objects, exhibiting " no regularity of outline, no systematic gradation of brightness," and suggesting the idea that they are awaiting the slow process of aggregation into masses ; as if on purpose to show the all-sufficiency of the Creator. The regions of space are inhabited by countless worlds and systems ; exhibiting indications of an endless va- riety of color, density, magnitude, motion, relative position and mutual dependence, as if for the sake of showing the boundless resources of the Divine Power. Proofs of geologi- cal revolutions, in number not yet ascertained, if at all ascer- tainable, and in degree beyond all computation, are placed by the hand of God within the crust of the earth, as if in order to challenge our unquestioning faith in his all-sufficiency. Traces of a long and bewildering succession of changes, to the number, variety, and extent of which the imagination has never yet done justice, are there stored up, as if expressly that man might sec and believe. The amount of evidence of the Divine sufficiency for all the terrestrial changes which might have been expected, is not merely adequate for convic- tion. For such a purpose, it exists in excess. It carries the mind into the future ; awakening the idea tliat it is the design INORGANIC NATURE. Iff of Omnipotence to conduct the earth, the material universe, through all the changes of which it admits ; to occupy space without limit in unfolding the universe of matter, and duration without end in unfolding its properties by a succession of ever- varying change; and thus to display the sufficiency of His own power as the Originator and Sustainer of the whole. 10. The second condition of the law now under considera- tion, then, had been satisfied — the earth had existed long enough to justify the inference that the power which had shown itself sufficient for conducting it through all the changes of which it exhibits the evidence, is all-sufficient for every change of which the earth admits. Had the evidence of this truth been incomplete, when, according to the law of progress sion, the earth had become adapted to human life, I believe that the law of progression would have waited for the comple- tion. Hazardous as this sentiment may appear, it is only af- firming that the means would have been subordinated to the end ; that one proximate end could not be sacrificed to another, without losing sight of the great and ultimate end. But, when it is remembered that we are speaking of the procedure of * God only wise,' all appearance of hazard vanishes ; for " seed- ing the end from the beginning," He makes all his operations harmoniously coincide, rendering the attainment of one part of his design ' the fulness of time' for commencing the attainment of another. XIX. Reason of the Method. — All the preceding laws relate, as I conceive, to the method of the Divine procedure. And, as far as we have gone, we have seen their application to the first department of that procedure — the inorganic universe. - The Reason for this method remains to be considered. It "trill be found, I submit, to be twofold. The first part is found- ed in the constitution of the beings by whom the method is to be studied, and involves the well-being of the creature ; the second is founded in the destiny of the creature, and involves, in addition, the ultimate end of the whole — the glory of God. The reason relates, therefore, to the law, that the beings to whom the manifestation is to be made, and by whom it is to be understood, appreciated, and voluntarily promoted, must be con- stituted in harmony with these laws ; or, these laws of the objec- tive universe will be found to have been established in prospective lis THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. harmony with the designed constitution, and the destiny of the subjective mind which is to expound and to profit by them. My remarks on the apparent reason for the Divine method must be, for the present, comparatively brief; on the obvious ground that we have not yet reached the human dispensation, or exam- ined the constitution of man, and that, consequently, all we may now advance anticipates our consideration of that subject, or presupposes the knowledge of it. 1. Were it proper to enlarge on the law which I have just quoted, it would be easy and interesting to trace the harmony and coincidence of the constitution of the material universe with the constitution of the human mind. For the present, however, it will suffice to remark generally, first, that if the organic universe is to be understood by man, and to prove con- ducive to his well-being, it must be constructed according to a plan. Here we perceive, at a glance, a reason for that law of uniformity, without which man would possess his powers of observation in vain, and creation would be only and truly ' a fortuitous concourse of atoms :' — and for that law of all-con- necting relationship, without which induction would be impos- sible, and inquiry would be constantly baffled and brought to a pause, but owing to which man is ever ascending to higher and wider generalizations, and an endless multitude of parts become a united whole : — and for that law of analogy, without which he could not take even a first inductive step, for nature would furnish him with no hint respecting the direction in which he should proceed ; but by which he now possesses a clue for threading its most intricate labyrinths, and finds him- self satisfactorily rising from physical science to natural theol- ogy, and thence to the domain of Revelation. Without the laws in question, observation, experience, sci- ence, life itself, would be impossible. But, with them, matter becomes the educator of mind ; aids in revealing it to itself, and in preparing it for higher revelations. While these laws are not so obscure as to defy his diligence, they are not so obvious as to force themselves on his involuntary notice. If he will, he can extract their secrets, and incorporate them as organic parts of his systematized knowledge. In the midst of an un- known multitude of worlds, man feels himself at home ; since " the stars in their courses " are obedient to law. And when geology has led him back through an unknown succession of ages, he feels that he is only travelling through the ancient monuments of the same law, in the direction of the Divine Legislator himself. INORGANIC NATURE. 119 2. And, secondly, if the inorganic universe is to be under- stood by man so as to answer the ultimate end, it must be con- structed in a manner calculated to refer him to an Almighty origin. Here, again, if we were not presupposing the knowl- edge of man's mental and moral constitution, we might en- large on the laws of ultimate facts, and of necessary truth, as pointing directly to such an origin. For the present, how- ever, we shall limit ourselves to a remark on the single law, that the constitution of th%material universe may be expected to be found contingent, or resolvable into the sovereign will of the Divine Creator. If the inorganic universe did not exhibit marks of contin- gent arrangement, and if man had not the power of interpret- ing them aright, it would not be the means of the Divine man- ifestation, but would only manifest itself — disclose its own properties — proclaim its own nature. Instead of referring the human mind to God, it would literally stand between man and its Creator, and would tend to enclose man in its own ma- terial mechanism.! But we have seen that it does exhibit the expected signs of contingency. Its properties appear to be selected, and its relations to be instituted. Properties of some kind it must have, nor can we conceive it to be destitute of every kind of relation ; but it cannot be shown that the actual properties were absolutely necessary, nor that the actual rela- tions might not have been modified without end. On the con- trary, choice, adaptation, and adjustment, are everywhere visible ; and the mere facts that matter, though not capable of its own creation, should yet be found in existence ; and though uncon- scious, should yet exhibit a scientifically arranged constitution, sufficiently point to the Divinity of its origin. 3. Here, then, we see the twofold reason for the chosen method of the Divine manifestation. Let the evidence that the power displayed in the material universe is His power sink below a certain degree, and man will be excusable for " wor- shipping the creature rather than the Creator." Let the evi- dence rise beyond a certain degree, and conviction will not be optional, nor voluntary adoration possible. The Divine method provides against each danger. K man will, he may * Design implies freedom of choice ; natural law means, as employed by materialists, a necessity. The fact of design may be inferred from any degree of regularity, however imperfect, which cannot reasonably be ascribed to chance. The establishment of a single exception is fatal to the hypothesis of a natural or necessary law. 120 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. make that uniformity of nature, without which there would be no evidence of the Divine power, the very occasion of forget- ting and denying such power ; or, if he will, he may make it the occasion of ascending to the proofs of that contingency and appointment on wliich the uniformity itself depends. The constitution of the material system told of an Almighty maker, in a way which foretold a race of intelligent and accountable creatures. XX.* The vltimate End. — We are led to expect that both the laws of the method, and the reason of it, will find their ultimate end, in relation to this stage of the Divine Procedure, in contribut- ing to prove the all-sujfficiency of the power of God. 1. In our remarks on this subject, under the first law, we have stated distinctly that we do not claim for this opening stage a display of power exclusively, but preeminently. God himself is often found, in His word, appealing to the creation of the material system, as his own chosen proof of power. We remarked also that we were not then about to infer the extent of the power displayed in the material creation, whether it be limited or unlimited. Nor do we now say that this open- ing stage mathematically demonstrates the absolute infinity of the Divine power. If it did so, all the illustrations of power derivable from the subsequent stages of the Divine Procedure, w^ould, as further evidence, be superfluous ; for the proofs have been accumulating ever since, whereas we are only as yet dealing, by supposition, with the opening proof. And, we con- ceive, that as the metaphysically adequate proof of infinite power must itself be infinite, the only possible manner in which it can be furnished to finite beings, is by a progressive accu- mulation through infinite duration ; and therefore can only be always in process. But we can conceive, also, of such a dis- play of power within a space and a time not absolutely unlim- ited, as should furnish beings capable of reasoning from anal- ogy, with ample, superabundant evidence of power unlimited. Such exercise of power we believe to have been displayed in the primary stage of creation. 2. Now, in order to fill our imagination for awhile with this illustration of the Divine Power, let us glance at the nature and magnitude of the vast system to which the earth belongs. And the point from which we might most advantageously stait INORGANIC NATURE. 121 would be an elementary atom. But where shall it be found ? Animalcules — organized beings possessing life and all its es- sential functions — are in some cases so minute that a million of them would occupy less than a grain of sand. A grain of musk will continue to yield odour, to throw off' an incalculable number of particles of matter, for twenty years, without any sensible diminution of its weight. Yet, on apparently conclu- sive grounds, it may be inferred that matter is not infinitely divisible. For the present, however, science must be content with an inference. But it matters little that we cannot begin with a strictly in- divisible atom ; since, even if we could, the combination of as many of these as go to form a microscopic insect might baffle all our powers of arithmetic. Let us begin with one of these living atoms ; and, remembering that every particle of which it is composed is a production of Almighty power, and that a million of these will only equal the size of a grain of sand, — according to Ehrenberg, a cubic inch of the tripoli of Bilin contains 40,000 millions of the siliceous coverings of the Gali- onellae, — let us try to conjecture how many of these grains would equal a cubical mile of rock ; and then recollect, that to equal the size of the earth we must accumulate 263,858,149, 120 such masses. 3. Immense as this aggregate of matter is, when compared with the entire solar system it dwindles to a point. The mass of the sun itself is 354,936 times that of the earth, so that were its centre brought to the centre of the earth, it would not only fill up the orbit of the moon, but would extend nearly as far again. But this is nothing compared with the mass of some of the stars. Who can conjecture the magnitude of a body which would fill the vast orbit of the earth ! But, though our mean distance from the sun is ninety-five millions of miles, and that of Uranus about nineteen times greater, or 1,800,000,000 miles, the bright star in Lyra has a diameter which, it has been said, would nearly fill even that orbit. Among the planetary nebulae there are masses so enormous, that, according to the computation of Sir John Herschel, if they are as far from us as the stars, their real magnitude, on the lowest estimation, must be such as would fill the orbit of Uranus ; while among the nebulous stars there are some of dimensions so vast — not improbably systems of stars — that were one of them in the place of the sun, its atmosphere would 11 122 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. not merely include the orbit of Uranus, but would extend eight times beyond it. 4. In the presence of such masses, indeed, the moon, the earth itself, may be omitted as an inappreciable quantity, and the space occupied by our system be passed by as an unassign- able point. But the estimate is hardly yet begun The milky way derives its brightness from the diffused liglit of bodies each of which may be equal to that of Lyra, and of which 50,000 passed through the field of Sir W. Herschel's telescope in an hour : 2500 nebulae, and clusters of stars, have been ob- served by Sir John Herschel ; and an unknown number more remain to be observed. In some of those which he has ex- amined, " ten or twenty thousand stars appear compacted or wedged together in a space not larger than a tenth part of that covered by the moon, and presenting in its centre one blaze of light.'' The number of the distinguishable telescopic stars of the milky way has been estimated at eighteen millions. But beyond the milky way of stars, and almost at right angles with it, there is a milky way of nebulae. A nearer approach might resolve these into clustered myriads of stars, and reveal another milky way beyond. 5. Let us try to imagine the distance of one of the star- clusters in the nearer milky way. The earth, we have said, is ninety-five millions of miles from the sun. Uranus is nineteen times further. The great comet of 1680 recedes about forty times farther than Uranus, or about twenty times beyond the orbit of Neptune; and requires, according to Encke, 8,800 years for its revolution. The nearest fixed star is supposed to be 250 times farther from the sun than this comet at its great- est distance, while the star a Centauri is 11,000 times, the star 61 Cygni is 31,000 times, and the star a Lyrae is 41, GOO times more distant than Uranus ; so that light travelling at the rate of about 170,000 miles a second, would be three years, nine months and a quarter, and twelve years, in reaching us from these bodies, respectively. But if each of the stars in a neb- ulous cluster be a sun, and if they be separated by intervals equal to that which separates our sun from the nearest fixed star, light would require thousands of years in order to reach us from such a distance. " The rays of light of the remotest nebulae must have been about two millions of years on their way." 1 They are therefore, as Humboldt remarks, " the voices ' Sir W. Herschel. in the Transact, for 1802, p. 498. Sir J. Herschel's Astr. § .590. INORGANIC NATURE. 123 6f the past which reach us. It has been well said, that with our mighty telescopes we penetrate at once into space and into time. Much has long disappeared from those distant regions before it vanishes from our view, and much has been newly arranged before it becomes visible to us." But were the means of vision which enable us to behold that remote point to be doubled, who can imagine that we should not see other clusters burning at a great distance beyond it, as it is beyond us ; and that were we to be transported to that remoter system, we should not behold similar unterminated collections of suns and systems as far beyond ? 6. But if such are the distances which intervene, the quan- tity of matter of which the sidereal heavens is composed, lost though we are in the greatness of the estimate, bears a very small proportion to the immensity of space. There are vast " openings in heaven," desolate and starless regions. " Large as the bodies are, the distances which separate them are im- measurably greater." But even this space is not a void. It appears to be traversed in all directions by light, and heat, and gravitation. 7. If we are lost in adoration of the Power which had only to say to this space, " Be filled," and it was occupied, what can \ve think of the Being who maintains every atom of the whole in constant yet harmonious activity ! We might remind our- selves of the muscular force necessary to hurl a stone of a pound weight to the distance of a hundred yards, or to draw it to us ; of the force requisite to project a cannon ball of 50 pounds weight with a velocity of a thousand miles an hour ; but, in the same time, the earth woves 68,000 miles. Jupiter, eqaal in weight to 1,400 earths, moves with a velocity of 29,- 000 miles an hour. The rate of Mercury is 107,000 miles an hour. The velocity of the comet of 1 680, is estimated at 880,- 000 miles in an hour. The annual motion of 6 1 Cygni is a hun- dred and twenty millions of millions of miles, and yet, as M. Arago remarks, we call it a fixed star ! Such is its distance ! But this is only a single motion of a single body. Besides the rotation of the earth on its own axis, and its annual motion, in common with the other planets, around the sun, there is ground to believe that the whole of the solar system itself is moving together in one direction ; and beyond this, that the entire un- iverse of stars is revolving around a common centre, in an orbit so vast, that no measurable arc, in no calculable period of du- ration, would ever appear otherwise to us than a straight line. 124 TUB PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. And what if that common centre be, as some think, a mass of matter bearing the same rehition and proportion to the whole circulating universe as our sun does to its attendant planets - - then is the view which we have hitherto taken of the quantity of matter in the universe reduced to utter insignificance. But whatever the merit of this supposition may be, the new and more enlarged impression which it gives us of the quantity of matter falls immeasurably below the sublime reality. 8. Here, in quick succession, our sight abandons the ground to our powers of calculation ; our numbers fail, and resign the subject to imagination ; and even imagination sinks, and seeks relief in exclamations of w^onder, or in the silence of profound adoration. And yet the whole of this universal system of masses, vast beyond all that the eye can take in ; speeding in every direction, Avitli a velocity beyond all that arithmetic can calculate ; through realms of space beyond all that the mind can conceive, is stable as the throne of God. If in the mate- rial universe there be one point of absolute repose, it is in that common centre of creation to which we have adverted. 9. Now, suppose we had been able to look on the great pro- cess on a much larger scale than we can at present ; to place ourselves so as to obtain a view of these worlds, systems of worlds, collections of systems, in all the variety, velocity, and extent of their motions, what must have been our reasonable conclusions respecting the energy of the Divine Creator. Up to that period we should have lived, by the very nature of the hypothesis, in an empty, objectless universe ; and w^e could not have beheld the numberless unorganized masses of matter rolling around us, where all had once been vacuity, without re- garding the change as an effect, and the Cause, or the Being, who had produced it, as possessed of a power, to us, unlimited. 10. If, now, the question, to which we have already adverted, should be asked, whether or not the proper infinity of the Di- vine Power could be justly inferred from even tliis display of it — a display which, though indefinitely vast, must be necessa- rily limited ? — it may be proper for the present, to submit the following considerations. It is freely admitted, as before, that in the eye of strict a posteriori reasoning, a given mechanical effect implies only the operation of a mectianical cause adequate to the produc- tion. Beyond this, we admit, that the a posteriori argument, from effect to cause, cannot, by itself, demonstrate, respecting any cause, that it is the First Cause. " Though every true INORGANIC NATURE. 1J5 step made in this philosophy {physical science) brings us," says Newton, "not immediately to the knowledge of the First Cause, yet it brings us nearer to it, and on that account it is to be highly valued." ^ It is always conducting us in that direction, but can never certify us respecting any cause with which it has pro- perly to do, that there is not another cause beyond. 11. But here, without stopping to examine whether or not an exclusively a posteriori argument be possible ; whether, even in the present instance, it does not start with an a priori postulate, or belief — we have to remind the inquirer, ^rs^, that we are not speaking of a mechanical cause, but of an intelli- gent personal agent. " We must include a distinct personal consciousness of causation in the enumeration of that sequence of events by which the volition of the mind is made to termi- nate in the motion of material objects." ^ The cause and the effect are not homogeneous. The most, therefore, which he can affirm, is, that if the created effect be limited, the personal Creating Cause may be limited also ; language which implies that He may not be limited ; and, that if the effect be only of a physical nature, the Personal Cause m^y not be equally ad- equate to produce effects of any other kinds ; language, again, which implies that He may be adequate ; and we know that He has since proved it. A material cause is measured by the effect, an intelligent cause is only proclaimed. 12. Secondly, it is to be remarked, that this necessary limi- tation of the a posteriori argument is a tacit confession of its own incompetence and insufficiency, except within the circle of mere mechanical causes and effects. It professes to trace only the operation of laws, not to account for their origination. By this very confession, that its materials are not self-contain- ed and self-sufficient, but derived, it refers the inquirer to a source of derivation beyond themselves. By acknowledging its own inefficacy, it emphatically directs him to carry his ap- peal from the laws of matter to the laws of mind. By exhibit- ing laws, it silently points to a lawgiver. The very tendency of the a posteriori process, in its ascent from effects to their apparent causes, is to awaken the idea of a First Cause. And, once the idea is awakened, the existence of such a Cause is felt to be an intellectual necessity ; the mind cannot be satis- fied without it. Aristotle himself has said, " All that is in ' Optics, Query 28, p. 345. 2 Sir J. Hersehel's Astronomy, p. 232. 11* 126 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. motion refers us to a mover, and it were but an endless ad- journment of causes were there not a primary immoveable Mover." That First Cause, indeed, must be immensely dif- ferent, both in rank and in nature, from the subordinate phy- sical causes to which it has imparted motion ; but still the mind feels the necessity for such a cause ^vith all the force of an intellectual instinct. The mind was constituted to feel this necessity, and thus to supply the last link in the chain of rea- soning from itself, as much as it was made and meant to find the preceding links in the phenomena of nature. 1^. The inquirer is to be reminded, ^//^V6^/y, that in affirm- ing the limitation of the created universe, he is quitting his a posteriori ground, and is inconsistently availing himself of an a priori assumption. True, he may start, on this point, from a posteriori ground — having observed that some parts of the material universe are divisible from each other ; but he can- not make this the basis for the inference that all parts are in the same predicament, without either most unphilosophically jumping to a conclusion, or having recourse to a priori deduc- tions. Certainly, observation has nothing to do with his sup- position. Push his inquiries as far as he may, he nowhere finds vacuity or a limit. All the regions of space, as far as he can explore them, are occupied. Could he actually look on the frontiers of creation, he would not know that he was doing so ; — there might, for aught he could say, be something beyond. But he has abandoned all thought of finding any confines to nature. Reasoning a priori, there must be limits ; for a substance divisible into parts cannot be infinite. But observation, and the legitimate inductions of observation, can exhibit no proof of limitation. 14. We have to remind the inquirer, fourthly, that he is in danger of overlooking the power presupposed in the creating act — the act of the absolute origination of matter. He is thinking only of the quantity of matter in existence, and of its motions. The nature of the agency necessary to call it into existence is lost sight of. Now it seems impossible to conceive of that power as limited. Not only was there nothing, ex hy- pothesi, absolutely nothing, existing objectively to limit it ; but that, in this state of absolute nonentity, the Deity should have " Called the things which were not as though they were," can be conceived of only as the prerogative of Omnipotence alone. Probably, the absolute origination of even a single atom would be proof demonstrative of infinite power in the eyes of exalted intollicrenoes. INORGANIC NATURE. 127 15. Fifthly, the inquirer is to be reminded of the very im- portant fact that, on his own admission, the limitations of mat- ter in space originate, not in the Cause, but in the very nature of the thing caused — of the material medium which exhibits the effect. He himself predicates of matter that it is condi- tioned by limits ; that its nature forbids it to be properly infi- nite in extension. The question anses, therefore, what series of effects, exhibited in a substance necessarily subject to spe- cial limits, he — as a being constituted to infer, from what he sees, more than he sees — would deem an adequate illustration of uncircumscribed power "^ We just now intimated that the absolute origination of a single atom might be, in the estima- tion of superior beings, but the sole prerogative and the ade- quate proof of Omnipotence. But here is a universe of matter! He has no line with which to measure it. Words, numbers, imagination, fail, in succession, to do justice to the intermin- able reality. We say, interminable ; for the inquirer must bear in mind that our view of the Divine power relies especially on the phenomena of the material universe, regarded as succes- sive and progressive. Now, could its unimaginable masses be caused to roll or rush before him, in succession ; surely he would not require many ages of such a survey to elapse, be- fore he would feel constrained to exclaim, " It is enough !'* Here, too, is a universe of matter in motion. Let him be given to understand the numerical amount of the forces im- plied in all this activity ; surely, after the calculation had last- ed for ages without any prospect of termination, he could not forbear confessing, " Nothing is too hard for God !" Here is a universe perpetually changing in all its parts. The changes which our own planet has passed through imply periods of time beyond our computation. Let him conceire himself to have beheld the first change, and the next, and so on, in suc- cession ; surely he would have exclaimed, ages, and cycles of ages ago, " Power belongeth unto God !" — all-sufficient power. He cannot but feel that, in such an imaginary position, the mere reasoning which measures the cause by the effect would soon be out of place ; that, having prepared the way for a lof- tier rule, it would confess its own inadequacy, and be silent. Other and higher faculties than it implies would be awakened, and would assert their claims. And when he remembered that the mighty system was, both in the constitution of every particle and the collocation of its unnumbered worlds, entirely dependent on the will of God, he would feel that even here 128 THE PIIE-ADAMITE EAilTH. " was the hiding of His power" — that He could reduce or en- large the universe at pleasure. When he saw the innumerable changes which the great system had already passed through ; and that no trace was visible of a failure of power, but, on the contrary, that everything was apparently constructed and con- ducted to evince its presence and its plenitude, he could not but feel himself challenged to say whether anything more was wanting to convince him of the all-sufficiency of God, in this department, for all the future. And when he recollected, that " the arm of God was still bare," still evolving and working out the immeasurable scheme ; that every new moment brought with it an incalculable amount of new evidence of the Divine Power to be added to all tlie accumulations of the past ; and that of such increase there was no prospect of an end ; he would feel himself in the presence of a God all-sufficient, and spontaneously adore. 16. For, in the consideration of this subject, it should never be forgotten, that, as we have before remarked, man is not merely an intellectual, but also a moral being ; a being meant for virtue as well as for reasoning, and partly, as the result of his reasoning. In relation to every moral truth, therefore, which he may be required to believe, evidence, depending for its due eflfect on his own diligence, attention, and state of mind, is to be expected, to a certain amount, but not beyond that amount. If wanting in that amount, belief would be impossi- ble ; if it be in excess of that amount, it would, by compelling belief, make virtue impossible. Constituted as man is, if his belief is to be at once rational and virtuous, the evidence on which it is to be based must be supplied in " weight and mea- sure." Such evidence, it is conceived, is supplied in this open- ing stage of the Divine procedure — evidence calculated to call forth the intelligent and adoring exclamation, " Lo ! these are parts of His ways ; but the thunder of His power who can understand!" And thus the method and the reason of the Divine Plan, as evinced in this primary display, find their ultimate end, in contributing to prove the all-sufficiency of the power of God. FOURTH PART. ORGANIC NATURE The Second Stage of I^ivine Manifestation. POWER AND WISDOM. The first stage of the Divine manifestation disclosed to us " enormous masses of matter rolling around the horizon of illimitable space," impelling us to the conclusion that the Crea- tor of these must be a Being of all-sufficient power. Let it be supposed that, haunted and bewildered with the sublime spectacle, and with the laws to which we saw matter successively subjected, we had retired to muse on the omnipo- tence of the Being who had produced the whole, and on the probable design of its production ; and suppose, that now again, after the lapse of an incalculable period, it were permitted us to revisit some part of the material universe, to behold the manifestation of another perfection of Deity ; what may we conceive that perfection would be ? 1. But here, again, let it be premised that we do not con- template anything like sudden transition in the Divine Mani- festation, any distinct line which appropriates all within it to one attribute to the exclusion of every other. The very pro- gressiveness of the manifestation implies the contrary ; implies that which we actually find, that even the earliest attribute supposes the coexistence of all that appear after it, and is itself to be carried on through all the intermediate stages of the great process, to the last. 2. But if, for reasons already assigned, we are warranted in concluding that the manifestation will be gradual ; and if, in harmony with this expectation, we have found that the first display was an exercise of power, and that even this display 130 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. advanced from step to step, as if to point attention to some- thing yet beyond ; we are surely warranted in expecting that the period will come in the history of creation, when another attribute will characterize the manifestation as distinctly as power does already. What, we repeat, is that attribute likely to be? We have already answered the question, in effect, by sup- posing that the manifestation of that power has filled us with wonder as to what is the design of the universe of matter. Wisdom, then, is the next perfection for whose manifestation we look ; for with God, design and wisdom mean the same thing. Wisdom is evinced in the adaptation and adjustment of means to ends. Having seen the means, (we might be supposed to say,) let us proceed to examine the ends. Power has pro- duced the matei-ial ; in what way, and to what purposes, will Wisdom employ it ? Immeasurable ages have elapsed since the first fiat went forth, and the universe seemed filled, or fill- ing, with a new substance ; what changes may not have passed on it, besides those which we witnessed, during the immense interval ! What if, since our last survey, another fiat should have gone forth ; and, in consequence, another effect have been produced as wonderful as the first, and by means of it ! Now what should we be willing to accept as such an effect ? And here, if the mind would do anything like justice to those primary displays to which, in the order of the subject, we are now approaching, it should labor to divest itself, as much as possible, of all the impressions of the Divine Wisdom which it has received from the later and loftier stages of the mani- festation. Placing ourselves, then, in the situation of beings to whom nothing of the kind has yet been disclosed, what, we repeat, should we be willing to consider as a display of wisdom — of wisdom so marked, as to constitute an era in the mani- festation, so wonderful, that it should seem to unveil to us a new view of the Divine character, to bring us nearer than ever to the Divine presence, and to remove all bounds from our expectation as to the future ? 3. We will suppose that the particular section of the uni- verse visited is the solar system ; and that, having marked the scientifically calculated intervals between the sun and the planets, and between the planets themselves, and especially the rigorous equality subsisting between the angular motions of rotation and revolution of each satellite, we have been brought to conclude, with Laplace, that the arrangement ORGANIC LIFE. 131 is a protest against chance. We will suppose that the par- ticular part of the solar sy tern to which we direct our atten- tion is the earth ; that we mark the progressive changes which it exhibits as compared with that primitive fluidity in which we beheld it untold ages ago ; trace over again its laws of motion, and chemistry, and crystallization ; and fancy our- selves one while standing in the midst of a vast chemical lab- oratory, where the great agent heat was crystallizing all things ; and another while, amidst the conflicting operations of its well- matched antagonist, water, assailing, wearing, and reducing continents of crystal to atoms, and carrying them away to its own depths, but bearing them away only to lose them again by a subterranean force, which lifts them up from their submerged state to the light of day — a lofty table-land. Still, we should feel that all this was only the play or conflict of inorganic mat- ter ; that each form we beheld was hfeless, and each motion compelled, or impressed by a force from without, " ceasing when that ceased, and never proceeding beyond its compulsory im- pulse, either in direction or degree." 4. What, then, if some form of organic vegetable life had now for the first time met our view ! It matters not whether that form came into existence slowly or suddenly, alone, ^ or in company with kindred tribes, and with millions of each tribe ; the fact that the earth, after the existence of a " limited eterni- ty," has become the owner of a new principle — a principle, be it remarked, liitherto unknown to the whole course of nature — a principle hitherto peculiar to the Creator himself, the sacred and mysterious principle of Life ; and that innumera- ble pre-existing phenomena were now for the first time em- ployed as means, for the development of this new principle as an end; this would surely be hailed by us as an epoch in the progress of the Divine Manifestation. Wisdom. — Here was a result of which the supreme and vUi- mate reason is in the Divine Nature. 5. We have not yet to speak of the extent of the wisdom to be inferred from this new form of existence. At present, we have only to regard it as evincing the existence of design in the Divine Creator. Hereafter, we shall have to treat of it as being also a new illustration of creative power, and of every attribute and relation of the Deity already dis- * See Note D. 132 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. played in the preceding stage. And whatever illustrations of taste in arrangement, elegance in form, beauty in color, and majesty in magnitude and waving motion, are now for the first time brought before us in the botanical kingdom, are to be regarded as indications of the Divine complacency in the graceful, the beautiful, and the sublime. As effects, they point to correspondencies infinitely greater in their cause. But even the manner in which each of these effects is produced is a proclamation of the amazing wisdom of the Maker. Every green leaf is a magazine of contrivances ; every part of it capable of action, a theatre of different organic wonders. And these diversities are multiplied to such a degree, that, if we would not be bewildered, an attempt at classification is ne- cessary at the very outset of our observations. Here^ in the primeval earth, are the three classes which are still extant ; the acotyledons, or those which, having no flowers, produce no true seeds ; the monocotyledons, or those producing one-lobed seeds ; the dicotyledons, or those producing two-lobed seeds. Of these classes, each exhibits an internal structure or organi zation peculiar to itself; the first being either vascular and cellular in its tissues, or else entirely celkilar ; the second, en- dogenous, its growth taking place by addition from without to the centre ; the third, exogenous, the growth taking place by the addition of concentric layers without, immediately under the bark. But each of these classes includes numerous orders of plants, each order a number of genera, each genus many species, and every species a number of individuals defying cal- culation. Here, too, is " a new thing in the earth ;" the great elements and phenomena of the inorganic world are seen sub- serving the purposes of organic life. The hand of the Creator has mysteriously bound them to the new principle. Every root in creation is, by a chemistry of its own, selecting ele- ments from the earth ; every leaf is silently feeding on the great air-field around it ; every fibre is vibrating to the quick- ening influence of the light. Quiet as is the aspect of the new scene, repose is, in reality, a thing unknown to it. Move- ment, activity, multifarious excitement, pervade the silent life of this new creation. Now could we have looked intelligently on this new, this organized, this living, kingdom of nature when first it came into existence, without saying respecting the Creator, " His understanding is infinite !" Here was the first utterance of His wisdom, in the adaption of means to ends. ORGANIC LIFE. 18S II. The Past brought forwards. — We have now to see whether or not 'pre-existing laws and eleme7its are brought forwards and employed in organic life. 1. Preparatory to this, however, an important question claims our attention. Did the creation of vegetable life pre- cede that of animal life ? or were they contemporaneously pro- duced ? " The earliest forms of life known to geology [at present] are not, as might have been expected, plaiits, hut ani- mals.^^ A few species of coralloids and conchifers, in the slates of the Cambrian system, are, " the oldest monuments yet dis- covered of the creation of living things." i But this fact, geolo- gists admit, leaves the question we have proposed unanswered. Lindley's experiments show that some species of plants entire- ly disappear in water. Had such plants, then, existed for ages prior to the introduction of animal Ufe, their want of power to resist decomposition would sufficiently account for the loss of all trace of their existence. And geologists are well aware that no certain inferences can be drawn from the numerical proportion of fossil plants in different strata, respecting the numbers which actually flourished during the formation of those strata ; since their preservation would depend on their more or less perishable nature, and on many other circum- stances. 2. For the decision of the question, then, we are referred to other considerations. Some suppose they have adequate ground for ascribing priority of existence to vegetable life, in the evi- dences which they think they can adduce that the atmosphere of the primitive world was surcharged with carbonic acid ; that this very excess, which would have been fatal to animal life, would have been conducive to the luxuriance of land vegeta- tion ; and that it was the office of such vegetation to purify the atmosphere of the ingredient in question, preparatory to the ^ Phillips's Treat. Geol., vol. i. p. 129. Further investigation, how- ever, enables us to qualify this statement in a manner which favors the geological precedence of the plant to the animal. In Sweden, in Nor- way, in Russia, and in the United States, there are certain rocks which occupy relatively the same place as the Lower Silurian or Cambrian sys- tem — the lowest in which fossils have been detected. The fossils which characterize them are fucoids — algae or sea- weed. The Skiddaw slates bear their impressions, blent with graptolites — fossil zoophytes. They constitute that " fucoidal band " of Sir R. I. Murchison, which forms the base of the vast Palaeozoic basin of the Baltic.. 12 134 THE P»e-ADAMITE EARTH. coming of land animals. As this supposition, however, is at present open to doubts, we will not rely on it ; and we need not. A moment's reflection will show that in the system of things which God has been pleased to constitute, animal life necessarily pre-supposes vegetation, and is, indeed, very much regulated in its extent by the quantity supplied. Vegetable is the ultimate support of animal life ; for, though some ani- mals are carnivorous, those preyed on, if traced downwards, are found herbivorous ; just as the herb itself derives its nour- ishment from the pre-existing inorganic elements. This is true of fishes and cetaceous aniraals which feed on the smaller plant-eating Crustacea ; and thus, in the ocean, the phosphoric acid of inorganic nature is, by means of plants, carried over to animals.' Both analogy and fact, then, authorize the inference that plants preceded and prepared the way for animal exist- ence. And the reader of the scriptures need not to be remind- ed that, in the Mosaic history of the last creation, vegetable life wcLS called into being first. 3. And as slowness characterises the processes of nature, except where the God of nature has an end to be answered by quickening them, analogy would lead us to infer that between the commencement of the Flora and the Fauna of the earth, a considerable period would elapse. This, at least, is certain, that the carboniferous group contains more than half the known species of fossil plants, and yet no trace of the exist- ence of the great herbivorous land quadrupeds appears before the tertiary period. Besides which, it should be remembered that some of the vegetable tribes found in the earliest strata, ap- pear to have had an end to answer prior, in the order of nature, to that of sustaining animal life — namely, the office of producing soil, and thus preparing the way for the superior tribes of their own order of life. But, whether the Flora preceded the Fau- na by an interval longer or shorter, is of little present impor- tance. It is enough for us that we have ground to believe that life began on the earth by the vegetable kingdom. 4. We are now prepared to see whether or not the pre-ex- isting laws and elements of the inorganic world are brought forwards and employed in organic life. What more there may be in this new department, is not now the question ; we have at present only to look for the continuity described. And first, ' See a paper bv Professor Forchhnmmcr, read by Sir R. I. Murchison to the British Association, 1S4-1. -f^'»'* '•- . -■'• ,i ORGANIC LIFE. 185 we recognise it in the external relations of the plant. Botany has its geography. The plant is not only a native of the earth, but each different species has its peculiar territory, or, in tech- nical language, its " habitat." Did light exist before the plant was created ? The humblest herb requires it, turns towards it, seeks after it, and, without it, perishes. For water and air, it has the power of absorption. For the temperature, each spe- cies possesses a constitutional adaptation which can never be violated with impunity. The first seed that germinated claim- ed kindred with all the material elements which were in ex- istence when it came. And the bud at this moment bursting, is holding communion with the distant sun, and comes to lay all nature under tribute. 5. But let us proceed from this general reference to the re- lation subsisting between the external conditions of the plant and its organization, to mark the presence and continuity of the laws and results of inorganic nature in the internal relations of the plant. Now, as to the organic constituents of plants, they are derived entirely, in the first instance, from the inor- ganic world ; and consist chiefly of four of the fifty or sixty simple elements — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Whatever there may have been originally included in the con- stitution of inorganic nature, with a view to the future Flora of the earth, no new materials were called into existence on the occasion of its creation. And, entirely distinct as was the new principle of life which was now to be introduced, the pre- existing elements were sufficient in the hands of the Creator, for the means of its manifestation. Modern organic chemis- try, we repeat, consists of little more than the study of four of these selected elements and their multiform combinations. Here is the law of gravity, carrying the root of the plant downwards, and making it one with the mass of the earth. Here is the attraction of cohesion uniting the parts of the plant, and giving it individuality. Here is motion, or me- chanical force, carrying the fluids absorbed for nutrition from the root upwards. Here is chemical affinity, attracting the surrounding particles with elective forces, and completely changing their nature. Here is developed symmetry, answer- ing, in form, to crystallization, giving determinate figure to the organized body. 6. In the preceding Part, we remarked that in the produc- tion of the crystal we saw what might be regarded as the most finished production of the inorganic world ; and that, in its 136 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. symmetrical arrangement we beheld an image suggestive of the coming flower. But if the crystal is to be looked on, in respect to form, as a mineral flower, the flower, though much more, is a vegetable crystal. Cuvier affirmed even that the form of the living body is more essential to it than its matter. Be this as it may, morphology, or the subject of form, belongs to the science of botany. m. Progression. — The same theory which led us to look for the continuance of pre-existing laws and elements in organized matter, leads us farther to expect in this organization the man- ifestation of n.ew effects^ or the introduction of a new 'princi- ple. Nor are we disappointed. Here are life and its manifes- tations. 1. But what is organic life? As we can acquire a know-^ ledge of matter only by the changes of which it is susceptible, so life becomes known to us only by its effects or manifesta- tions. And these may be summed up under the heads of As- similation and Propagation ; the nourishment of the individual and the continuance of the race. 2. An organic body is distinguished from an inorganic by the mysterious power of assimilation. The inorganic increases by external additions ; thus particles allowed to coalesce from a state of solution, arrange themselves into crystalline forms, which can increase only by the further juxta-position of particles added to them externally. The organic is nourished by a power of ap- propriation within. The former only finds, the latter pre- pares, makes, what is added to its structure ; re-casting the inert substance, and exhibiting it in new unions, not of binary merely, but of ternary and quaternary combinations. The in- organic changes that on which it acts chemicady ; the organic vitalizes, and imparts to the matter which it vitalizes the power of acting in the same way on other substances. This is the end and object of that series of functions which, beginning with absorption, conveys the absorbed matter through the stem into the leaves, then subjects it to a process of exhalation, submits the rest to the action of the atmosphere, conveys it back into the sys.tem, elaborates it by secretion, and ends in assimilation. 3. And the plant is also generative. The inorganic mass, as we have seen, can only increase by cohesion and agglome- ration from without. But the plant " hath its seed in itself." ORGANIC LIFE. 137 It exists in generations. Besides vitalizing that which is ne- cessary to the conservation of each of its own parts, it is en- dowed with the power of giving existence to a new whole, and of providing the germ with the nourishment necessary for it in order to commence its independent being. 4. If now to the question, " Wliat is hfe ?" it be replied in the language of Schmid, " Life is the activity of matter, accord- ing to the lavv's of organization ;" the question naturally arises, What is organization ? Perhaps the best answer which has been furnished is by Kant, '"An organized product of nature is that in whicii all the parts are mutually ends and means."i Let it be remarked, it is not said that the product is made up of mutually dependent parts ; nor that the parts are mutually causes and effects ; both of these descriptions might, in a sense, be true of a piece of machinery. But in a piece of mechan- ism, " the parts have no properties which they derive from the whole." In an organized body they have ; the leaf, separated from the plant, begins immediately to lose the properties of a leaf, and soon ceases to retain even its form. Here, the causes and effects are so related as not merely to excite the idea of contrivance and intention ; the light in which we feel impelled to regard them is that of means and ends returning into each other with a view to the constitution of a whole. The physi- ologist finds that each intelligible part of the system has a defi- nite office ; each organ, an approj^riate function ; that no por- tion of it exists in vain : and that each part not only answers an end, but is so formed as to lead to the conclusion that it was constructed for that end; and that that end, which is again to become a means, is the reason why it is where, and what, it is. Here, then, we find ourselves in a new depart- ment of Divine operation. The notion of design in organized bodies — of contrivance, and of an end to be obtained by such contrivance — is natural and inevitable to the human mind. The mind is made to ask, why this function, or this member, just because the object is made to reply. And it is by wisely questioning nature, under the conviction that each organ and part w'as intended to an- swer a certain end, that physiology has been able to make any progress. Under this persuasion it is that Cuvier speaks of the combination of organs adapted to " the part which the ani- mal has to play in nature." But there is another school of ' See Professor Whewell's Pliil. of the Indue. Sciences, vol. ii. c. Hi. 12* 138 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. physiologists which attempts to decry the doctrine of final causes, though they will be found to be frequently using lan- guage in harmony with it ; thus unconsciously rendering hom- age to the idea which they profess to repudiate. ''I know nothing of animals which have to play a part in nature,"' says Geoffrey St. Ililaire. " I take care not to ascribe any inten- tion to God." 2 But this, it appears to me, is mere logomachy and self-delusion. Some guiding idea to direct his inquiries the physiologist must have. The idea which Geotfrey St. Hilaire and liis school profess to have taken, in opposition to the idea of design or final cause, is that of " unity of composi- tion," or " analogues," or " morphology," which seeks to reduce all animated nature to one plan or principle of composition. JNow let their writings be referred to, and it will he found that, in effect, they have only substituted one form of the doctrine of final causes for another ; that " unity of composition " is their Jinal cause ; that they mentally assume it in every physiolo- gical inquiry, and find or fancy illustrations of it in every organized body. o. That organization involves this idea of means and ends, as distinguished from causes and effects, contf m[)lated in our last Part, will appear, if we remember, that it is here for the first time that we speak of failui-e or disease. '' Physiology," observes Bichat, " is to the movements of living bodies what as- tronomy, dynamics, hydraulics, &c., are to those of inert matter; but these latter sciences have no branches which correspond to them as pathology corresponds to physiology. For the same reason, all notion of a medicament is repugnant to the physical sciences. A medicament has for its object to bring the properties of the system back to their natural type ; but the physical properties never de[)art from this type, and have no need to be brought back to it. And thus there is nothing in the physical sciences which holds the place of thera})eutic in physiology." On which Professor Whewell remarks, " Of inert force, we have no conception of what they ought to do, except what they do. The forces of gravity, elasticity, affinity, never act in a diseased manner ; we never conceive them as failing in their purpose ; for we do not conceive them as having any purpose, which is answered by one mode of their action rather than another. But with organical forces the case is ' Principles de Philosophic Zoologique, p. 65. ' I. id., p. 10, ORGANIC LIFE. 139 different ; they are necessarily conceived as acting for the pre- serv'ation and development of the system in which they reside. If they do not do this, they fail, they are deranged, diseased." And he founds on the distinction this aphorism : " The idea of living beings as subject to disease includes a recognition of a final cause in organization ; for disease is a state in which the vital forces do not attain their proper ends" Now physiologi- cal botany includes nosology, or the science which treats of the diseases of the vegetable kingdom. 6. Here, then, (and we only call attention to the fact in passing, with a view to its future application,) here, in the botanical kingdom, we find ourselves in a department of the Divine procedure essentially different from that which we have left behind us in the mineral kingdom. There we saw events^ and thought only of their efficient cause ; here we find means, and look for their final cause or end. There we found our- selves so near to the First cause, — for we cannot conceive of a mateiial cause of the adjustment and motions of the plane- tary system, — that we naturally look back to recognise and adore it ; here, we find ourselves so near to ends answered by proximate causes which we can recognise, that we as naturally look on to these ends in admiration of the Divine Contriver. There, we saw fixed laws in operation, so that nothing happen- ed by chance ; here we see the wise adjustment of means to ends, so that nothing is in vain. There we saw physical cause and effect taking place in a certain invariable order and sym- metry, and we felt ourselves in the presence of Intelligent Pow- er ; here, we see fixed ends or purposes, the direction of means towards them, and changes taking place to attain them, and we feel ourselves in the presence of a Wise as well as an Intel- ligent Power. 7. And does not this important distinction account for the sagacious remark of Bacon,i that final causes are not to be ad- mitted into physical or mechanical inquiries ? For we see that, while there, we are only among causes and effects. It is not until we get into our present region of organization that we find ourselves among means and ends. As soon as we reach the first link of tlie living chain, " whose seed is in itself," we feel that the only adequate definition is, that " the parts are mutually means and ends." 8. And will not the distinction throw light also on the " dif- De Aivj-ment. Sc. ii. 105. 140 THE PRE-ADAMITB EARTH. ficulty sometimes felt in the estimate of the proofs of creative wisdom and power supplied by the contemplation of organized life as compared with those derived from the study of the heav- enly bodies ? " The former — the organic phenomena — it has been noticed, do not furnish (to some minds at least) the same ready and conclusive evidence of a Deity as the latter — the mechanical phenomena.' And the view which we are now taking would have enabled us to show, a priori, that such would probably be the fact, and to assign the reason why. Organic phenomena disclose a number of visible proximate causes com- bined to accomplish a purpose, and we think only or principally of the wisdom of the Being who has designed it ; the celestial phenomena simplify the theological argument by confining our attention to the Being himself, the First Cause of the whole. Or thus ; if we begin at an advanced stage of the Creative process — say, in the animal kingdom, where there is conscious enjoyment, we should find illustrations of the existence of a ffood, a wise and an intelligent Power. Descending to the bo- tanical kingdom, we find that we have lost the proofs of good- ness, and have narrowed our argument to the fact of a wise and intelligent Power. Descending again to the mineral and mechanical kingdom, we find that the proof of Wisdom is gone, and that our illustrations are restricted to the fact of the exist- ence of an intelligent Power. '^ The argument tapers to a single term. But then it is all the more powerfully felt, owing to its very simplicity. 9. Kant's definition of an organized body, as " that in which all the parts are mutually ends and means," implies a circular- ity in the operation of the organized system. Hence Cuvier represents life under the image of a whirlpool, having a con- stant direction, and always carrying along its stream particles of the same kinds ; individual particles of which are constantly entering in and departing out ; so that the form of the living body is more essential to it than its matter. Now without attempting to estimate the importance of the form — understanding by the term, the structure as compared with the matter of organic life, we would for the present, simply point attention to the fact that an organized body involves the idea of a determinate structural form. In addition, an organ- ' Professor Powell's Connection of Nat. and Div. Truth, p. 146. Dr. Turton's Nat. Theology, p. 54. ^ In the same way, the mere act of creation, could we have witnessed it. would have furnished a proof of power only, without the intelligence. ORGANIC LIFE. 141 ized body has the power of attracting into itself parts of sur- rounding substances, of detaining and changing a portion for its own use, and of giving up some of its own substance in return. This is in constant process. The structure not only retains its form, like the whirl of the vortex, though the mat- ter constantly passes away and is renewed ; but each pai'ticle is acted on at every point of the vortex, and is transformed in the whirl. On these grounds, the best idea we can obtain of organic life is, in the language of Professor Whewell, that it is a constant form of circulating matter, in which the matter and the form determine each other bi/ particular lavjs (that is, by vital forces). Of the mysterious nature of these vital forces we shall speak hereafter. IV. Continuity. — By another of our laws, we are led to expect that the manifestation, besides being progressive, will be contin- uous — leaving no intervals of space or time, but such as the modifying influence of other laws may require or account for. Now if, as we believe, such conditional breaches of conti- nuity occur, and if, according to another of our laws, every inferior part of creation is destined to serve a higher moral purpose, we may be able to show that the exceptions to the rule of continuity contribute ultimately to the same end as the rule itself, only in a diiferent manner. The exceptions may be as cogent against the doctrine of a necessity in nature, as the continuity may be in favor of design. At present, how- ever, our concern is with the evidences of continuous progress in the Floras of the ancient earth. 1. For reasons already named, especially that of the absorp- tion of plants, owing to their soft and destructible nature, during the consolidation of strata, no certain inferences can be drawn from the numerical proportion of fossil plants in the different formations. In the new list, by M. Goppert, the species of fossil plants discovered up to the present time all over the globe, amount to 1,792.* Their numerical distribu- tion in the different rocks is stated to be as follows : — Palipozoic 52 Carboniferous 819 Permian 58 * From a paper read by Sir R. I. Murchison to the British Associa- tion, 1845. 142 THE PRE-ADAMITK EARTH. Triassic 86 ^ Oolitic 234 Wealden 16 Cretaceous 62 Tertiary 454 Unknown 11 1,792 From this table it appears that the carboniferous group alone contains nearly half the known species of fossil plants. This sudden outburst of vegetable life in the ancient earth, as compared with the Floras immediately preceding and follow- ing, intimates, at least, that the continuous progress to be looked for is not that of successive numerical increase. The living Flora, of about 80,000 species, is probably an increase on all the past ; but then the increase has been numerically irregular. 2. If traces of a great botanical plan or system are sought for, they are not wanting ; though they appear to be subject to interruptions similar to those which affect the numerical proportions of plants. Certain chasms now existing in the scheme of botanical organization, have been partially filled up by discoveries in the ancient Floras. Thus, by means of Le- pidodendra, in the transition series, a kind of link is supplied between the flowering and the flowerless plants.^ So also the Cycadeae, of the secondary series, appear to fill up a blank which would otherwise have separated the three great natural divisions of plants — the seedless class, the one-lobed seed class, and the two-lobed seed class. Here, however, without stopping to remark on the existence of intermediate spaces which probably have never been filled up in the manner sug- gested, it is enough for us to know " that although many ex- tinct genera and certain families have no living representa- tives, and even ceased to exist after the deposition of the coal formation, yet are they connected with modern vegetables by common principles of structure, and by details of organization, which show them all to be parts of one grand, and consiistent, and harmonious design."^ 3. But, chiefly, is continuous progress observable in the gradual increase, and final ascendancy, of the more complica- ted dicotyledons, or two-lobed seed class of plants, over the ^ Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, vol. ii. p. 53. ' Buckland's B. Treatise, p. 480. OR&ANIC LIFE. 1^ more simple forms of the earlier periods. If we look at the ancient Floras, as distributed through the three great periods of geological history — the transition, the secondary, and the tertiary eras — we find that sea-weeds, or algae, existed during even the early formations of the first period. Such structures are found in Scandinavia among the very oldest fossil groups, i But it is in the carboniferous series of this era, especially, that we are called to admire the fulness of vegetable life. Here are, already, the three great divisions of plants — the seedless, the one-lobed, and the two-lobed seed classes. But while plants of the second and third classes are here comparatively rare, those of the Cryptogamic, or first class, such as Ferns and gigantic Equisetacese, abound. In the next era, a decided change is visible. The Ferns and Equisetaceae are reduced both in size and number ; being perhaps one-third of the whole. The greater part of the re- mainder are Cycadeae and Coniferae, with a few Liliaceous plants ; the Coniferae belonging to the two-lobed seed class, the Liliaceae to the one-lobed seed class, and the Cycadeae, which are so prevalent as to give a character to the upper formations of this era, resembling the palms of the monoco- tyledonous class in external appearance, and the Coniferae in the structure of the flower and fruit. Here, then, is an approach to proportion between the first and third classes of plants. In the third era the scale is decidedly turned. Most of the families of the first period, and many of those of the second, have disappeared. Plants resembling our own Flora have taken their place. We recognise our planes and firs, willows and elms, poplars, chestnuts and sycamores. The dicotyledo- nous, or two-lobed seed class, predominates. In our living Flora they form about two-thirds of the whole. Taken as a whole, then, the geological periods exhibit botan- ical progression. It is easy to conceive of more striking il- lustrations of the rule. We can conceive, for example, of e very- family resembling the Coniferae, which, beginning with the first stage of vegetation, has gone on " increasing in the num- ber and variety of its genera and species," down to the last stage. But the plan of the Creator did not require such an illustration of the law ; and, therefore, probably the conditions of the earth did not consist with it. It is sufficient to find that the Divine outline of botanical organization has been pro- * Professor Forchhammer's paper to the British Association, 1844. 144 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. gressively filling up ; and also that the order observed has been, on the whole, from the primary prevalence of the more rudimentary and simple, to the ultimate predominance of the more complex and perfect forms. Here is nothing, be it re- marked, to countenance the idea of any want of permanence of species. The great three-fold distinction of acotyledonous, monocotyledonous, and dicotyledonous, existed in the first pe- riod as they do still. V. Activity, — This new principle of organic assimilation, may be farther illustrated if we proceed to inquire after the appli- cation of that law of creation which affirms that every being will he found to manifest all that it is calculated to exhibit of the Divine nature^ by developing or working out its own nature — by activity. The activity of the mechanical and chemical forces we saw in the preceding Part. But these are constantly tend- ing " to produce a final condition. Mechanical forces tend to produce equilibrium ; chemical forces tend to produce compo- sition or decomposition ; and this point once reached, the matter in w^hich these forces reside is altoojether inert. But an org-anic body tends to a constant motion, and the highest activity of organic forces show^s itself in continuous change." " So long as this motion subsists," observes Cuvier, " the body in which it takes place is alive ; it lives''^ Even in popular language, life is a term employed to express the highest degree of activity. And in accordance with this view of the activity of the vital forces we find that they form an ever-whirling vortex. But even this is far from conveying an adequate idea of their activ- ity. They leave nothing as they found it. They not merely move that on which they act, but subdue it ; not merely change, but assimilate, organize, and share with it their own vitality. And though this activity is not always maintained at the same rate, so essential is it to the full development of organic life that it never pauses. Even during winter, when vegetable life is thought to repose, new fibres are forming at the roots, a slight progression of the sap is going on, and a trifling enlarge- ment of the buds taking place ;- while, wherever an organ is wanting to complete the symmetry of the plant, or any depart- ' Professor Whewell's Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. c. iv. ^ Professor Henslow's Physiol. Botany, p. 234. ORGANIC LIFE. lis ure from the normal structure of the flower exists, it is to be ascribed to the restraint, or the diversion, of its natural activity. Cavanilles, the Spanish botanist, conceived the thought of literally " seeing grass grow," by ingeniously adjusting his instruments, at one time to the tip of the shoot of a Bambusa, at another, to that of the fast-growing flowering stem of an American aloe. And who can doubt that, with our sight preternaturally sharpened, and the integuments of plants made transparent, we should see ceaseless motion in every tissue and every cell of the " germinating, leaf-pushing, flower-un- folding, organisms" of the great vegetable covering of the earth. VI. Development. — According to another law, the same proper- ties or characteristics which existed in the preceding stage are here found to he not only brought on to the present, hut to he in a more advanced condition. 1. Here every law seems double, or to have a counterpart. The vital power, as we have seen, is subject to the law of gravity ; but while the plant tends downwards, it rises up- wards too. The same power includes the mechanical forces producing motion ; but it has the twofold force of attracting and repelling at the same point. It is also chemical, changing the nature of the substance on which it acts ; but it also sup- ports itself by the change. It exhibits affinity ; but to affinity it adds assimilation. Not only has it forms of symmetry, and forms, some of which do not appear possible to crystals, (as the pentagonal) ; but while there is reason to believe that in the crystal the form depends on the matter, in organic symmetry the matter appears to be subordinated to fonn. It has activi- ty, but, beyond this, it supports its activity by its action, in- creases its strength by exercise. Owing to its superiority over all the pre-existing powers of nature it is, that during its pres- ence in the organized structure it holds them all in subjection. And hence, the vital principle no sooner secedes, than these ordinary laws return, dissolve the structure, and cause the separated parts to enter into new combinations, distinct from those under which they had existed as a living body. 2. And what is still more remarkable, different plant-cells possess different powers in this respect. With little more than the four elementary bodies — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 13 146 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. nitrogen, they are found to elaborate an almost endless series of what are called "proximate organic principles" of the most diverse properties ; one cell secreting one principle, and another, another principle, by simply combining these ele- ments in slightly different proportions. Here, again, is the bi- nary principle of inorganic union ; but here is also a form of union entirely unknown in that division of science. Instead of combinations by pairs, here are three or four substances bound up together into a single group — a set of ternary and quaternary compounds — constituting one indivisible whole, and exhibiting properties before unknown. Nor, in many cases, can the stamp imparted to these properties, of their vital origin, be easily effaced by any means employed to destroy it.* 3. But this superiority of organic nature involves other points of distinction with which there is nothing in inorganic nature to compare. The vital principle includes excitability . We are aware that certain phenomena exhibited by plants have by some been regarded as proofs of the presence of irri- tability also, and even of sensihility. 3ut as they appear to have nothing analogous to a nervous system, these phenomena seem to be only instances of the extreme action of excitabili- ty ; by which we mean, generally, that property of the cellular tissue — the chief organ of nutrition — which "takes cogni- zance of the action of external influences upon it, and by which it resists those mechanical and chemical efforts which would otherwise soon succeed in decomposing its substance." 2 And even when the mystery of life closes in the mystery of death, it is only the death of the individual structure we are called to witness. The living plant includes the mystery of propaga- tion — the power of self-multiplication during life, and of con- tinued reproduction after death. Were it our object, then, to distinguish between the inorganic and organic pai'ts of nature briefly and broadly, we might say, that while the former origi- nate fortuitously, enlarge externally, and are terminated by mechanical or chemical force, the latter originate by propaga- tion, grow by an internal power of assimilation, and terminate by death. * See Fowncs' Chemistry, &c., p. 41. ' Renslow's Botany, p. 161, ORGANIC LIFE. 147 "" " VII. Relations. — The harmony of the plant with the conditions of its existence is necessary, because, according to another of our laws, everything is related. Were the continuance of the vegetable species independent of the reproductive process, or reproduction independent of nutrition, or were one organ inde- pendent of another, that compliance with law and order of which we have spoken would of course be unnecessary. Were botany unconnected with light, and air, and moisture, and heat, all these elements might depart, and yet leave a flourishing vegetable creation behind. It is because each plant is related to the whole by an appointment of the Creator never to be re- pealed, that every change in its external condition, and in its organization, involves a corresponding change in its well- being. 1. Relations are traceable between the various species of the subterraneous Flora and the co-existing conditions of inor- ganic nature. Not, indeed, — and, as we have already re- marked, the difference is of the greatest importance, — not that there is any evidence that a change of inorganic conditions ne- cessitates the production of new forms of organic life, (as if these conditions were independent causes,) but that the produc- tion of such new forms of life presupposes a corresponding change of inorganic conditions. 2. Internal relations are also traceable; or corresponden- cies between the various parts of the vegetable creation. 2'ype is the very term which Naturalists have chosen to express this resemblance. It will be remembered that, when speaking of Crystals, we remarked that their forms suggested the idea of likeness or resemblance. We may expect, then, that in or- ganic bodies also we shall find this analogy, and something else in addition. And we do so ; we find resemblance of nature and habits. Now this is the difference in natural history be- tween analogy and affinity : analogy is supei-ficial resemblance, affinity is resemblance of internal structure, properties, and habits. But in order to ascertain the affinity of organic bodies, the relative importance of the different parts compared must be determined ; as, for example, whether resemblance between the organs of nutrition in two species is to reckon for more than resemblance between the organs of rejjroduction, or for less. The number of affinities present, which may be regarded as an equivalent for the absence of other affmities, must be 148 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. settled. Now when these laws of classification are ascertained, a type or specimen is to be taken, and the question asked, " which approaches the nearest to it in all the affinities which characterize the class ; and which the nearest to this, and so on.". The result will be, the formation of a natural group around the characteristic type. This will not be found to form a direct or linear series, answering to the figure of a chain, or of a cone of being, to a circular, quinary, or dichoto- mous system, or to any precise artificial arrangement. It may form a figure very irregular at its circumference, for it seeks no boundary line without ; it enlarges from the central type. And as it ramifies in various directions, its continuity may be that of a branching tree. But so evident is its continuity, that the attempt at natural classification can hardly be begun be- fore the mind becomes impressed with the firm persuasion that analogy and affinity reign throughout — that the whole botani- cal kingdom is constructed on a plan. 3. From the all-related nature of organic forms, it follows, also, that a modification of any one part of a plant supposes the modification of every other part. And, accordingly, it is found that a change of one organic function involves a corres- ponding change of the whole body. vm. Order. — But, according to another of our principles, every law will be found to have its order, and may he expected to come into operation on each individual subject of it, according to its priority of date in the great system of creation. Thus, at the moment of separation from the parent plant, the seed tends to the earth by gravitation. The chemical conditions requisite for germination — moisture, oxygen, and a certain eleva-tion of temperature — must next be satisfied. Having imbibed " mois- ture through its integuments, the embryo swells, the radicle protrudes and tends downwards;" the plumule, or terminal bud, expands and rises upwards ; in other words, the law of developed symmetry obtains. Taking firm hold of the earth, it commences its own independent existence ; its consei-vative functions come into play in orderly succession ; all of which combine to prepare the way for the higher and orderly pro- cesses of reproduction, by which its species will be continued after its own individual existence shall have ceased. Here are "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ORGANIC LIFE. 149 ear." The order of the progression is fixed, and no power but His who appointed it can reverse it. IX. Influence. — It is to be expected that everything will bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reiison why all other things should be influenced by it ; a reason for the degree in which they shoidd be influenced by it ; and for the degree, in which it, in its turn, , should be influenced by everything else. If the powers of inorganic nature are to be ranged according to their activity and energy, or their capa- bility of producing changes, it will yet be found that the most powerful are themselves susceptible of change. Action and reaction pervade the physical system, and are essential to its stability. For organic nature, all this action and reaction is " taken into account," calculated, and employed. The intro- duction of a single plant would have changed the relations of the whole. Its most wonderful property is the power which it possesses of influencing chemical action, and of thus secreting and preparing its o\vn food, and securing its own growth. But while thus affecting everything external to itself, it is also modified by the very properties which it changes. While the leaf is decomposing the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, appro- priating the carbon to the formation of its own proper juices, and returning the disengaged oxygen into the atmosphere, its own vital powers are afiected by the quantity of carbonic acid wliich may happen to be present in the atmosphere — a fact, belonging to a class, suggestive of the difiicult, but momentous truth, that human character is at once a constitution and a for- mation ; a subjective power, at once modifying, and modified by, objective influences. X. Subordination. — Again, we find that every law subordinate in rank, though it may have been prior in its origin, is subject to each higher law of the Manifestation. 1. Accordingly, the productions of power are found to be subservient to the exercise of wisdom — the inorganic sustains the organic world. And not only so ; it is prej^ared for its office by a process. It is subordinated by decomposition. No single earth, nor even a composition of tAVO earths, is fertile. 18* 150 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. The union of at least three — lime, silica, and alumina, is in- dispensable to fertility. For this the granite is decomposed, and the matter deposited by rivers in the bottom of valleys. And to this, every revolution and commingling of the strata of the ancient earth has been made subservient. 2. But this subordination is continuous, extending into the vegetable kingdom itself Chemical and mechanical action almost fails to convert some rocks (as quartz) into soil. Yet not the less are these rocks made subservient to vegetable life. Here, where no other plants would exist, the Creator has placed the multitudinous and inexplicable tribe of lichens — "the pioneers of vegetation." These prepare the way for the mosses ; and these, again, for other plants superior still ; each retiring in succession, when it has contributed by its own life and death to place a better race on the spot ; till at length the stately tree w^aves where once nothing but the apparently root- less, leafless, flowerless lichen could exist. 3. And this law of subordination is found to descend to the physiology of the individual plant. The organs of conversa- tion are subservient to the organs of reproduction, the individ- ual to the species. Though unconscious of a purpose, no plant lives to itself In some tribes, the constitution and cares of the parent plant appear to be concentrated on this point, as on the end of its existence. The tribes of annuals die as soon as this end is answered. Others, in a sense, refuse to die, till they have answered it. 4. The same subordination obtains among the individual or- gans. " God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him." And though no organ is use- less, their value is graduated ; and hence, a leaf, having an- swered its end, may fall off without any injury to the plant. 5. But then this subordination of one organ to another, of plant to plant, and of inorganic matter to the whole, lasts only as long as the plant continues to live. By death, it loses its status in the ascending rank of creation, and becomes sub- ject to the ordinary inorganic laws. XI. Uniformity. — Profound as the subject of life is, all its operon tions will be found to be impressed with the regularity of general laws. On this condition alone can we hope to ascertain its operations, and mark the wisdom which they evince. Now ORGANIC LIFE. 151 the actual existence of such regularity is implied in the remarks we have already advanced. The vital principle, once superin- duced by the Living God, acts, according to His appointment, and under His superintendence, with constancy* and certainty. True it is, that in studying organic life we find ourselves for the first time in the regions of mutual adaptations ; and that the writer on systematic botany is obliged to indite a chapter of anomalies. Unlike the law of chemical affinity, which requires that the compound be in definite proportions, we find that Life asserts its freedom and its power by dispensing with this chemical ex- actness. But even this freedom is only within certain limits, or is bounded by law. This power of adaptation is according to particular rules, which are all ranged under a general rule. It is a law unto itself. For example : — Oxygen is indispensable to the germination of seeds; where it is entirely wanting, as in distilled water, they will not germinate ; while, if acted on by more than a certain proportion, they will be over-stimulated. But let them have about the right proportion — one part of oxygen with three of azote, and they will germinate accord- ingly. The general law cannot be violated ; while the power of adaptation by which the seed is adjusted to the circumstances is itself regulated by the universal law which measures the cause by the effect, and which determines that its action shall be always the same in the same circumstances. And as no compliance with the other conditions of germination will com- pensate for the want of the necessary oxygen, so no supply of this alone will atone for the absence of the other conditions of germination. Its constitution is defined by laws which must be complied with. These laws, indeed, must not be confounded with causes. The life of the plant presupposes the organization which the Creator has been pleased to make a necessary condition ; this condition, however, is not the cause of its vitality, but only the means of its manifestation. And organization presupposes certain inorganic conditions ; but these conditions are not the cause of it ; they are only employed and subordinated to or- ganic ends. All that we recognise, in either case, is the law or rule according to which the organic and the inorganic are made to act ; the cause of that action is entirely distinct. XS^ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. XII. Obligation. — Organic life exists under an obligation to pro- mote the end of creation, commensurate with its means and rela- tions. Of course, the only sense in which obligation can be predicated of the organic scheme is similar to that in which, like the inorganic, it is said to be governed by laws. The laws themselves suppose an agent ; for they only express the mode in which he acts, the order according to which he proceeds. And as that agent is no other, can be no other, than the Law- giver himself, the obligation of which we speak can be only the necessity which he has been pleased to incur, to operate in a certain manner in order to the attainment of a certain end. Having voluntarily determined on a given end, the adoption of the necessary means becomes obligatory ; and as the means of which we are now speaking are merely organic existences, whatever obligation there is can rest only on a power external to themselves, the Power that employs them. XIII. Well-being. — In accordance with another of our laws, we find that the well-being of the plant depends on its conformity to the laws of its constitution. 1. Thus, in relation to the internal economy of vegetable life, let the process of reproduction fail, and the species ceases to exist. Let the organs of nutrition be obstructed, and the individual fails. Let the development of the plant be arrested, and deformity ensues ; remove the impediment, and, if done in time, the dormant power of expansion awakes, and the de- velopment of the body is completed. And as to the external relations of vegetable life, the range of most plants — as to climate, for example — is very limited. If the average tem- perature adapted to the various families of plants were to vary as much as five degrees, they would, witli their present consti- tutions, speedily suffer, languish and die. From first to last, the life of the plant depends on the maintenance of a definite adjustment between its constitution and external influences. Compliance with the conditions of its existence is mdispensa- ble to its well-being. 2. In this stage of creation, still more than in the preceding, the idea of perfection is forcibly suggested. In this domain of resemblances, we seek a type with which to compare analogous objects ; and that type we select from among the most perfect ORGANIC LIFE. 153 objects of its kind. Partly from finding that one specimen is better than another, the mind erects an ideal standard of ex- cellence with which to compare everything comparable. But by this standard no specimen is absolutely perfect. No two roses, for example, have ever been entirely, in every property and particular, alike ; so that no two have ever stood in pre- cisely the same relations to the ideal standard. Even the individual flower which has approached the nearest to ideal perfection has fallen short of it. Some slight difference ia itself, or in its circumstances — a difference inappreciable by man, would have been followed by a real, though equally in- appreciable difference in its claim to perfection. Its approach to that standard is the measure of its harmony with the pre- scribed laws of its being. XIV. Analogy. — We have already found, to a considerable extent, that this second, or botanic, stage of creation, is constructed ac- cording to apian. 1. We have seen that it is, in all its mineral and chemical elements, in complicated harmony with the first, and dependent on it. Either the inorganic stage was preconfigured to the organic, or the latter was entirely configured to the former. This correspondence extends even to that symmetry, or definite relation of form and number, which obtains first in crystallog- raphy. For while there are some kinds of symmetry common among flowers, which are unknown to crystals — such as the pentagonal, there are other kinds, such as the trigonal, which prevail in both, and which externally unite them together. 2. The various parts of the vegetable kingdom are also in harmony with each other. Indeed, no one family of plants could be naturally arranged, except as part of a natural class- ification of all plants. Now the symmetry to which reference is here made, involves numerical properties which afford a basis for such botanical classification. For it is found that the number three is the ground of the symmetry of monocotyle- donous plants, and the number five of dicotyledonous plants, the numerical distinction harmonizing with, or expressing itself by, a leading difference of physiological structure. 3. The various parts of the vegetable kingdom, regarded as successively existent, not only do not derange the plan which classifies existing species, but seem necessary in order to com- 154 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. plete it. The large calamities of the coal formation take their place in the existing family of equisetaceiis. The fossil lepido- dendra of gigantic stature, are intermediate between living lycopodiacese and conifei^. And even the extinct sigillaria3, of which no living representatives exist, find, as far as the details of their organization are known, a definite place among existing families. In the Flora of the secondary series, the leading feature consists in the prevailing presence of cycadeae. Now, of this family, the cycas revoluta exhibits an important physiological peculiarity, by which it forms a characteristic link between the living and fossil cycadeae, while the existing cycadeas can be shown to connect together the great cone-bear- ing family with the families of palms and ferns, and thus to occupy an intermediate station between the three great natural divisions of plants. And, speaking generally, the plants of the secondary series exhibit characters of an intermediate kind, between the insular Flora of the transition series, and the con- tinental vegetation of the tertiary strata. 3. In addition to the evidence of a plan which arises from this constant adherence to a determined class of primitive types, and to the consequent reduction of every species to its appropri- ate place in the great system, there is the remarkable fact of the existence of apparently abortive, yet always symmetrical, parts in plants. Botanical physiologists " find parts existing in a rudimentary or abortive state in one species, which in others serve some manifestly important design." In this rudimentary- state, they seem to exist only for the purpose of suggesting the idea of symmetrical arrangement, and of inviting and facilitat- ing classification. And " it must be considered an additional proof of arrangement, when, as in many instances, we are able to show that they become subservient to a new purpose, by being unfitted to their primary one."' 4. Classification. — Now, according to our theory, the true system of botanical classification is that which arranges the relationship of plants according to the order of progressive nature, taken in connection with the relative importance of the progressive steps. Thus, beginning with mechanical properties, as those of the lowest value, we ascend to those of chemical affinity ; to symmetry, or relations of form and number ; then to the organs of nutrition, each organ rising in value as the- process advances ; and, finally, to the organs of reproduction, as of the highest value ; — the relationship being nearest where * Dr. Daubeny's Inaugural Lecture on Botany, p. 24. ORGANIC LIFE. 155 the affinity lies between those characteristics which are of the highest vahie. 5. This method, 1, so far from arbitrarily selecting any one part of the plant as the basis of arrangement, — as the corolla, by Tournefort ; or the stamen and pistils, by Linnaeus, — re- quires a minute investigation of every part and property. Its peculiarities of chemical composition, the " proximate princi- ples" which distinguish it, as well as its geographical and climatic relations, are all to be taken into the account. 2. Although it assigns the highest value to a particular function, it by no means follows that such principle is to be universally the basis of arrangement ; inasmuch as resemblance, in this particular, may be outweighed in some families of plants, by a combination of characteristic differences in other particulars. The law of the subordination of characters is itself subject to a more compre- hensive law, which takes cognizance of the entire scale of their values, and divides and combines them according to the rela- tion of those characters. 3. As an organic body is all-related, so that a change in one part of its constitution involves a cor- responding change in every other part, our method supposes that an arrangement correctly formed on one function will har- monize with an arrangement correctly formed on another function. 4. Our method provides, not only for the formation of groups, but also of series of groups, ranging according to organic perfection. The distinction between the cellular class, lichens, algae, &c., without sexes, flowers, or spiral vessels, and the vascular class, is obvious. And a more intimate acquaint- ance with the physiology of the latter class would, doubtless, enable us to range all its species in the order of their ascending organization. 6. The multiplication of the points of agreement which the organic kingdom presents as compared with the inorganic, pre- pares us to expect an increase of such points with every ad- vancing stage of creation ; and, consequently, an increasing power of testing the truth of our classifications. XV. Contingent. — According to another of our laws, we may expect to find tJiat this new department of organic life exhibits marks of its contingency, or dependence on the sovereign will of the Divine Creator. In the section corresponding to this, in the preceding part, we saw the cosmical and terrestrial arrange- 156 THE PRE-ABAMITE EARTH. ments taking Jaw directly from the will of Grod. Here the illustrations of the Creative Will are still further multiplied in the constitutions and properties of organic forms. 1. For example : there is in plants a cycle of functions requiring about 3 Go days. There is a lesser cycle, or alterna- tion, requiring about twenty-four hours. There is a measured force in the motion of the sap of every flower ; and there is an appointed degree of stiffness in the stalk. Now there is no inherent necessity whatever, in the plant itself, why it should have these particular cycles, alternations, and forces, and no others. We can conceive them increased or diminished to any degree. But these exact phenomena and no others, it may be said, are made necessary by the previous conditions of the earth, of which they have come to form a part. Un- questionably, the first peculiarity is adapted to the annual mo- tion of the earth, the second to its diurnal revolution, and the third and fourth to the mass of the earth. But, we have shown that this motion, revolution, and mass, were themselves origi- nally dependent on the Divine appointment. Whether, there- fore, we regard inorganic nature as preconfigured to the pre- ordained constitution of organic life, or the organic constitution as adapted to the pre-existing plan of inorganic nature, we have alike a twofold proof of the exercise of a Designing Will. 2. True, the farther we remove from the first stage of the Creative process, the less manifest becomes the direct inter- vention of the Creating Will in the subsequent stages, and the less marked the direct dependence of the things created. This second stage, for example, from being adjusted and made to fit into the first, appears to some as if it were directly and en- tirely derived from it. He who is admitted to have origin- ated the first, is supposed to have less to do with the second, just because, in His all-comprehending plans, the organic is made to presuppose the inorganic. The first, from being made a mere condition of the second, is in danger of being promoted into the place of the great originating Cause. 3. Even if vegetable life could be shown to be a necessary development of material elements merely, still, as no one who admits that the laws of matter were derived from God, would deny that He foresaw all the developments and results of which these laws were capable, and therefore foresaw their develop- ment in organic life as one of those results, such development must be held to furnish a new illustration of His manifold design in the creation of matter. The illustration only takes ^tjm0^ ORGANIC LIFE. 157 a different date. And this, let me restate, is a sufficient replj to those who, admitting the Divine origination of nature, would have every subsequent stage to be a mere natural develop- ment ; partly, on the ground of saving the Divine dignity from the supposed trouble or unworthiness of a more direct interpo- sition. For this view, besides involving an anthropomorphic misapprehension of the nature of the Divine Greatness, implies that it may be worthy of the Deity to devise a law in eternity, which yet it would be unworthy of Him to carry into effect in time ; and thus overlooks the fact, that in relieving the Deity from an act of immediate creation, it does so by supposing that He has yet from eternity designed and contemplated the results of such a creation. 4. But the idea of a natural and necessary development of matter, is a mere assumption. While the fact of the Divine origination of matter, at first, is itself a strong presumption in favor of the Divine origination of every new use subsequently made of it. In accordance with which, we find that fossil vegetation exhibits no indication of a regular development of species from the most simple onwards to the most perfect. The dycotyledon of the present day is not derived from the rudimentary acotyledon of the palaezoic series ; even then they grew together side by side. Nor has the rudimentary vege- table of that day been absorbed in higher forms, and gone out of existence ; it exists, unchanged, by the side of the ancient dicotyledon. The vegetable kingdom of the early carbonifer- ous group, requires to be distributed into three classes ; nor does the botany of the present day require a fourth class. Even from that early period, the plan, or outline, of vegetable life had been laid down by the Designing Will. 5. Such direct creative interposition is to be inferred also from the ground there is to believe that plants have a charac- ter of their own, more or less independent of mere external influences. That they are related to all the great pre-exist- ing laws and elements of inorganic nature, we have shown; but, according to the views of the best botanical writers, they have characteristics which no external forces can account for, and which can be ascribed only to independent laws.^ " De- ciduous plants, when carried across the equator, will put forth leaves at the approach of winter ; evidently because it is their habit so to do after settled intervals of time. In the experi- ' Decandolle's Physiologic, vol. ii. 478. 14 158 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. ments made by DecandoUe on this subject, it was found that some plants kej^t their habits, without regarding either the artificial light or heat to which they were subjected. And it is admitted to be among " the unsatisfied problems of geology" to account for " the uniformity of the types of organic life over great areas, accompanied as it was by considerable diver- sity of local association." I Great as is the power of plants to adapt themselves to external changes, they have laws and a constitution of their own. Stimulated they may be, but not forced. In their creation, a principle was superadded to all that had gone before, subjecting matter to itself, but not to be subjected by it. 6. And is not the same direct interposition to be inferred from the apparent want of correspondence observable between the inorganic conditions of existence, and the organic exist- ences themselves ? That the appearance of organic life has been made by the Creator to depend on certain inorganic con- ditions, we hold to be a point settled. But we submit that it is not consequent on this, that the presence of the mere physi- cal conditions shall always be followed by the presence of the life. According to creation by natural development, indeed, life must follow the physical conditions, directly, necessarily, universally, and to the utmost amount ; for these conditions are supposed to be the only causes of life. If the new crea- tion did not invariably follow the new condition, the law of natural development would be at an end ; for it is supposed to act inevitably. And yet such apparent irregularities do exist. For example, some families of land plants, as the coniferse and the palms, have pervaded all the series of formations. Why did the physical conditions of the secondary series fail to reproduce the sigillarise, as they did the conifera?, both of which had existed together in the first series ? Or what was there in many of the plants of the second series less suited to the temperature, and other conditions of the first series, than in those of the first to tiie conditions of the second, throughout which they both afterwards concurrently flourished without any apparent deterioration ? While we believe it to be fully est-ablished that organic life does not exist, except in connec- tion with certain physical conditions, we believe also that the conditions are not the causes of life, and may exist without it ; and that the Will which originated the first, is the cause of the second. ^ Mr. Phillips, at British Association. 1845. ORGANIC LIFE. 159 7. In the organic, then, as well as in the inorganic world, all that we can recognise are conditions and laws ; and only- some of these. The originating cause in each alike was the Divine volition. The same free scope which existed when matter was yet to be created, as to everything which related to its properties and arrangements, existed in relation to the introduction of vegetable life. The precise period of its com- mencement ; the plan of the great system ; the varieties which it should include ; and the laws of its historical and geographi- cal distribution ; all are referrible to " the good pleasure of His will," in whose purpose it is allowed to have originated. XVI. Ultimata. — If organic life be thus dependent on the will of the Creator, we may expect to find that it reveals the exist- ence of ultimate truths. Accordingly, after all the inquiries into the phenomena of organization, if the question recurs, what is life ? or, what is the cause which produces these effects in living bodies ? or, what is the principle which unites all these organic functions in the single result called life ? we are as far as ever from being able to furnish an explanation. We have only described some of the phenomena. The thing it- self is indefinable. 1. The organs by which life acts, may be anatomically ex* amined, and correctly classed ; but Hfe is something independ* ent of them all : for not one of them is universal in organized nature, and therefore is not essential to the vital force. The functions of these organs may be known, and the chemistry of their operations be silently and perseveringly watched; but the principle of that chemistry, the cause of these functions, are meanwhile presupposed and unapproached* The " proximate organic principles" which the chemistry of life produces, and submits to our examination, may be minutely analysed and correctly named ; but they have been produced " in circum- stances which we cannot imitate, and, in fact, do not under- stand." They are, at best, only proximate principles ; effects, which refer us to the existence of a cause, the nature of which they do not reveal ; their very number and diversity not ex- plaining, but multif)lying the mysteries in which it is involved. The little " nucleated cells" evolved from these proximate principles, and by the development of which the organic mass is supposed to be enlarged, may be known and truly describ- 160 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. ed ; but this is something already existing ; the cause which has led to it is still presupposed. The analogy between cer- tain crystalline, and certain vegetable forms, may be interest- ing and familiar ; but if those crystalline forms be referred to electric action, here is something which deals with electricity, and employs it ; or, if they be referred to the form or quality of the ultimate atoms, here is something which subordinates both. Organization is, as we have seen, not an affair of out- ward form merely, but of inward structure. Admitting even the possibility of the artificial imitation of some of the prox- imate principles, and of the cells or globules of organic life, still they are inorganic principles and globules ; the very ab- sence of the vital power shows that it is something distinct from form and elementary composition, though it may employ both, and that these artificial imitations are not organization. 2. Vegetation involves an orderly series of processes. And all that the physiologist can do is to describe the results of each, and the order in which they occur. Having done this, he is said to have explained the subject ; but all that he has done is to state what takes place ; how it has taken place, is as mysterious as before. He shows you the circulation of the sap, but the force which circulates it is presupposed. He takes a flower, and discloses all that has taken place in order to its production, since he deposited the seed in the earth ; but with that seed he deposited an already existing principle which he cannot disclose. He has told you only of laws ; but with each law he has left a cause unexplained. Like the astronomer looking at his supposed nebula, let the physiologist trace back the process of organization as far as he can, he cannot detect it in its primary state ; he has to refer it " back' to some pre- vious state, out of which it appears to have emerged imper- ceptibly and explicably." He sees the phenomena of life only after it has begun to work. Life itself is presupposed and ultimate. 3. Now organic life, like inorganic matter, is to be viewed, first, as an object, or in its relation to space : and the question arises, how came it really and objectively to be ? What rela- tion did the Divine power and wisdom bear to its creation ? We may be able to describe the organization in which life is developed. But, having done this, and having traced the or- ganization back to the seed, and searched the very elements of the seed itself, we find that we have reached an impassable barrier. It contains nothing in itself to account for its own ORGANIC LIFE. 161 origination, as a living organific power. And could we have looked on the first seed that germinated, or the first vegetable creation that lived, 'vve should have felt, instinctively, that the only ground of its existence must be the will of God. 4. But if the first moment of its existence revealed a wise Creator ; the second moment revealed a Providence, for vegeta- ble life was seen in relation, not only to space, but also to time — it continued. Organic processes were constant and universal. What was the Divine relation to the vital forces implied in all this new kind of activity ? Here we come to ultimate laws. For in tracing the sequences of organic phenomena, we find a series of laws, each of which is related to all the rest ; and all of which refer us to a cause of which they are only the results, or the means of manifestation. And the only conclusion warrant- ed is, that the continuance of vegetable life, no less than its or- igination, has its ground in the will of God. We are as unable to conceive of a self-sustained, as of a self-originated organiza- tion. Dependence is not less its characteristic, in relation to time, than it is in relation to space. The regularity of the or- ganic processes, so far from denoting the absence of the Great Agent, is the very circumstance which indicates His presence. It is the only way in Avhich we can conceive of His agency. The laws proclaim the presence of the Lawgiver. 5. Life, then, as imparted in creation, and revealed in the phenomena of organization, is something distinguishable from the phenomena or laws which reveal it. We may, indeed, know nothing of the vital principle, but by the operation of these laws ; just as the properties of matter as created, are disclosed to us only by the sequences of matter as continued. But, as the laws of matter presuppose its properties, so the phenomena of life presuppose the life which they reveal. xvn. Necessary Truth. — The existence of ultimate truth, reminds us of the law which prepares us to recognise the existence of necessary truth, 1. In the former inorganic stage, we saw matter take pos- session of space ; and we saw that, besides implying the pre- existence of space as a necessary condition, it implied the necessary existence of the Divine Power both as condition and cause. Here, we see life take possession of matter ; and we cannot but feel that the idea of a Living Cause is indispen- 14* 162 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. sable. The contrary is impossible. Such a cause might have been inferred, indeed, from the creation of inorganic matter ; but the existence of organic life proclaims and represents it. 2. In the laws of organic phenomena, too, we recognise proofs of the wisdom of God. We see a vast and complicated system of means employed for the attainment of certain ends. And thus, if the creation of organic life, in its relation to space, implies the necessary existence of a Living Cause, the laws of its existence as related to time, imply the necessary wisdom, as well as the life-giving power of the Creator. We cannot but conceive of that Living Wisdom as existing prior to all objective manifestation, and independently of it. As condition, its activity from eternity was only subjective ; as cause, it has now become objective also. Here then we have the subjective living wisdom, and the objective ; for that which was possible, has become real. The nature of Him who is " the Life," begins to be manifested. Things not only are, they live; and live by means which give us a deeper insight than we possessed before, into the necessary perfections of the Divine Creator. XVIII. Change. — This stage of the Divine procedure not only pre- pares us to look for another, but, according to our theory, the law of ever-enlarging manifestation is itself regulated by a law determining the time arid manner of each successive stage of the advancing process. 1. That the process itself cannot consistently terminate, is evident ; for then the proof of the Divine sufficiency for un- limited manifestation would terminate with it. That it was not yet to terminate, might now have been inferred from a new analogical ground ; for not only was the activity of the inor- ganic universe from the first the activity of progression, but addition of vegetable life furnished an entirely distinct ground of expectation for the addition of yet another stage. !Nor can we conceive ourselves as surveying this second display of the Divine resources, without becoming conscious of the persua- sion that we shall " see greater things than these," and that these are intended, in some way, to prepare for them. 2. But what was it which made the time of the actual change, the right time ? For here again I may remark, that even those who adopt the hypothesis of development by natu- ORGANIC LIFE. | 163 ral law, must admit that every stage of development was pro- spectively included in the plan of the Lawgiver; and that for the same reason that any stage was designed to occur at all, there must have been a right time for its occurrence, or a reason which made the period of its actual occurrence the right period. And the law with which we have now to do, respects the nature of that reason. 3. Believing that no such change takes place capriciously ; but as either the law of progression, or of the end, or the coin- cidence of the two, requires, we have to remark, first, on the claims of the law of progression. What these were, was de- clared by the event. The introduction of vegetable life was designed by the Creator to become subservient to animal en- joyment. As soon, therefore, as the vegetable and other fore- seen conditions were present, the law of progression might be expected to receive a new illustration in the addition of animal existence, provided no other law intervened. I am aware, in- deed, that by those who advocate natural development, the pres- ence of certain conditions would alone constitute, not merely the fitness of the occasion for the addition of animal life, but even necessitate such addition. But this is a position which, from the nature of the case, can never be susceptible of proof. And is it philosophical to conclude that, because a thing does not exist without certain conditions, therefore it must exist with them ? That certain events may invariably follow the presence of certain conditions, I do not deny ; for it may be the law of the Divine procedure that they shall do so ; and, further, the Creator may have arranged that this coincidence in the law of progression shall fall in with the law of the end, and, indeed, with other laws also of which we know nothing. I object only to the manner in which what may be, is confound- ed with what must be — the possible with the necessary, and in which conditions are gratuitously promoted into the place of causes. 4. Admitting, then, that the organic creation was not origi- nated without a design, or, that it forms part of the Divine plan ; and that, as a great system of adaptations of means to ends, it proclaims a Divine designer, the question arises, wheth- er or not that ultimate end was, in any sense, adequately at- tained. That it had not been attained, when animal hfe com- menced on the earth, if such attainment depended on the di- versity and multiplication of vegetable structures to the utmost extent possible, is evident ; for this multiplication was most 164 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. probably much greater after that period than it was before. Then, was the original creation of organic life, taken in con- nection with its subsequent reproductions, and successive en- largements prior to the creation of man, adequate to warrant the inference of the all-sufficiency of Creative wisdom ? Does the long series of vegetable worlds, including the present, ex- hibit all the changes, and consequent displays of Design, which, under the circumstances, (such as the geological revo- lutions and the size of the planet), might have been expected? 5. In order to answer this question otherwise than inferen- tially and approximately, we should require to be put in pos- session of data which can never come within our reach — to know possibilities, for the comprehension of which our minds would need a different constitution. It is enough for us to yield ourselves up to the inferences and impressions flowing from the data which we do possess. If, for example, it should appear that the inorganic creation, in all that closely woven web-work of mechanical, and chemical operations, of which man, as yet, has unravelled so little, was only a world of pro- spective contrivances for the coming of organic life : if, further, it should appear that vegetable life has been adapted to every inorganic change and variety — to the bare granite and the recent cinders of the volcano, to the emerging coral-reef and the dark recesses of the mine, to the sand of the torrid zone and the perpetual snow of the poles — as if Wisdom rejoiced in the occasion which such apparent difficulties and extremes afforded for displaying the fertility of its resources ; showing that the conditions, destructive of one form of life, can be made essential to the existence of another, and that, in its hand, the same general plan admits of diversity of adaptation without end: and, further, that of all this variety, there has existed a ful- ness to which Wisdom alone has assigned the limits, what more can be necessary to assure us of the all-sufficiency of the Creative Wisdom ? 6. Now, the truth of these suppositions is undeniable. Veg- etable physiology brings to light the fact that, even if the ma- terial universe had been constructed solely for the reception of organic life, it could not have been more studiously adapted, in all its great elements and operations, to the attainment of the end, than it actually is. The most scientifically construct- ed plant-house, and the most elaborate apparatus tliat may be introduced into it, can only pretend, not to originate, but simply to take advantage of, two or three of these natural adaptations. ORGANIC LIFE. 165 But the wonders of the great Nursery are only as yet in pro- cess of discovery. " The half has not been told." Scientific botany has arranged between eighty and a hundred thousand species of plants ; and still it continues to add to the number. Literally, its " field is the world." Every clod of earth belongs to it, and the floor of the ocean. While fossil geology brings to light the remains of departed floras, and suggests the idea of species not only extinct but effaced ; — as if, amidst the prodigality of evidence of design still extant, some of the ear- lier illustrations might well be spared. The abundance of vegetable life is equal to its variety. " In order to form an idea of the luxuriance of vegetation in the former world, and of the masses of vegetable matter accumulated by running wa- ter, and which have certainly been converted into coal in the humid way, I remind the reader that in the Saarbriick coal field there are 120 seams of coal lying one over another, ex- clusive of a host of smaller seams ; and that some of these single seams of coal are of thirty, and others of more than fifty feet thick, as at Johnstoun in Scotland, and Creuzot in Burgundy It is also well to remember, that these coal measures are indebted for no inconsiderable portion of their materials, not to the trunks of mighty trees, but to small grasses, and to frondiferous and low cryptogamic vegetables." i At the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the " wood hills " of the icy Siberian Sea, the same process of vegetable accumular tion is, probably, still going on. But to estimate the existing fulness of vegetable life, it is necessary to remember the mighty forests of the tropical zone of South America. And yet, could the whole be surveyed, it would be as nothing, probably, com- pared with the seeds of organic life enclosed in the crust of the earth. Kneaded up with the inorganic material, to an un- known depth, are the germs of vegetation ; and only awaiting exposure to air and light, in order to " bring forth and bud '* as if the hand of God had but just sown them. And, not only so, but almost every variety of material is found to contain a corresponding variety of vegetable existence. So that not only may it be said of organic life that its " field is the world," but world upon world. 7. Here, then, is evidence enough to justify the conclusion that the Wisdom which has shown itself sufficient for all this unexplored range of organic life, is sufficient for every change Humboldt's Cosmos. USS THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. of the same kind of which the earth, or even the material unl^ verse, admits. The question, be it observed, is not whether this range, extended as it is, might not have been more ex- tended ; this demand is of a kind which no range short of infin- ity could satisfy. For even if instead of a hundred thousand species, every individual plant had been different from all the rest, and every inch of the earth's surface had been crowded with vegetable life, the question might have been still raised whether the earth itself might not have been larger, and so on, ad infinitum. In other words, it is to ask for that, which, if possible, would yet be useless. But the question is, whether the Creative wisdom displayed in the organic stage of the Di- vine plan, does not warrant the conviction of its sufficiency for the same land of display to any possible extent. And every one who considers the question must feel that it admits of only one reply. And hence it is that we can hear of the discovery of new vegetable species, not only without surprise, but as if the fact merely gratified a feeling of antecedent probability. Nor can we doubt that if the earth were to be once more stripped of its verdant robe, and if the conditions of organic life were to be afterwards restored, sooner or later, it would again look like " the garden of the Lord." And, with the same confidence, we feel assured that, if similar conditions exist in other worlds, the same wisdom which has so often " renewed the face of the earth," is sufficient to clothe them with similar beauty, in diver- sities without end. But, if the design of the organic creation be to illustrate, in the sense explained, the sufficiency of the Creative wisdom, we shall be ready to admit that not until the evidence of such suf- ficiency was complete, could " the fulness of time " for man's creation have arrived. Not until it had existed long enough to accumulate all the proofs of the truth which it was designed to teach, would the " set time " arrive for the coming of the creature destined to interpret that truth. And whatever may be the apparent hardihood of this view, it entirely vanishes when we remember that He who forelaid the plan of the whole creative series, makes every part to harmonize with every other part, and the whole to subserve the ultimate end. XIX. Reason of the Method, — In passing from the method of the Divine procedure to the reason of the method, we find it to be ORGANIC LIFE. 167 two-fold ; — being founded partly in the constitution of the crea- ture hy whom the method is to be studied, and involving His well- being, and partly in his destiny, and so involving, in addition, the glory of the Divine Creator. 1 . As to the first part of the reason ; it would be easy to show that, if the organic world is to be made subservient to human interests, the laws of the method are indispensable. Without the uniform sequences and dependencies, for example, which vegetable life exhibits, its cultivation would be impos- sible ; indeed, without amenableness to law, it would not be even useable.^ And how impossible would it be for man to turn his observations to any scientific account, were it not for those relations of analogy and affinity which arrange the mem- bers of the botanic kingdom in an orderly plan ! And that which especially marks the wisdom of the Creator is the manner in which the medium is observed between bewil- dering irregularity on the one hand, and an uninstructive and depressing sameness on the other. Only imagine these laws to be so obvious as to cost man no effort ; and they would yield him no interest. On the contrary, suppose them to be but slightly illustrated by fact, or to be inextricably entangled by circumstance ; and they would defy his utmost diligence and application. In the first instance, he could not be said to learn ; and in the second, nature could not be said to teach. But as it is, his position somewhat resembles that of a child into whose lap its parent has thrown a handful of flowers selected for a nosegay, but intentionally mingled together, that the taste of the child might be cultivated in their re-arrangement; the parent taking care that the exercise shall not be so difficult as to be hopeless, nor so easy as to be useless. The organic world is so constituted that, without either forcing its lessons, or dis- ' See on this subject Professor Liebig's " Organic Chemistry in its application to Agriculture and Physiology;" a work devoted especially to an explanation of the proper food of plants, and to the modes in which, and the sources from which, they receive this nourishment. In harmony with the subject of this chapter he remarks : — " Innumerable are the aids afforded to the means of life, to manufactures and to commerce, by the truths which assiduous and active inquirers have discovered and rendered capable of practical application. But it is not the mere practical utility of these truths which is of importance. Their influence upon mental cul- ture is most beneficial ; and the new views acquired by the knowledge of them enable the mind to recognise in the phenomena of nature proofs of an infinite wisdom, for the unfathomable profundity of which human lan- guage has no expression." — p. 6. 168 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. pensing with attention, it invites observation, and rewards well-directed diligence of every kind and degree. Its " doc- trine drops as the rain ; its speech distils as the dew. But its instructions are all optional ; man receives them only if he will. 2. And as to the second part of the reason, if organized nature is to be construed by man so as to subserve the ultimate end, all the laws which we have considered as belonging to the method of the Divine procedure are, in one respect or another, indispensable. In the absence of law, it would be impossible for the mind to infer a Law-giver. In the absence of all signs of dependence, organic nature would be regarded as proclaim- ing its independence. But, here, every vegetable family has its place ; every species, its type ; every function, its order ; erery fibre, its prescribed rule. Here life is found in union with organization ; a union, however, which can only be shown to be uniform, not necessary. And here, everything relating to the commencement of organic life, to its progress, and to the filling up of the great plan on which it is formed, must be resolved into the will of the Divine Creator ; for even those who believe only that laws were originally impressed on mat- ter of which all this is the developed result, must admit that the entire result was in the original contemplation and choice of the Deity. 3. But here again the evidence needs to be balanced be- tween two extremes. If the proof of a Divine agency were to be so obvious and cogent as to leave man no option what- ever as to the nature of his conclusions respecting it, this would be as unsuited to his moral freedom, as the absence of all or of adequate proof would be to his rational conviction — a con- sideration which applies to every department of the Divine procedure ; and which, if seasonably remembered and applied, would answer many objections, and solve many difficulties, re- specting it. Accordingly, the evidence is supplied in " weight and measure." It is as reserved to one, as it is open and com- municative to another. To some, the laws of organic life an- swer the purpose only of self-manifestation ; and seem to publish both their own sufficiency and the sagacity of the party dis- covering or apprehending them;i while to others, they con- ' Dr. Maccixlloch has well remarked of certain philosophers, who never "think of a designing and wise Creator — they search, and when they have found, they produce the discovery as a proof of their own wisdom. ORGANIC LIFE. 169 vincingly declare that their " sufficiency is of God." To each class the same evidence is supplied. For the former, it is not so scanty as to excuse their impiety ; nor for the latter, so overpowering as to constrain belief, and make virtue impossi- ble. It is so graduated and adjusted, that it may be regarded as having formed, from the first, a mute prophecy, both of the voluntary constitution of the being destined to interpret it, and of the end it was designed to answer. XX. The ultimate end. — According to our theory, both the laws of the method,, and the proximate reason of it,, will find their ultimate end, in relation to this stage of the Divine procedure, in contributing to prove the all-sufficiency of the wisdom of God. 1. But first, having distinctly stated that each preceding display of the Divine perfection may be expected to be brought forwards and enlarged through each successive stage of crea- tion, and having assigned the grounds of this expectation, we have to begin by remarking on its fulfilment in the continued exercise of the Divine Power. During the entire period, from the introduction of organic life to the creation of man, all the pre-existing forces of inorganic matter continued in activity. The argument for the power of God, therefore, remained un- abated ; rather it was augmented during every moment of the period. 2. But here were new displays of power. It originated and introduced the new principle of life. It was present in the motion of every plant that waved ; as well as in the me- chanical and chemical action constantly going on for the pro- duction of soil. It was present in the mountain cedar braving the tempest by resistance ; and in the slender flower evading the storm by elasticity : in the plenitude of vegetable life which crowded the wilderness ; and in the lichen of the almost inde- They seek for ends and uses : and they boast of having seen the means and the end, as much as if they had intended the end and invented the means. Yet they who boast, should not forget that there was a Wisdom which anticipated their own ; that had there not been a Sagacity which planned, their own sagacity in tracing the execution would never have appeared ; that they are but students, and that in their pride of assigning the wisdom and the design, they ought not to overlook Him, the Design- er and the Wise, their own designer, and the great Being who gave l^em the power of knowing Himself, their God." — Vol. i. p. 607. 15 170 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. structible rock which appears to live on through ages, flm only form of life in a region of desolation. It proclaimed its presence in the molecular movements and ceasele^jily diver.si- fied currents of every minute cellular structure ; and in the organic force which pumps up the sap and diffuses it through- out the most gigantic and branching tree. If, for example, jh it can be shown, a tree of thirty-three feet high, requires a pressure of " fifteen pounds upon every square inch in the section of the vessels of the bottom, in order merely to support the sap," how great must be the power which propels the sap upwards so as to supply the constant evaporation of the leaves. And if this be true of an individual tree, who shall calculate the amount of the forces which came into play with every outburst of vernal life during the era of the great coal forma- tions ! 3. But power is here seen waiting on Wisdom ; laying out her resources to be employed as adaptations and means. Wher- ever we look we are impressed with the idea of difficulties overcome, difficulties originated as if for the purpose of over- coming them, — and overcome, not in one way merely, but in ways so gratuitously varied and multiplied as if to impress us with the conviction of the inexhaustible resources of the Being who has overcome them ; and, further, that He actually intend- ed to produce this impression. 4. We have just been showing that the displays of power co-exist with those of wisdom, and are even multiplied in her service. We have now to recognise the prospective contri- vances of wisdom even in the inorganic world, where before we saw nothing but power. Take, for example, the fact that granite should have been selected from many other substances to constitute the great framework of the earth, in connection with its peculiar chemical fitness for the support of vegetable life. Animals do not ultimately depend on vegetable food, more certainly than vegetables depend on mineral sustenance. Primarily, indeed, they depend on the surrounding water^ and on the moisture which bathes their roots : but experiment de- monstrates that there are certain other bodies — such as potash and phosphoric acid, which are universally present in veget- able structures, and essential to their existence. Now there is satisfactory evidence to show that these substances formed specific ingredients in the granites of the ancient earth ; and that, consequently, they were provided ages before the com- mencement of organic life. But in vain would this provision ORGANIC LIFE. 171 have existed, if, in addition, these granite masses had not been elevated to form the great mountain chains of the earth ; for in this way only could that slow disintegration take place by which their liberated materials contribute to produce the fruit- bearing soil of the earth. Now who can fail to recognise here the bearing of one part upon another, the presence of conspir- ing means, of preparation and completion ? 5. We may notice, also, instances of the remarkable manner in which organic life has been adapted to pre-existing laws. Had the earth, for example, its astronomical year and its diur- nal rotation ? The entire life of annual plants agrees exactly with the former, and the circle of action in the perennial tribes with the latter. Is the force of the earth's gravity specific ? Then must the forces of organic life be precisely adjusted to it ; for, were they below a certain amount, the rate of veget- able circulation would stop ; or were they in excess, it would be accelerated in a manner equally destructive of life. Crea- tive wisdom, however, has nicely adapted the minutest parts of vegetable structures to the mass of the earth on which they exist. Is matter endowed with the properties of tenacity, hardness, density, flexibility, and elasticity ? So exquisitely is the vegetable constitution adapted to all these, — not in a single way, but in a different manner for each species, — that a slight alteration in any one of these laws would require the reconstruction of the whole. The magnitude of the ocean and its extensive currents are related to the magnitude of the moveable atmosphere, the repository and the moving force of the clouds ; and both combine to the production of such a dis- tribution of the temperature as is essential to vegetable life, and determines many of its forces. The laws of radiation, evaporation, electricity, all sustain vital relation to the organic economy ; while light, besides administering the necessary stim- ulus to its functions, paints and beautifies every flower that blows. 6. But the same system of adaptations has reappeared, and been applied, through a prolonged succession of geological changes ; so that its accommodative power has been always receiving additional confirmations. Had we seen the earliest organic products of the primitive earth, we should most likely have concluded that the then existing condition of the globe was essential to their existence. But other conditions of the planet succeeded, and the mighty forests now entombed ag coal formations came with them. And as other changes fol- 172 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. lowed, plants, of forms and characters now unknown on the surface of the earth, succeeded; specimens of which were stored away in the grand natural Herbaria of the earth, as if reserv- ed for the purpose of shaming us from setting limits to the Creator's power and wisdom. 7. In speaking of the boundless variety of vegetable life, we may take the existing flora of the earth as a specimen of all those which have preceded it. The Divine Being might have clothed the earth with verdure, and yet have limited the whole vegetable variety to two or three species ; but between eighty and a hundred thousand species are already classed. Had we seen land-plants only, we should have considered the existence of aquatic plants an impossibility ; and yet forests wave at the bottom of the ocean. Had we seen them only in a fertile soil, we should have deemed such a soil essential to their existence ; but God has appointed the apparently insig- nificant lichen to live on the rock, and it eats for ages into a substance which defies the chemical and mechanical forces. From the sea-shores, from the bed of the sea, from the deep caverns of the earth, upwards, as the land rises, in stages, to the line of eternal snow, organic life is to be found diffused over the entire range. Is land to be rescued from the sea? A succession of plants effects the process, each giving place as soon as it has prepared the way for a superior species ; others, again, being ready to defend and retain the rescued territory. Did the Creator determine that the plant should be distinguish- ed by definite form ? All the species are obviously construct- ed on a general plan ; but, while that plan is never lost sight of, the characteristic of figure, color, fragrance, and duration, is diversified without end ; and, in many instances, as if for the sake of showing that, in the hands of Infinite Wisdom, any single idea admits of endless illustration. Are plants to grow by nutrition ? The food which they elaborate and store up is not of a single kind merely ; in one tribe it is oil, in another fecula, in another lignine, in another sugar, in another gum, &c. ; while " an interminable catalogue of other sub- stances may be extracted from the juices of different plants, all of which have been formed by secretion in some part or other of their structure." Are they to be continued by reproduction ? The modes of sustaining the feeble parent plants are so various- ly diversified, as if for the sole object of showing that such variety was practicable ; some of these are supported by dif- ferent kinds of hooks, others by voluble stems, by claws, by ORGANIC LIFE. 173 voluble leaves, by radicles, by tendrils, &c. The modes of protecting seeds comprise unnumbered inventions ; many of them so far from simple, that they would seem to be adopted only for the sake of demonstrating a power of invention. From some plants the seeds simply fall ; from others a mechanical force projects them to a distance ; others yield them to the power of the winds ; and the seeds of others are winged for distant flight. 8. Now, we do not say that this diversity and exuberance of organic life, together with the complicated inorganic arrange- ments which it involves, scientifically demonstrates the abso- lute infinity of the Divine wisdom. If it did so, all the illus- trations of wisdom exhibited in the subsequent stages of the Divine procedure would, as further evidence, be superfluous. A similar remark to this we made in the preceding Part, when inferring the extent of the Divine power from the evidence then before us. And from the advanced point we have now reached, we can see how great would have been our error if we had limited our views of that Power by the evidence afford- ed by that first stage. For, here we behold it putting forth fresh displays, and demonstrating that " the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary." And, in a simi- lar manner, the illustrations of the Divine wisdom have been accumulating ever since, and in new departments of creation. In harmony with which fact, we repeat our conviction, that an infinite proof of infinite wisdom can be furnished to finite crea- tures, or be received by them, only by a progressive accumu- lation through infinite duration, and therefore can only be always in process. But we can conceive also of such a dis- play of wisdom, within a space and a time not unlimited, as siiould furnish beings capable of reasoning from analogy, with abundant evidence of wisdom unlimited. Such an exercise of wisdom we believe to have been displayed in the organic creation. 9. In bringing this conviction home to the mind, it is to be remembered, as a fact of universal admission, that the special limitations of matter, and therefore the limitations of the uses made of it, are necessitated by the nature of matter itself. The mateiial medium for exhibiting design is itself inherently con- ditioned by limits. So that we have to determine the question, what amount of evidence of design, exhibited under circum- stances in which the medium of design itself forbids absolute infinity, we, as beings, constituted to infer more than we see, 15* 174 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. should deem an adequate illustration of wisdom unlimited. Now we think we are uttering a very sober supposition in saying, that the production of the first form of organic life that appeared, would be, in the estimation of superior intelli- gences, both the sole prerogative and the adequate illustration of infinite wisdom. We can conceive of beings to whom that simple form would furnish a key to the material universe. For them, the full exposition of that single constitution would in- volve the exposition of the whole physical creation. But, that single specimen was accompanied or followed by a world of diversified organizations. It would have been in vain for man, had he then lived, to attempt the individual enumeration. Now, surely he could not have listened to such an exposition of organic life as that to which we have adverted, — a tale of ages, — for it must have included the mechanical and chemical history of our planet from the beginning ; could not have mark- ed how all physical science was presupposed by each organic form, and met in it ; how it stood the centre, not of a system merely, but of plan within plan, and system within system, with all the inorganic laws and elements, like angels, minis- tering to it ; and that the same was true of every species, but with an endless diversity of details in each ; he could not have required ages of such occupation, in order to feel constrained to admit, of the Divine Creator, that " His ways are past find- ing out !" Long as that early geological period may have lasted, it would doubtless have come to an end before the supposed exposition was completed, for every returning season would add to its subjects. While yet the investigation was in pro- cess, a new epoch would dawn, and a new world of organic wonders come to view. And thus the illustrations of Creative wisdom would be accumulating on him in an ever augmenting ratio. Surely, as these worlds came before him in a succes- sion which promised no end, and yet every one of them exhi- biting myriads of differences from all the rest, he would have confessed, unnumbered ages ago, " There is no searching of His understanding !" Further, when he found that each of these varying organic worlds as it came before him was not only perfect in itself; and perfect from the first ; but that each formed part of a plan which comprehended the whole ; a plan presupposed by the whole series, and which had been invari- ably adhered to amidst all the endless modifications which its principles were always receiving: and a plan which, while ORGANIC LIFE. 175 retaining in the original and appropriate places the fossil re- mains of every extinct family, provided a definite place for every new creation, and every additional species, he could not forbear exclaiming, " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all !" In the imaginary posi- tion we have described, he could not but feel, as every onward step in the organic series brought with it an incalculable amount of evidence of the Divine wisdom, to be added to all the accu- mulations of the past, that the Being who had designed all this could have covered the earth, had it been ten times larger than it is, with a proportionate enlargement of the organic plan ; that, if He has not clothed every distant star with vege- table life, it is not owing to any limit or exhaustion of His designing power ; and that the organic worlds of past time are only a specimen of the manner in which He could go on vary- ing the details of organic adaptations for ever. And when he saw that there was no prospect of an end to His designs ; and remembered that, as the Divine power of the inorganic stage had been brought on into the organic, so the Divine wisdom of the organic stage would probably receive fresh illustrations in some new economy, he would feel that he was in the pre- sence of wisdom all-sufficient, and acknowledge, " Great is the Lord, and of great power ; His understanding is infinite !" FIFTH PART. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. The Third Stage of the Divine Manifestation : POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS. Let it be imagined that another extended period has elapsed since we took our last survey of creation, and beheld the wisdom of God as displayed in the wonders of vegetable life. It seems but natural that the view, so far from leading us to conclude that we had reached the ultimatum of Divine Manifestation, would have awakened rather an expectation of beholding ulterior displays. The Being, we might have said, whose Power called this visible universe into existence, and whose Wisdom has ever been conducting it from one stage to another, till it is literally organizing its elements and exhibit- ing them in the possession of life, can surely know no limits to His operations but such as the same Wisdom may see fit to pre- scribe. The use which He had made of matter when last we looked on the scene of creation, seems to warrant the conjec- ture that, if life can be added to matter, something equally wonderful may be added to life. What if that addition should consist of enjoyment ! Who can say but that in the revolution of ages, the period may come when forms of organized being may not only live, but move and be happy ! 1. Another visit to the object of our meditations is at length permitted us ; and a scene opens to our view which compels us to exclaim, " How great is his goodness ! " For the sake of illustration, let the season of our supposed visit be fixed, long after the new era of animal existence had commenced, yet before the time of the Adamic creation ; and let it be ima- gined that the various changes which, at long intervals, had SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 177 occurred since our last visit, were all laid open to us. We should find that not only had the great change itself, which had been the subject of our conjectures, taken place — that vegetable life had been actually succeeded by animal enjoy- ment — but that even that enjoyment had reached a point which awoke the expectation of something greater still at hand. 2. In the last Part, we saw vegetable life in the solitary and entire occupation — we say not for any length of time — of the advancing earth ; we saw it in busy and diversified ac- tivity, preparing the way, in some places, both for the coming of higher orders of its own kind of life, by producing the ne- cessary kind of soil, and for the Divine origination of that ani- mal life which it was destined to support. We beheld in its presence, and varieties, and rapid increase, an indication that the Great and Provident Householder was contemplating the arrival of unnumbered guests. Now we find, not only that they have come, but that, since their first appearance, the crust of the globe has undergone many a revolution, and has exhi- bited many a rich and varied surface of vegetable life, crowd- ed with corresponding forms of animated existence. While, on each occasion, there is reason to believe the same order has been observed as to the subsequence of animal to vegetable life : an inorganic change being followed by a corresponding change in vegetation ; and a change in vegetation followed by appropriate species of animated beings. I. 3. Goodness. — We have not yet to speak of the extent of the Divine benevolence to be inferred from this new form of existence. We have only, at present, to regard it as evincing the existence of goodness in the Creator. Hereafter we shall have to view it as furnishing new illustrations also of the Crea- tive power and wisdom already displayed in the preceding stages. But, for the present, we have only to do with the law, that every Divinely originated effect is a result, of which the su- preme and ultimate reason is in the Divine nature. Now, here, in the animal kingdom, is a being constructed for enjoyment ; each of its movements yielding it gratification ; each of its senses an inlet to pleasure : and the whole is ever preparing the way for greater enjoyment still, and finding happiness in the occupation. If the reason for the existence of this creature is to be sought in the Divine Creator, so also must be the rea- 178 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. son of its enjoyment. Even if there were no purpose of mani- festing the Divine All-sufficiency — if the creation were to be limited to a single creature — still, as every effect must be, in some sense, like its cause, that single creature would be, not indeed, formally, but virtually, a manifestation, pro tanto, of Bome property of the Divine Nature. But here is not merely an individual animal designed for enjoyment, nor a single spe- cies, but a world, a succession of worlds, filled with animal en- joyment. What property of the Divine Creator can this fact be supposed to manifest, but that He, "the Happy God," is good, or delights to impart happiness ! 4. But is animal pain and death, especially the system of prey, compatible with the goodness of the Creator ? We ad- mit, first, that death, and even the system of prey, were origi- nally intended by God. That the former was, will be, in gen- eral, readily admitted. In proof of the latter, we have merely to call attention to the fact that whole tribes of animals are expressly constructed for it. Their instincts and organization prepare them to be engines of destruction. 5. But, then, secondly, the pain attending animal death by violence is apparently reduced to its minimum. For, 1, the animal knows not that death is the extinction of life. Yet this is the very consideration which, in the case of man, gives to death all its bitterness. 2. As the animal knows not that it is ceasing to be, even when it is in the article of death, the diffi- culty is, in reality, reduced to one of physical pam merely. For as to its unconscious removal by death, no objection can be consistently raised against such an arrangement in the ani- mal world, apart from the attendant pain, any more than against the corresponding arrangement in the vegetable world. And yet we there admired the wisdom which made a lower order of vegetable organization subservient by death to a higher order. Now, it should be remembered that the dying animal is as unconscious of its fate as the dying plant ; the only question to be resolved then, we repeat, is one of animal pain. 3. There appears to be a law of graduating sensibihty pervading the animal kingdom ; according to which, the degree of feeling diminishes as the organization descends in the scale ; till, as we approach the point at which it touches the vegetable kingdom, it verges on total insensibility to pain. We are aware that in proportion to this reduction must be the reduc- tion also of animal enjoyment during life. But while death is the event of a moment, the enjoyment of life is to be multi- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. plied by all the moments though which it is prolonged. Now, as the myriad tribes of these inferior orders constitute the sta- ple of animal food, the arrangement provides, in so far, for the least possible amount of suffering; if, indeed, in their case, there be any suffering at all. 4. And then, as to one large animal preying upon another, though the sensibility is greater, it is subject to great deductions on some of the grounds already adverted to ; and, by a simple, if not a special, contrivance, death is rendered as sudden, and therefore as easy, as possible. That the predatory animal should kill before it begins to de- vour, is a beneficent provision. Some animals, it is well known, seize on the carotid arteries ; in consequence of which, death speedily ensues. But the fact to which we allude is, that at one particular point of the neck, near the skull, a wound of the spinal nerve produces instant death, and appa- rently without suffering. Now, while man has discovered this fact only by experiment, the predatory animals have always made this part of the spine the object of attack. 6. This animal death is an unavoidable part of the present constitution of creation. That constitution, we have shown, is progressive. In order to prepare the earth for man, it has been subjected to successive revolutions. The coal which forms our fuel is the produce of the destruction of plants, pre- served from former worlds. But that provision involved the death of all the myriad forms of life and enjoyment with which the woods of the ancient earth were crowded. And were un- known ages of animal enjoyment to be then withheld, because a physical revolution was eventually, and for a time, to inter- rupt it ? 7. " But might not these revolutions have been spared, and the earth have been created at the first as we now find it ?" In many respects, it is progressive still. The lichen and the moss produce a soil on which they can no longer live ; new races of plants follow in succession, improving with every change, and occupying the once arid waste. Insects and rep- tiles at first possessed it, for it could maintain nothing better ; but as it has improved, superior races have successively come into possession. Were ages of reptile and insect life to be withheld, because the progressive change involved their ulti- mate extinction, for a higher order of life ? 8. " But might not such progression have been rendered unnecessary by making the entire amount of animal and vege- table life, as well as the state of the globe, unchangeable from li# THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. the beginning?" The inquirer may not foresee that this is to ask, in effect, whether the Divine Being might not have adopted a mode of government entirely and essentially different from that which He has chosen ; for if one part be changed, every part must undergo a corresponding change. A world of im- mortal animals and plants; a world that knew no climatic change, no seasons, no organic nor inorganic variety — a stag- nant and unprogressive creation — would be as unsuited to the created as to the Creating mind. 9. It might be suggested, also, that the continuance of the first created animals, and of everything else to correspond, would force on the attention of man evidence of their miracu- lous origin, too obvious and overbearing for a system of free agency. Besides which, (and this is the adequate answer to the implied objection,) such an unchangeable state of the ani- mate creation would inconceivably diminish the amount of animal enjoyment. So that if the greatest degree and diffu- sion of such enjoyment be the object in view, the supposed change would defeat itself That object can be obtained only by death, and specially by the system of prey. And shall the comparatively small amount of pain which that system involves prevent the incalculable amount of animal fecundity and en- joyment which it necessarily presupposes ? For the right view of this part of the question seems to be that, if animals are to be sustained by food, it is more consistent with the greatest amount of enjoyment that a certain proportion of that food should be animated, and be filled with pleasure until it is wanted, than that it should be inanimate and incapable of en- joyment.i 10. " Then might not animal life have been sustained on vegetable food alone?" Not only would such an arrange- ment — as we have seen — inconceivably diminish the amount of animal life and enjoyment which exists under the present arrangement, it would still leave death in the animal world, from the ten thousand sources of what are called accident. The foot of the ox would crush the insects in the grass ; the breeze waft them by myriads into the stream ; and the evapo- ration and exhaustion of the lake leave the fish dead on the shore. Nothing less than perpetual miracle could have saved them from destruction. And thus it is, in the all-related sys- tem of creation, that a single essential alteration would throw ' See Note E. ■i SENNIENT EXISTENCE. 181 the whole into disorder, or be a virtual repeal of the entire scheme ; and that every objection made against it involves an incalculable reduction of animal life and enjoyment, and is therefore incompatible with the Divine benevolence. 11. "Then might not animal death have been unaccompan- ied even with the smallest degree of suffering ? " To this objec- tion it seems to be a sufficient reply, that sensibility to pain is but the necessary alternative to sensibility to pleasure ; — that in few things is the beneficence of God more strikingly apparent than in the arbitrary manner in which he has arranged the ani- mal system so as to economise pain ; rendering each nerve be- longing to a sense, for instance, sensitive to pain only from the excess of that impression which constitutes its peculiar function, (as the optic nerve from excess of light, but not from excess of sound also, and that of the ear from excess of sound, but not of hght ; ) — that this sensibiHty to pain operates as a necessary warning of danger, without which the animal would soon and inevitably perish ; so that its benevolent language is emphati- cally, " Do thyself no harm ; take timely warning, and be happy ;" — and that this possibility of pain could not be sepa- rated from the powers of sense without miraculous interposi- tion, since it is the natural consequence of their functions. In addition to which, it should be observed, that where death is the simple consequence of age, the power of feeling does grad- ually cease before that event arrives. It is benevolently ar- ranged that the prior departure of physical sensibility shall leave the final struggle to be carried on by the vital powers alone. So that the animal passes through a state of stupor into the sleep of death. 12. According to the existing arrangements of creation, then, we behold, on the one hand, a system of provisions for securing the greatest amount of animal life ; for only a small proportion of it could find the necessary sustenance in any other way than that of prey ; so that if animals, we repeat, are to be sustained by food, it is more consistent with the Divine goodness that a certain proportion of that food should be animated and filled with enjoyment until it is wanted, than that it should be inani- mate and incapable of pleasure. W^hile, on the other hand, we find a number of remarkable provisions for reducing the pain involved in this system of animal enjoyment, to the smallest amount. Other and higher considerations we omit ; such as the fact that animal sensibility forms a perpetual appeal to human sensibility, and is an important means of its improve- 16 Ids THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. ment ; and the manner in which the progressiveness of crea- tion is made subservient to the moral education and advance- ment of the beings to whom the Divine Manifestation is made, and worthy of Him who makes it. But we are content with having shown that a fact whicii might at first appear to dimin- ish the claims of the Divine goodness, becomes, when viewed in its relations, an occasion for enlarging our conceptions of Creative benevolence, by showing that it secures animal exist- ence and enjoyment to the greatest amount. 13. And thus we have found, as the great Reason led us to expect, that every stage and object of creation is an exponent of some characteristic of the Divine Nature. n. The past hr ought forwards. — By the principle which requires that the laws of the past should he brought forwards to the present^ we are led to expect that the elements and results of the mine- ral and vegetable kingdom will be found brought on into the animal kingdom. 1. Accordingly, though the animal is more withdrawn from the inorganic world, in point of rank, than the vegetable, it is still amenable to all those laws of inanimate matter which make it a part of the great material system. Here is the law of gravitation, by which the animal stands. Here is me- chanical force, illustrating its laws, and distributing its levers and fulcra, in a way which enables it to fulfil a thousand dis- tinct purposes. The various secretions are complicated pro- ducts of chemical action ; though no artificial chemistry can imitate them. Here light and air find appropriate organs ; and electricity finds functions and properties expressly adapted for its development and action. The same laws which operate in the formation of the silicious crystals, here compose the skeleton of many zoophytes, and the calcareous crystals of many radia- ted animals. The simple symmetry of vertebrate animals, and the pentagonal symmetry of radiate animals, show that we are still investigating the productions of a Being who is acting on general principles, and filling up a plan. While the presence of organic life in its leading functions, nutrition and reproduc- tion, shows that the vegetable and animal kingdoms are con- nected parts of a great whole. Of tlie:;e facts, numerous illus- trations will occur as we proceed ; none of them, however, tending to efface the great chacteristics which separate the SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 168 organic kingdom from the inorganic, and the animal kingdom from both. 2. Thus we have seen pre-existing laws brought on into each succeeding stage of creation ; the inorganic into the organic, and both these into the animal kingdom. in. . Progress. — Our theory leads us to inquire next for the in- dications of progress, or for the introduction of new laws. And we find animal life superadded to the vegetable or organic life. Now it is obvious to remark that the comparison of the two must be drawn, not between the highest form of the one and the lowest form of the other, but between the more elaborate and perfect forms of each division. Were it our object to show the contiguity and continuity of the two organized king- doms, we might then (as we shall hereafter have occasion to do) point out the principles which they have in common, and the points at which they appear to touch and even blend. But in illustrating their distinctive characteristics, it would be as irrelevant to compare the lowest state of animal life with the highest form of vegetable life, as it would be to compare the lowest form of vegetation with the highest form of animal existence. Taking both, however, in their more perfect states, it will be found that the animal world differs from the vegeta- ble, as widely as both these differ from the mineral. So marked is this difference, that were the various endowments which are distributed separately throughout the whole vegeta- ble world to be concentrated in a single plant, the superiority of an animal, taken promiscuously from the herd, would still be instantly and abundantly manifest. 2. When treating of vegetable physiology, we saw that organic life includes a series of functions by which the individ- ual plant is preserved and the species continued. Now the physiology of animals discloses the fact, that they possess func- tions analogous to those of vegetables ; and that, in addition to these, and distinct from them, they possess also the functions of a higher order of life, involving sensibility and locomotion. Each kind of life has its own system of organs. The centre of the organic life is the heart ; of the animal life, the brain. The functions of organic life act continuously ; those of animal life intermittingly. The former operate unconsciously and in- voluntarily; the latter not so. Such are some of the lead- ^lAI THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. ing distinctions between the functions of organic and animal life. 3. Accordingly, Bichat has shown (and the distinction is now generally accepted,') that the natural division of the com- plex animal system is twofold. Such parts as the heart, the intestines, and whatever acts independently of the will, and without the consciousness of the subject, belong to what he denominates the vegetative or organic life. While the senses, and the parts that bring the system into voluntary relation with the external world, he calls the animal life. In the plant, life is endowed only, at most, with the property of excitability; in the animal, it superadds to this property, those of sensation, perception, passion, mental association, and impelled volition, followed by the expression of that volition in muscular contrac- tion. To the plant is assigned the power of drawing nourish- ment from inorganic matter — mere earths, salts, and airs; while the aliments by which animals are nourished are derived from animal or vegetable substances alone. Whence plants, says M. Richerand, may be considered as the laboratories in which nature prepares aliment for animals ; and thus, we may add, emphatically seals their superiority. 4. But what is the nature of that instinctive mind by which the animal is especially distinguished from the vegetable crea- tion ? The difficulty of giving what may be deemed a satisfac- tory reply to this question, arises, perhaps, not so much from any inherent profundity in the subject, as from our necessary ignorance, or inability to obtain the requisite data; and from the prepossessions respecting it of those who are too much amused with the facts to examine the reasons, and who would rather " see in the shifting cloud what shapes they please. " 5. With a view to a reply, however, let us first mark the distinctions which exist among the functions of the animal life itself. Analogous in office to the excitability of the plant, is the sensibility of the animal ; though the latter is secured by a nobler arrangement than the corresponding property in the vegetable, and is made to answer additional ends. The animal is placed in new and wonderful relations to the external world by the organs of touch, hearing, sight, &c. United to these organs is a system of nerves which conveys " sensations from the organs of sense inwards, so as to make these sensations the * See Dr. Playfair's Abstract of Liebig's Report on Organic Chemistry applied to Physiology and Pathology, read at the Meeting of the British Association, 1842. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 185 objects of the animal's consciousness. " And in " the higher animals these impressions upon the nerves are all conveyed to one organ, the brain." Here then is one step towards an explanation of the functions of animal life. 6. But what part of its physical structure is it by which the animal on receiving these impressions changes its posture, its place, or its action ? It is now satisfactorily ascertained that the immediate agents in such motions are the muscles. The property by which, under natural stimulus, they produce motion, has been termed irritability, or, more properly, contrac- tility, from the manner in which they contract in the movement of the limbs. Here, then, is another and a distinct step in the explanation. The sensations which the animal feels, and the muscular action which it consequently exerts, may be insepara- bly connected ; yet are they obviously distinguishable. Animal sensibility has the nerves for its organs ; animal contractility, the muscles. The former is the passive ; the latter, the active element of animal life. The former seems preparatory to whatever of instinct, intelligence, or mind may be expressed by the latter. So that between these two extreme terms, lies the sphere of our present inquiry. 7. Now, if we mark the effect directly consequent on certain sensations, we shall find that the animal appears to have received a notice or knowledge of the external object which has occasioned them. And the knowledge thus acquired is called perception. Here, then, is a connection apparently men- tal. The knowledge resulting from the sensation, reveals the existence of animal mind ; of something, at least, which is not material, and which is not merely vital ; but is distinct from, and superior to, both. 8. If next, w^e mark the effect consequent on certain per- ceptions, we shall find that they are apparently followed by volitions : by which we mean that mental act which immediate- ly determines muscular action. And thus there intervenes between the two states of sensation and muscular contraction, the two links of perception and volition. So that " the cycle of operations which appears to take place when animals act in reference to external objects is this, sensation, perception, volition, muscular contraction ; "^ the brain being the seat or centre to which sensation tends, and from which volition pro- ceeds. ' Dr. Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, ii. p. 71. 186 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. It is not intended by these remarks that the supposed men- tal part of this process clearly and conscioushj attends every animal action. At least, man, while performing the ordinary acts of breathing, walking, &c., is but faintly conscious of the sensations and voUtions which these acts imply. So that, in representing the sensation and muscular action of animals as connected by the intermediate process of perception and voli- tion, we must be regarded as stating only an extreme case. But, at this stage of the subject, the question arises, whether the cycle we have described includes the whole of the process belonging to the operation of animal mind or instinct; or, whether, in addition to the four steps named, there may not be at least a fifth. In entertaining this question, indeed, we shall be anticipating that side of the subject which compares the animal with the human mind ; yet, an adequate view of the inquiry will not allow us to postpone it. Now, it will be admitted, that, in the human mind, at least, one additional link intervenes between perception and volition. To this link we will give the general name, not of understand- ing, but of reason ; by which we mean, the power which the mind has of deducing universal truths from particular appear- ances, or of contemplating the ideal relations of things ; and of willing or determining, in harmony with such ideas, on the means necessary to the attainment of a proposed end. The question to be decided, then, may assume this simple form, is the volition of brutes determined without the intervention of reason ? The great end of instinct appears to be the preservation of life in the individual, and its perpetuation in the species. That man occasionally trains and turns it to a different account, does not affect the truth of the statement. During all the ages prior to human existence, and wherever the animal is left undisturbed by the influence of human reason, the direct and only reference of its instincts is to the continuance of its race. And as this is their only obvious end, so the various ways in which it is gained, by the different species, is evidently pre- determined by the organization peculiar to each. From which it is inferred by some that wherever there is life there is instinct ; or, that instinct and life are co-extensive. 9. Instinctive motions, viewed in this enlarged sense, are of difterent classes. First, there are those which belong to or- ganic life, and which may be called vital. These are common to plants and animals ; such as the involuntary processes of SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 187 secretion and assimilation. But whether these processes should be regarded as instinctive or not, is immaterial to the princi- pal point at issue. 10. Second, there are those instincts which call into action the muscles considered to be under the control of volition, and which may be called adaptive. Such are the actions of the new-born young of animals ; the beautiful and perfect nest- building of birds ; and the mathematical cell-making of bees. These constitute the great class of actions, allowed, on almost all hands, to be strictly instinctive ; and whose direct tendency is to the continuance of animal existence. And yet, as far as the animal is promoting this object, it is evidently acting to- wards an end which is unknown to itself; and, therefore, act- ing blindly. Agreeably to Paley's definition of instinct, it is acting "prior to experience, and independent of instruction," and, we might add, with a perfection which no instruction could teach, and no experience improve. 11. And, thirdly, there are those which appear to be the result of experience, and which discover a power of selecting means for proximate ends according to varying circumstances : these may be said to be mental. To this class of actions per- tain those remarkable instances of animal sagacity, at the reci- tal of which every one has been more or less interested and astonished, and which have even suggested to some the extrav- agant idea of a system of animal metaphysics. The remainder of our remarks on instinct will be restricted to this class ; and our object will be to show that, even allow- ing some mental act to intervene, in such instances, between perception and volition, that intermediate act or operation is not what we intend by reasoning. 1. That an action ascribable to reason in man, would, when performed by an animal, be hastily ascribed to the same prin- ciple, was antecedently probable. But to do this is to forget that just as rational, and quite analogous, would it be to infer, that because the bird constructs its nest by instinct, and the bee its cell, therefore, if a man attempts an imitation of that nest or that cell, he acts under the impulse of instinct also. 2. If what the animal does evidently from instinct, is done better, and is of greater importance to the end of its existence, than that which it does from what some would ascribe to a higher faculty, it seems unphilosophical to ascribe the superior efforts to the inferior principle, and the lower efforts to the higher principle. Now, probably, no one supposes that the 188 THE PR E-AD AMITE EARTH. lamb when it first follows its mother, and adapts its muscular action to the fonn of the ground, knows anything of the geo- metrical relations which the action involves ; or that the dog, in hunting only a certain kind of animal, and in crossing the field repeatedly, to scent it, knows anything of the doctrines of Resemblance and of Space; or that the bird, in its first flight, adjusting its effort to the distance and height of the flight with mechanical precision, really recognises the doctrine of force. All this is attributed to instinct. If then, under difier- ent circumstances, the animal should afterwards be found act- ing differently, consistency would seem to require that the dif- ference should be ascribed to the provisional operation of the same instinct. If the bird on perceiving that the rising stream is approaching its half-finished nest, begins to build higher up the bank, it does but build on the spot where it would have placed its nest at first, had the waters then been as high as they have since become, and the end in both cases is the same — the continuance of its species. 3. If animals ever perform actions from instruction or ex- perience, to which human sagacity would be unequal, it must result either from an instinctive intelligence, or (which would be proving too much,) from the exercise of a reason superior to man's. Now the great majority of the remarkable feats re- lated of animals are of this description. The advocates of brute rationality, in their anxiety to do the best for their clients, adduce illustrations of so remarkable a nature as to show that no human reason would have been competent to such doings. Such, for example, are those instances in which an animal reads in the countenance of its master that he con- templates its destruction, and absents itself accordingly ; or in which it knows, better perhaps than its master, that he is about to take a certain favorite walk, and runs on before to secure a share in the enjoyment ; or, in which it finds its way straight home again when it had been taken by a circuitous route, and blindfolded, to a great distance. It was this want of discrim- ination, in ascribing to reason, actions which had not afforded scope for reasoning, and which were too quick and too certain for anything but instinct, which led Descartes ^ to say, " their doing many things better than ourselves does not prove them to be endowed with reason, for this would prove them to have more reason than we have, and that they are capable of excell- ' In his treatise De Methodo. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 189 ing US in all other things also ; but it rather proves them to be void of reason." 4. If the most wonderful feats of animal sagacity are the result of human instruction, such instances only show the adaptiveness, within certain fixed and narrow limits, of the mental instinct. It was antecedently probable, in a world whose regularity is made consistent with variety, and whose every principle admits of diversified application, that the high- er order of animals would find scope for their instinctive mind within a certain range. Even the plant has a confined power of adapting itself to circumstances. It is only in analogy with nature, that the dog, for example, the most instinctively saga- gious of animals, if he become the companion of man, and so be made to feel indirectly the influence of the human mind, should have all its better adaptations brought to light ; though itself entirely unconscious of the fact. Compared with its con- dition in the preadamite earth, the domestic dog is now in another world, walking among gods. " Man is to him instead of a god, or melior naturar • And, while there is no ground to believe that, if the canine race existed a thousand ages be- fore man appeared on the earth, a single trait of the instinctive sagacity we now so much admire, had ever been exhibited by them, so neither is there reason to conclude that such sagacity is now the result of anything higher than an instinctive adap- tiveness, of which they themselves have no intelligent per- ception. 5. If, again, the power of performing extraordinary feats be hereditary^ it cannot be the result of reason or of knowledge ; for knowledge and reason are not, in this way transmissible. A paper of Mr. Knight's, read before the Royal Society, 2 shows that even the acquired faculties of dogs — the expert- ness they gain by teaching, descends in the race. " He found the young and untaught ones (springing spaniels) as skilful as the old ones, not only in finding and raising the woodcocks, but in knowing the exact degree of frost which will drive those birds to springs and rills of unfrozen water." It is evident that such a fact cannot be adduced in favor of animal ration- ality; for the knowledge exhibited was strangely possessed without instruction or experience ; and the reasoning, if there had been any, being destitute of data, must have been nothing less than a train of a priori speculation. * Bacon's Essay on Atheism. ^ Quoted in Lord Brougham's Dissertations, &c., vol. i. p. 140. THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 6. Among the presumptive proofs against the rationality of animals, it is, we think, justly alleged that, while man can transmit the knowledge which he has gained by experience, from generation to generation, conscious of its being experi- ence, and that it is capable of receiving indefinite addition and application, the experience of animals, confined at most within narrow limits, is incapable of accumulation and transmission. So that the bee and the beaver of to-day, build no better than the bee and the beaver of a thousand years ago. 7. Another fact, of the same class, noticed by Adam Smith, is, that animals practice nothing approaching to barter. The most barbarous South Sea Islander will eagerly part with his rude ornaments and his food for a piece of iron. But even the animal which collects stores for the winter, shows that, in mak- ing this provision, he is impelled by instinct and not by fore- sight, for he is incapable of making an exchange which might exempt him from the trouble of collecting stores. 8. But, perhaps, the great fact which lies against the ra- tionality of brutes, is, that they are destitute of the power of speech. To say that they have voices, or articulate language, adequate to the indication of certain appetites and passions, only increases the force of the remark. For how unlikely is it that they would be endowed with the means of expressing animal feelings, and be denied the power of imparting ideas, supposing them to have ideas to impart. And besides the inconsistency, perhaps few things would seem to impugn the goodness of the Creator more, than to withhold from a crea- tur.e capable of even very limited reasoning, the faculty of ex- pressing and imparting its reasonings. 9. But it may be asked, whether the power of inarticulate signs which animals possess, may not be adequate to the com- munication of thought ? " The intention and the capacity, of expressing thought,'' says W. Humboldt,' " is the only thing which characterizes the articulate sound ; and nothing else can be fixed on to designate its difference from the animal cry on the one hand, or the musical tone on the other." To which it may be sufficient to add, that, arguing from analogy, inarticu- late cries serve only for the expression of sensations and pas- sions. Hence man, during infancy, when he has only feel- ings to express, has only the limited signs and cries of the animal. With the dawning of thought comes its appropriate ' Quoted in Lieber's Political Ethics, p. 12. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 191 vehicle, speech ; and, although, afterwards, thought and feel- ing are generally combined in his vocal communications, it is worthy of remark that, in proportion as he essays to express unmingled feeling or passion, as in moments of great danger or pain, he invariably falls back on inarticulate sounds and in- terjections. 10. As little would it serve the purpose of an objector, and as much serve our own, to say that the animal is not entirely denied the organs of speech ; for this would only increase the incongruity of giving an animal both reason, and organs for expressing it, and yet withholding from it the medial link, whatever it may be, necessary to connect and develop both. That some animals, especially birds, have at least imperfect organs of speech, is evident, for they can be taught to speak ; and the only reason which can be assigned why they do not utter a single untaught sentence of their own, is that they have not a single thought to express. For " in a question respect- ing the possession of reason, the absence of all proof is tan- tamount to a proof of the contrary." ^ 11. But, while the train of our remarks impels us to the con- clusion that, in the mental process of the animal, reason does not intervene between its perceptions and its volitions, it forci- bly indicates what may or does intervene, namely, the opera- tion of appetites, passions, habits, and, not recollection, but memory or associations of past impressions. To the expres- sion of these alone, its sounds and signs are adequate ; and of these alone we believe it to be conscious. As sensation issues in perception, perception awakens desire or attachment, aver- sion or anger, fear or the operation of habit, or some past impression or mental association ; the influence of this again determines the volitions necessarily, and determines them dif- ferently according as they act feebly or powerfully, singly or in combination ; while the volitions, so determined, issue in corresponding muscular action. The relation of the Divine agency to animal instinct, Avill be a subject for after consid- eration. 12. Having thus considered the subject independently, we may now be allowed to glance at it in its relation to the un- folding of that great system of Divine procedure of which it forms a part. We are not aware that the conclusions at which we have arrived have been in the least degree biassed by a ' Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, p. 291, |j^ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. reference to that system. If, therefore, on comparing them with the expectations which that system would naturally sug- gest, we find them harmonize with each other, we shall be en- titled to regard such harmony as additional evidence of the truth of our conclusions. And besides this, we shall feel the advantage of being able to bring our independent conclusions to the test of an independent system, and of there finding, so to speak, a place awaiting these conclusions. For to the want of such a test it is, we think, to be chiefly ascribed that so much diversity and uncertainty of opinion on the subject, pre- vails. We will only premise farther, that it is not our pur- pose to do more at present than barely to indicate some of those expectations to which we refer ; leaving the more com- plete exposition of them to their proper places in the coming sections. 13. If, for instance, in our hypothetical visit to the scene of the advancing creation, we had been forewarned that the animal kingdom was only to form a part of the creation, but was not to be that part to which the Divine manifestation was to be made, what more reasonable than to expect, that we should find a form of existence naturally incapable of recog- nising the great design ? Now this is to expect that the ani- mal kingdom will be found irrational ; destitute alike of that faculty of concluding universal truths from particular appear- ances, which w^ould have referred it back to its origin ; and of that power of proposing an ultimate end, and of determining the will by ideas, which would have pointed it on to the chief and last end of all things. And accordingly, we do not find that it exhibits the least evidence of reason thus interpreted. 14. But if this stage of creation is to manifest the goodness of the Creator, the animal must not be endowed even with the power of recognising its humble position in the scale of crea- tion, otherwise its enjoyment might be completely marred. Accordingly, it occupies its place as a link, unconscious of its ofl&ce, in the yet ascending but unfinished series of being ; and is incapable alike of mentally " looking before or after." 15. But, though unconscious of the ultimate design of crea- tion, an end it must and does answer. The tendency of all its motions, voluntary and involuntary, is to preserve its own life, and to perpetuate its kind. Yet must it not be allowed to be conscious that it is answering even this end ; otherwise the same mental power, which would enable it to recognise this fact, would enable it to recognise other truths, and might fill SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 191 its life with care and anxiety. Accordingly, the bird, while patiently sitting on its eggs, week after week, is ignorant of the end to be answered. An intermediate or present end may be answered of which it is conscious ; for, during every mo- ment of the time, some sense may be receiving present gratifi- cation. But the purpose to which this present enjoyment is subservient is that great favorite object of nature, the continua- tion of the kind ; and this end the animal is accomplishing blindly and unintentionally. 1 6. But if the great object of its life is to answer this end, and if the circumstances in which, and the external means by which, this end is to be gained, vary, we may expect that it will not be destitute of adaptive power and instinctive intelli- gence. Even the plant, we have seen, possesses the former ; it is only analogous, then, that to the nobler animal should be superadded the latter. Accordingly, the power which the ani- mal possesses of unknowingly profiting by experience, is sim- ply the slightly diversified application and perseverance of in- stinct in gaining its own great end. 17. Farther, if the animal be thus insensible to the ultimate end of creation, and even of the part which it is made to act for the attainment of that end, we may expect that its signs of communication will be of a very humble description. Having no thoughts to disclose, sj^eech, the vehicle of thought, will be unnecessary. Having nothing to express but the feeling of the moment, nothing more can be necessary than ina^iculate signs ; and nothing more does it possess. " The minister and interpreter of nature" is yet to come. 18. In resumption of the law now under consideration, then, we remark that a superior order of life is here found added to the vegetable or organic life. By the wonderful addition of the senses, the points of relation between the animal and the external world are multiplied above those of the plant a thou- sand-fold. By the properties of animal mind which we have already considered — sensation, perception, passion, mental as- sociation, and constrained volition, comparatively inferior as these may be, those relations are further increased. The powers of muscular contraction and locomotion, by changing the position of the animal in relation to external objects, and by enabling it to put itself in proximity or even contact with them, augments these relations still more. And the faculty, of communicating by sounds and signs with the creatures of its own kind, renders the number of these relations indefinite. 17 f9^ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. While each of these innumerable relations is a designed and calculated part of an elaborate system of animal enjoyment. And thus have we illustrated and substantiated the law of progress. And, here, it is obvious to remark, how as each part of crea- tion comes into existence, and becomes related to the preced- ing parts, certain terms progressively enlarge their meaning. There was a time, for example, when the word creation, sup- posing there were beings to employ it, meant only, in refer- ence to the material system, chaos ; and when life meant only vegetable existence. The doctrine of Providence, in relation to the same material system, originally indicated much less than it has come to mean, for there was but little comparatively to provide for. And so also of the medial relation, — expressing itself at first in effects representative of an originating cause ; then adding to these the attainment of ends by the organiza- tion and employment of prepared means, representative of power guided by wisdom ; and then endowing certain organic forms with susceptibilities of enjoyment, thus adding to power and wisdom, goodness, and awakening the idea that, as we are looking on a progressive scheme, the relation in question will yet express itself in other and higher forms. IV. Continuity. — Distinct as is the animal kingdom from the vegetable, and numerous and striking as are the additional characteristics which, in some of its departments, it exhibits, the progression will be found to be, in that general sense in which alone it can be expected, continuous. 1 . It is continuous if regarded organically, or in relation to the vegetable kingdom. This is evident from the appellation given to a large division of organized bodies, zoophytes, or ani- mal plants. So imperceptible are the gradations by which the two kingdoms are apparently connected at their origins, that naturalists are often divided as to the kingdom to which many well-known bodies belong. And a proposition has been en- tertained by more than one scientific society, that certain classes of organized beings should be placed in a new king- dom, occupying a place between plants and animals. Still, it should be distinctly remembered, that this continui- ty is only apparent or general. It may be an insensible gra- dation to us. To superior powers, the passage from the vege- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 195 table to the animal would be visible, and could be measured. To suppose that, because it is difficult to assign the boundaries of the two kingdoms, therefore there are no boundaries, would be as irrational as to conclude that, because material atoms dis- appear, first from our unaided sight, and then vanish even be- yond the reach of microscopic power, there is a point at which they graduate into nothingness. A moment's reflection will show us that, between that supposed point and the point be- yond, there is all the difference between body and space, some- thing and nothing — an infinite difference. In the same man- ner, however slight the hreak, where the vegetable appears to graduate into the animal, such an interruption there is ; and it is nothing less than an interruption in kind, a transition from identity to essential difference. Accordingly, Cuvier affirms the universal application of the graduating principle to be phi- losophically untenable ; and disclaims its rigorous application to the objects even of one and the same kingdom of nature.^ And even Lamarck, than whom no one, perhaps, entertains more extravagant views of a structural gradation in animals, expresses his belief that plants and animals, when most resem- bling, are always distinguishable.'^ 2. Progression is also traceable, in the same general man- ner, in what may be called a geological or historical continuity. Physiologists regard the animal kingdom as susceptible of a fourfold division, in the following ascending order, — Zoophytes or Radiata, animals whose parts are distributed around a com- mon centre, as the star-fish ; MoUusca, pulpy animals, inclosed wholly or partially in a muscular envelope, as the cuttle-fish ; Annulosa or Articulata, jointed animals, as the lobster ; and Vertehrata, or animals with a spinal column.3 This last division is composed of four classes, in the following order, — Fish, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, or animals which suckle their young. Now, as the fossil remains of all these divisions and classes are not found together in the lowest strata of the earth, are they found by geologists in any order ; and, if so, what is that order ? The lowest or earliest system of rocks in which any traces of organic structure have been discovered are the Cambrian. ^ Eegne Animal, Pref., pp. xx. xxi. ^ Philosoph. Zoolog., torn. i. pp. 377, 384, and 398, in note. See Pro- fessor Kidd's B. Treatise, pp. 310, 311. ^ This is the order of arrangement adopted by Geoffrey and others. Cuvier's order reversed the position of the second and third divisions. lifi THE PR K-AD AMITE EARTH. Here are found in abundance the remains, not of radiata alone, but of the second division of the animal kingdom also, preda- ceous cephalopods, the most advanced of all molluscs in or- ganic structure ; and, of the third division, highly organized crustaceans — trilobites, with reticular eyes. In the next sys- tem of the ascending series, the Silurian rocks, some of the preceding species are found, " but, as a group, the species are new and characteristic." Here, first, a vertebrate appears — ^ a fish. But while the class to which it belongs is the lowest of the four vertebral divisions, the specimen itself belongs to the highest order of its class — the placoid. Indeed, all the fishes found in this system are of a high organic structure. The old red sandstone above the Silurian rocks, contains nu- merous genera of placoids, and of the order next below — - ganoids. Above the old red sandstone comes the carbonifer- ous system: here fossil footprints of a large reptilian first appear. Above this, comes the zechstein or magnesian lime- stone formation, charged with Palaeosaurs, thecodonts, and mo- nitors. But while reptiles compose the class of vertebrata next in order above fishes, the fossil bones of these three first- found species show them to have belonged to the order of lacertilians — the third from the top of Owen's nine orders of fossil reptiles. Ascending to the secondary class of rocks, we reach first the new red sandstone and saliferous marls. Here the gigantic frog or toad-like labyrinthodons occur ; and here, for the first time, are the traces of birds. Still, as far as their structure can be ascertained, they do not appear to have been of the lowest order. Next comes the oolitic or Jurassic sys- tem ; and here occurs the didelphys — the first known ex- ample of mammalian remains, though not so low in organic structure as some living mammals. The green sand and cre- taceous systems follow. The latter exhibits great changes of organic types ; for while some of the preceding families have become degenerate, and others extinct, new families are called into being ; and hero we have the first traces of animal species still living. Leaving the cretaceous, we enter the tertiary sys- tem ; and here we find ourselves in a comparatively new world of organic remains. " Among the millions of organic forms, from corals up to mammals, of the London and Paris basins," we find hardly one species belonging to the secondary rocks. Here, in the first subdivision of the system — the eocene — we find numerous extinct species of vertebral animals — fish- es, reptiles, birds, and mammals ; but the first and the last &ENTIENT EXISTENCE. 197 coexist. And, of the mammals, the carnivora are as old as the pachyderms ; nor are monkeys wanting even in this open- ing page of the new chapter. And, then, as eocene implies that the subdivision exhibits the dawn of species still existing, the miocene subdivision above contains more of the species now living, though extinct species still predominate ; while in the pliocene, or upper division, extinct species decline, and species now living predominate. ^ From these remarks, it will be seen that geology affords no ground' whatever for the hypothesis of a regular succession of creatures, beginning with the simplest forms in the older strata, and ascending to the more complicated in the later formations. The earliest forms of life known to geology are not of the lowest grade of organization ; neither are the earliest forms of any of the classes which appear subsequently the simplest of their kind. The fanciful hypothesis which derives the higher animal from the lower — and of which we shall speak here- after — is here contradicted at every step. Neither have we any reason to believe that, of the species found in the older fossiliferous rocks, the individuals belonging to each existed in smaller numbers than they did afterwards. Animal forms, too, appear there in as full development, as to size, as they do in the analogous forms of existing creatures. But the continuity which we do find is truly remarkable. As to the uninterrupted maintenance of life ; from the time of its first creation, there does not appear to have been any break in the vast chain, till we reach the existing order of things : " no one geological period, long or short, no one series of stratified rocks, is everywhere devoid of traces of life."^ As to the incixase of species ; " although the older fossiliferous strata often contain vast quantities of organic remains, the num- ber of species is much smaller than in more recent deposits."3 Chiefly, as to the succession of the vertebral classes ; notwith- standing the subordinate exceptions to regular progress we have noticed, the geologi<3al order in which we find them is that of an ascending series — fishes, reptiles, birds, and mam- mals. And, as to the gradual conformity of the successive ard- ^ See Professor Sedgwick's Address to the Gcol. Society, p. 2 ; and an admirable article in the Edin. Rev., July, 1845. * Note by Mr. Phillips, in Professor Powell's Connection of Natural and Divine'Truth, p. 309. 3 Sir 11. 1. Murchison's Silurian System, p. 583. 17* 198 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. mal crefUions to the existing types ; " we find successive stages marked by varying forms of animal and vegetable life, and these generally differ more and more widely from existing species, as we go further downwards into the receptacles of the wreck of more ancient creations." ^ 3. The animal kingdom exhibits physiological continuity. Here, again, we employ the term continuity, only in a general sense, and as opposed to any essential departure from the ori- ginal plans of animal function or structure. From the lowest radiate, up to the most complicated and perfect animal struc- ture, endowed with digestive, intestinal, circulatory, respira- tory, and nervous functions, a gradation may be traced of an easy, and, in some parts, almost imperceptible ascent. The types which represent the great divisions of the animal king- dom, exhibit points of resemblance ; showing that they are all parts of one general plan. In the progress of discovery, species are often occurring which seem to fill places in the general classification which were previously vacant. Thus the nume- rous pachydermata found by Cuvier among the earliest fossil mammalia, enabled him to supply many intermediate forms which do not occur in the species of that order now living ; the cetacea seem to occupy the interval between fishes and warm-blooded quadrupeds ; and the ornithorhynchus between birds and mammalia. It is not to be inferred from this representation, however, that the gradation of animal being is absolutely continuous and complete. Man, probably, will never succeed in recover- ing fossil specimens of all the forms of past creations. But even if he did, and if to these were added any given number of new species, the existing plan of animal life would find room for them all. They would form a continuation of the present system ; not one of them would stand isolated. Thus interpreted, we have no objection to the doctrine of " the unity of organic composition." It was by a masterly application of it, in this sense, that Cuvier was able to supply from the fossil genera of former states of the earth, many of the links that appeared to be wanting, in order to connect the past and pre- sent forms of animal life as parts of one great system. 4. In our examination of nature, then, we have found, not only progression, but continuity — the only kind of continuity which we were led to expect — that which discloses the Divine ' Dr. Biickland's B. Treatise, vol. i. p. 113. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. m manifestation in the order of power, wisdom, and goodness; and we have found this graduated connection existing, not merely between the several stages of the advancing creation, but also, in various respects, between the multiplied parts of each stage separately considered. V. Activity, — Another of our laws is, that the animal structure and functions are developed by regulated activity. 1. "All parts of the animal body," says Liebig, "are pro- duced from the fluid circulating in its organism. A destruc- tion of the animal body is constantly proceeding. Every motion, eveiy manifestation of force, is the result of the trans- formation of the structure or of its substance. ... At every moment, with every expiration, parts of the body are removed, and are emitted into the atmosphere." Every part of the frame of a vertebral animal, for instance, circulates more or less rapidly. Its food circulates quickly in the fluids, more slowly in the flesh, more slowly still in the bones ; but its life requires that every part should be in motion. 2. Besides which, as animals rise in the scale of existence, the systems of digestion, circulation, respiration, and sensation, bear a proportional increase ; which is only saying that organic activity and animal perfection correspond with each other. 3. Again, an organ being given, its development or degree of perfection is regarded as depending on the extent and number of the uses to which it is applied. Thus the teeth, the special use of which is to triturate the food, to which alone by some classes of animals they are applied ; are by the gramini- vorous class applied to the further office of prehension ; and in the carnivorous they become, in addition, organs of attack. 4. Hence too, all those defective formations, formerly deemed mis-shapen or monstrous productions, or lusus naturce, are now found to be occasioned, as in abnormal plants, by the irregular development — the activity in defect or excess — of some parts of the embryo, while the natural process was carried on regularly in the rest of the system. 5. And, in harmony with the locomotive power, and organi- zation of the animal, the external world is adapted to call forth its activity. The senses, and the objects which excite them ; the appetite, and the food which gratifies it ; the passions, and the means of appeasing them, mutually operate to excite the 200 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. activity of the animal. And on the constant exercise of its functions, in conformity with tlieir nature, its well-being and enjoyment depend. 6. Every stage and part then of the progressive and all-con- nected scheme of creation is found to manifest all that it is calculated to exhibit of the Divine nature, by developing or working out its own. Every being, every organ, element, and particle, is in constant activity. Much of this activity, indeed, is so subtle and rapid, as to defy our means of measurement and calculation ; yet has every atom an appointed place, and obeys a definite law. And much of this activity may appear to be objectless ; yet is everything acting its appropriate part, and answering a momentous end ; for, here, everything is ever tending to realize the great end. VL Development. — According to another law, the same proper- ties and characteristics whic-h existed in the preceding stage are found to he, not only brought on to the present, hut to he in a more advanced condition ; in the sense of being expressed in higher forms, or applied to higher purposes. 1. We saw that, while the plant, in obedience to the law of gravity, tends downwards, it rises upwards too. But the ani- mal is able to resist this law so far as to maintain a variety of motions and attitudes at variance with its tendency ; or even to rise, like the eagle, many thousand feet into the air, in oppo- sition to its own natural weight. Many plants will bear a very limited variety of temperature ; but many animals preserve an elevated and steady temperature, whether exposed to severe cold or to excessive heat ; some will even bear exposure to the intensest cold of the Polar regions, without having their own temperature reduced even by a single degree. The plant receives its nourishment by a slow and nearly constant supply, and by being rooted in one spot : the animal is furnished with a receptacle into which it can receive at once a large supply of food ; by which it is rendered independent of local situation ; and enjoys the privilege of moving from place to place, and of selecting its food. The animal has all its organs of nutrition within itself; for, while the plant absorbs from the soil without, it is not until the food is deposited in the stomach of the ani- mal, that the lacteals, or absorbing vessels, answering in their office to the roots of vesretables, imbibe nourishment. The SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 201 sexual distinction of dioecious plants is, at most, little more than an obscure intimation of the same distinction developed in the animal kingdom ; where it is made the basis of the strongest sympathies, relations, and affections. The parent plant is con- structed to provide the seed with that nutriment on which, when it falls to the earth, it may live during its germination, before the roots have sufficiently enlarged to absorb the mois- ture from the surrounding soil ; but from the moment in which it is shed, its separation from the plant is complete. While, in the animal kingdom, the moment of birth is, in the case of some tribes, the commencement of a series of parental cares ; some species continuing to protect their young ; others, both male and female, uniting to protect and to feed them ; while the mammal protects and feeds them with food drawn from its own life^ and even continues to associate with them and to be mu- tually dependent, to the close of life. The excitability of the plant is, as we have seen, succeed- ed in the animal by sensibility and contractility — that passive and that active element of animal life by which it is distin- guished, not only from mechanical, chemical, and all other merely physical forces, but even from organic vital powers. For, in addition to the nerves of sensibility for conveying sen- sations to the sensorium, there are also nerves of motion for conveying the mandates of volition to the muscles. 2. These illustrations may remind the reader of the follow- ing admired passage in Coleridge's " Aids to Reflection : " i " Every rank of creatures, as it ascends in the scale of creation, leaves death behind it or under it. The Metal at its height of being seems a mute prophecy of the coming vegetation, into a mimic semblance of which it crystallizes. The Blossom and Flower, the acme of vegetable life, divides into correspondent organs with reciprocal functions, and by instinctive motions and approximations seems impatient of that fixture by which it is differenced in kind from the flower-shaped Psyche, that flutters with free wing above it. And wonderfully in the insect realm doth the irritability, the proper seat of instinct, while yet the nascent sensibility is subordinated thereto — most wonder- fully, I say, doth the muscular life in the insect, and the mus- culo-arterial in the bird, imitate, and typically rehearse the adaptive understanding, yea, and the moral affections and char- ities of man. Let us carry ourselves back, in spirit, to the ^p. HI, 112.1st ed. SMi THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. mysterious week, the teeming work-days of the Creator: as they rose in vision before the eye of the inspired historian of * the generations of the heaven and the earth, in the days that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.' And who that hath watched their ways with an understanding heart, could contemplate the filial and loyal bee ; the home-building, wedded, and divorceless swallow ; and above all, the manifold- ly intelligent i ant tribes, with their commonwealths and con- federacies, their warriors and miners, the husband-folk that fold in their tiny flocks on the honeyed leaf, and the virgin sisters with the holy instincts of maternal love, detached, and in self- less purity, and not say to himself. Behold the shadow of ap- proaching humanity, the sun rising from behind, in the kindling morn of creation !. Thus all lower natures find their highest good in semblances and seekings of that which is higher and better." This is the poetic but guarded language of a mind which more than "half creates that which it sees." No one could be more fully aware than its author that, in thus subjectiving na- ture, and allowing his active but trained imagination to speak, he was only illustrating a moral truth ; or be less in danger of mistaking rhetoric for science. The gradation of a plant into an animal, or of an inferior animal into one of a higher class, by any process of natural and necessary development, is a hypothesis requiring far other data. In preceding chapters it has been shown that develop- ment, in such a sense, is entirely unknown to fossil geology ; and in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of this part it is made apparent that the hypothesis is at variance with the facts, both of geology and of animal physiology. 3. The facts which we have adduced, however, are sufficient to illustrate the law of development in the limited, but impor- tant sense in which alone we hold it to be true. We have seen that pre-existing laws are not merely brought on into each succeeding department of creation, but are there express- ed in higher forms, or promoted to higher offices. The scheme of the Divine Creator advances and ascends. His last and greatest display virtually includes, and provisionally completes, the exhibition of all that had preceded it. His wisdom is the perfection of His power ; His goodness, the provisional com- plement of both. * See Huber on Bees and on Ants. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 203 vn. Relations. — Every fart is mutually and medially related to the whole. 1. Numerous and complicated relations exist between the earth and every animal which inhabits it. The magnitude of the earth determines the strength of its bones, and the power of its muscles. The depth of the atmosphere determines the condition of its fluids, and the resistance of its blood-vessels. The common act of breathing, the transpiration from the sur- face, must bear relation to the weight, moisture, and tempera- ture of the medium which surrounds it. The external form of every part of its body, and every organ of sense, relates to the properties of the objects around it. AH its parts are created in accordance with the condition of the globe, and are system- atic portions of a great whole. 2. From this it may be expected, not only that an adapta- tion will be found between the animal and the particular ele- ment of air, earth, or water, which it inhabits, but between it and the different states of the earth at different geological pe- riods. Accordingly, the fossil remains of animals inform us, not only that certain races of animals, now extinct, existed at cer- tain remote periods ; they even reveal the prevailing condition of the earth during those periods, and the nature of the changes which it successively passed through. 3. May we not expect, then, if the relation be so close, that similar adaptations will be found existing between the animal and the region which it inhabits ? They exist in abundance. It is this fact which explains to us, for example, the periodical changes in the plumage of birds, and the furs of quadrupeds, the migrations of animals, and the theory of their geographical distribution. 4. Nice adjustments are observable in order to preserve the balance between the different races of animals existing at any time on the earth. The produce of so minute a thing as a fly, if unchecked, would soon darken the air and render whole regions desolate. Had there been an error as to the grouping of the different races of any one period, there might have been a destruction of the whole. But, so nicely have all tlie varie- ties been balanced, that they have mutually conduced to the existence of the whole. Even the conflicting instincts of ani- mals — as, of one to pursue and another to flee — are related parts of this whole. 204 THE PRE-ADABIITE EARTH. 5. A single living animal is the result of a system of rela- tions. It is this fact which enables the comparative anatomist to infer from a single fossil bone, the division, class, order, and even species and habits of the being to which it belonged. Ex ungue leonem. To say that there is a perfect relation established between the bones and the muscles, or that everything remarka- ble in the outward configuration of an animal is always attended with some corresponding change in the anatomy, would give but an imperfect view of its organic relations. " With each new (animal) instrument, visible externally, there are a thou- sand internal relations established ; the introduction of a new mechanical contrivance in the bones or joints, infers an alter- ation in every part of the skeleton ; a corresponding arrange- ment of all the muscles ; that the nervous filaments, laid in- termediate between the instrument and the centre of life and motion, have an appropriate texture and distribution ; and, finally .... that new sources of activity must be created, in relation to the new organ, otherwise the part will hang a use- less appendage." • So perfect is this system of relations, that whatever part or function of the animal engages our attention, we feel inclined to conclude that the whole has been adjusted for that particular point. Though a thousand parts consent and conform to every single act, the nervous system, besides being the medium of sympathy among the organs, secures a consentaneousness of action among the parts, and establishes instrumentally a unity of consciousness in the individual being. 6. But more remarkable than all, perhaps, and the type of mysteries beyond itself, is that sexual relation, by which one entire being becomes the complement of another, and sustains a medial relation to all the generations of the same kind, from the first of the race to the last that shall exist. 7. Thus we have seen that the whole universe, organic and inorganic, presents a system of instrumental relations. The last effect of any particular kind, which the pre-adamite crea- tion exhibited, was variously connected with the first of the entire series. The bare coming into existence of that first effect proclaimed a Cause ; and the bare continuance of that effect, for a single moment, proclaimed a distant end ; why else did it continue in existence even for that moment? Its contin- uance not only foretold an end, but announced that by means of all the intermediate effects which should instrumentally flow » Sir C. Bell's B. Treatise, p. 180. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 205 from it, it would be representatively present in that end, how- ever distant — thus connecting the origin with the end of all things. In a similar manner, each of the several kinds of effects in nature is found to be related to all the rest. The object of the Creator is ultimately one ; and they all stand in the relation of means to that one end. Vast as is the space they may have occupied from the beginning, and ever widening as it may have been through each successive moment since, the Divine plan circumscribes the whole. Nothing wanders at large and un- related in that immeasurable circumference. And nothing, once related, can ever break away, and reach a point beyond. Every atom is bound to the system as effectually as if it form- ed the centre of the whole. And the last and most finished specimen of sentient life that has come from the Creating hand, is variously related to that apparently insignificant atom. On no one point can we lay our finger and positively affirm, " Here ends one class of effects and begins another : " — this is the province of the Creator alone. The very partitions of nature are denoted by disjunctive conjunctions. Range where we will, we never find that we have passed into another sphere — a strange department of creation. There is, says Paley, '* a certain character, or style, (if I may use the expression,) in the operations of Divine Wisdom ; something which every- where announces, amidst an infinite variety of detail, an inim- itable unity and harmony of design." How obvious the infer- ence, then, that no one science can be properly arranged, which does not provide for its relation to every other science. Phi- losophy, says Adam Smith, is the science of the connecting principles of nature. vni. Order. — "We may expect that laws will come into operation on every subject of them, according to their order in the system of creation. Were our knowledge of the physiology of the subject sufficiently accurate and minute, we doubt not that this principle would be found to hold good in every respect in which it could be legitimately applied ; whether tested from the first moment of embryonic life to the birth of the animal, or from the first moment of independent existence at birth to complete maturity. At present, however, physiologists differ respecting many of the phenomena concerned, so that we could not rely 18 206 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. on them either for argument or illustration. Thus, the view, that animals occupying the highest place in the scheme of organization present, at the commencement of their embryonic existence, a marked resemblance to that which is the permanent condition of the lowest animals of the same division ; and that in the course of their progress to their own mature and dis- tinctive form, they assume in succession the characters of each class of the division to which they belong, corresponding to their consecutive order in the ascending scale, would seem to prom- ise a strong corroboration of our i)rinciple. Nor would the serviceableness of this view be much diminished, even if ac- companied by the important admission, that at no period of embryonic development does an animal of a higher class re- semble in all its parts an animal of a lower class ; for, at the same moment that one of its organs resembles the correspond- ing organ in a lower animal, another will be found to resem- ble a corresponding organ in a much higher animal. But we cannot accept a view which rests, as we shall presently show this does, on very insufficient and doubtful data. It is sufficient to find, however, that, generally, and as far as physiologists are agreed, our principle proves to be in har- mony with fact. Does it imply, for example, that the devel- opment of the organic life would precede that of the animal life ? The pulsations of the heart, the centre of the organic life, give the first indications of vitality in the embryo, while the sensorial functions are the last which attain perfection. Would it lead us to expect that the nutritive organs would be found to precede the reproductive? " The apparatus first per- fected is that which is immediately necessary for the exercise of the vital functions, and which is therefore required for the completion of all the other structures." ^ Even the prior ap- pearance of the spinal cord,^ is no impeachment of our princi- ple ; for as it presents itself before the embryo has any life, or organs of life of its own, it can only be regarded as an extension of the parental life ;3 and to that life our principle does apply. ' Roget's B. Treatise, vol. ii. p. 540. ^ According to Miiller, the first trace of the nervous system is not merely that of the spinal cord or of the ganglionic string, but is the potential vv^hole of that system, of the brain and all its appendages. — i^hysiolof/y, vol. i. p. 20. ^ Up to this point, the embryo cannot be spoken of as a separate ex- istence. Even those organs which ultimately become single are said to be formed in halves •, or to present, at first, a double appearance. They SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 90f And would it further lead us to expect that the nutritive process would correspond with the order of the same process in plants ? From the mechanical operations to which the food is, in the first place, subjected, and the chemical changes w^hich it next undergoes in the stomach, through all the intermediate stages, to that of absorption, the order of the process is the same in each economy. IX. Influence. — It may be expected that everything will bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a - reason why all other things should be influenced by it ; and for the degree in which it, in its turn, should be influenced by every- thing else. 1. In our preceding illustration of this law, we -saw the living plant decomposing the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, appropriating the carbon to the formation of its own juices, and returning the disengaged oxygen into the atmosphere ; itself, meanwhile, influenced by the amount of the element present and subject to decomposition. We have now to re- mark that by this very process, the plant was not only render- ing the atmospheric air more fitted than it was before for the support of animal life, and thus preparing for the support of a higher order of life w^hile absorbing its own means of nourish- ment, but that it was preparing to become the food of that superior order of life. 2. Looking up the scale of creation, the highest order of being at any time existing is to be regarded as the relative end of all the orders below it.i This is its prerogative by right of its comparative importance, or of that greater power which it possesses of answering the great end of creation. But as all inferior beings possess a measure of the same power, and therefore, of the same right, their subordination to the higher is never absolute. It is regulated by the degree in are individual ; they do not yet form an individual. It is not until the halves approach, infold, and unite, that an intimation is given of a dis- tinct system. At first, too, the formation is said to proceed from without inwards, showing the external dependence of the process ; it is not until the order is reversed that an intimation is given of the approaching self- dependence of the animal. ' Liebig shows the closeness of the connection between vegetable and animal life, from the fact that " the Jiist substance capable of affording nutriment to animals is the last product of the creative energy of vegeta- bles." 208 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. which they can conduce to the well-being of that higher order of existence. This is at once the extent and the limit of their subordination. Hence, one of the nobler species no sooner dies, than he loses his status in creation. The lowest forms of animal life become his superiors, and prey on him. And even the physical laws regain their ascendency over him. So that in this sense, " a living dog is better than a dead lion." 3. The law now under consideration is recognised in all our natural classifications of objects. For it provides not only for the calculation of all the points of resemblance, for the subor- dination of characters, and for the arrangement of animals in natural groups, but also for the arrangement of these groups in an ascending series according to the degree of value or intensity in the leading phenomena of the animal economy. Indeed, the principle is recognised in that system of Provi- dence which, while it " feeds the young lions," notes " the fall- en sparrow," and " taketh care for oxen," is represented as apportioning its regard according as its objects are of lesser or of " greater value ;" according, that is, to the measure of the capacity which an object has to receive and exhibit the proofs of the Divine care, and so to answer the end of creation. Subordination. — Every law subordinate in ranh^ though it may have been prior in its origin^ may be expected to be subject to each higher law of the manifestation. 1. Accordingly, we here find the productions of Wisdom subordinate to the exercise of goodness ; the vegetable sustain- ing the animal creation. 2. But this subordination is continuous ; extending into the animal kingdom itself Each class of animated being is, gen- erally speaking, food for those immediately above it in the scale of existence. 3. The same principle of subordination obtains among ani- mals of the same species. For instance, if, as we have already seen, the perpetuation of the species be a later and a higher law than the preservation and enjoyment of the individual, we may anticipate that the earlier but inferior law will submit to it. Accordingly, numerous tribes, especially of insects, ap- pear to live only to propagate their kind. And, among the mammalia, the parental instincts, while they last, subordinate every other. The " bear bereaved of her whelps" is reckless of her own life. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 209 4. Nor is the law of subordination less traceable in the organization and functions of the individual animal. Indeed, here it asserts itself in a new and remarkable manner. For, as we have seen, while the primary object of vegetable germs appears to be the preparation of the functions of nutrition, the primitive trace of the animal structure in its embryonic state, is that of a part to which all the functions of vitality are to be placed in subordination ; namely, the rudiments of the cen- tral organ of nervous power. The same early intimation of the ultimate supremacy of the organ of sight is given by the appearance of a rudimental eye, before any of the other or- gans of sense. — I say, the supremacy of the eye ; for, if the value of the senses is to be estimated according to the degree in which they enlarge the circle of our objective perceptions, the order in which they would rank would, probably, be this — touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight. 5. But though intimation is thus early given of the nervous system, and of the higher senses, the order in which they come into active use is in strict accordance with our preceding law. For, the parts first perfected are those which are imme- diately necessary for the exercise of the vital functions. The heart, the punctum saliens of organic life, begins its pulsations while yet it resembles a mere tube ; the sensorial system is perfected last. And, to the last and highest power of the animal — the power of volition — all the earlier functions of vitality are placed in subordination. To this, its organs of locomotion are subservient. And, when they are wearied, for this it reposes and sleeps, while the heart keeps vigil, and all the organic system continues at work ; that, when it awakes, it may be able again to obey its volitions, gratify its desires, and resume its enjoyments. XI. Uniformity. — This stage of creation is found to be pervad- ed by the operation, and impressed with the regularity, of general laws. All these are doubtless contained in the Divine mind ; for they are only the rules of that agency by which all animated nature is sustained in activity. 1. The uniformity of such activity, or the presence of such laws, is implied in most of the views already advanced. How else, for example, could we speak of the animal scheme ? What would prevent one class of beings from assuming the form of 18* 210 THE PKE-AU AMITE EARTH. another, till the animal kingdom presented a scene of inex- plicable confusion, if each of them were not kept within the limits assigned to it? Especially is this reign of law discern- ible in the arrangements of animal sensation. The function of each nerve of sense is determinate, and can be performed by no other part of the system. The optic nerve alone can give rise to the sensation of light ; " no part of the nervous system but the auditory nerve can convey that of sound ; and so of the rest." While it is evident that the relations subsisting between the nervous system and the external agents capable of affecting it, must be maintained by laws equally determinate. 2. Fossil geology shows that such relations have existed from the first appearance of animal life to the present day ; binding the whole together as the successive parts of one great system. Paley has well remarked, respecting the variations observable in living species of plants and animals, in different regions and under various climates, that " we never get amongst such original or totally different modes of existence, as to indicate that we are come into the province of a different Creator, or under the direction of a different Will."i The philosophy of Dugald Stewart carries him a step further, when he acutely remarks, that the uniformity of animal instinct " presupposes a corresponding regularity in the physical laws of the universe, insomuch that, if the established order of the material world were to be essentially disturbed, (the instincts of the brutes remaining the same,) all their various tribes would inevitably perish."^ Geology immeasurably enlarges the range of this truth. " Any naturalist," sagaciously ob- serves Mr. Lyell, "will be convinced, on slight reflection, of the justice of this remark. He will also admit that the same species have always retained the same instincts, and therefore that all the strata wherein any of their remains occur, must have been formed when the phenomena of inanimate matter were the same as they are in the actual condition of the earth. The same conclusion must also be extended to the extinct animals with which the remains of these living species are associated ; and by these means we are enabled to establish the permanence of the existing physical laws throughout the whole period when the tertiary deposits were formed.3 ^ Nat. Theol, p. 450. Chap, on the Unity of the Deity. ^ Phil, of the Human Mind, vol. ii. p. 230. * Geoloffv, p. 161. 1st Ed. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 211 3. But while the uniformity contended for is essential, in order even that any reasoning respecting the past may be pos- sible, it should be borne in mind that the same source which supplies the means of proving it, furnishes also abundant evi- dence of its interruption. Because no other physical laws than those which are now known to us have ever existed, it by no means follows that these have, in no sense, known inter- ruption. Every destructive earthquake, though itself the re- sult of general laws, is, in so far as it is destructive, a breach of that stability of nature for which the animal is made, and shows that such uniformity is not inviolable. While the suc- cessive appearance of races of animals, entirely unknown to pre-existing nature, shows that it is an uniformity as compati- ble with the addition of new creations as with the destruction of old ones. xn. Obligation. — Animal Hfe exists under an obligation to pro^ mote the end of creation, commensurate with its means and rela- tions. Here, again, obligation can be affirmed of the animal kingdom only in the same figurative sense in which all the kingdoms of nature are said to be governed by laws. The mind of the Lawgiver is the only conceivable seat of these laws ; for they only and simply express His modes of opera- tion. If, moreover, these created existences have been origi- nated for a purpose, the mind of the Creator is the only con- ceivable seat of that purpose ; for animal natures are only, at most, instinctive and impulsive. The mere proximate ends, indeed, for which they blindly live — their own conservation and the propagation of their kind — may be regarded by the imagination as a foreshadowing of a being capable of conscious- ly aiming at a higher end. But of such an end the animal itself knows nothing. Whatever obligation may exist, there- fore, to employ the means necessary for the attainment of the end, and to create and sustain the animal kingdom as a part of those means, can be binding only on Him with whom the purpose of their creation has originated. The idea of this law is thus recognised and poetically ex- pressed by Hooker : " The world's first creation, and the pres- ervation since of things created, what is it but only so far forth a manifestation by execution, what the eternal law of God is concerning things natural ? And as it cometh to pass in a 11$ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. kingdom rightly ordered, after a law is once published, it pres- ently takes eff'ect far and wide, all states framing themselves thereunto ; even so let us think it fareth in the natural course of the world : since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of His law upon it, heaven and earth have hearkened unto His voice, and their labor hath been to do His will. He *made a law for the rain.' (Job xxvii. 26.) He gave His * de- cree unto the sea that the waters should not pass his command- ment.' (Jer. V. 22.) Now, if Nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were but for a while, the ob- servation of her own laws ; if those principal and mother-ele- ments of the world whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have ; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn them- selves any way as it might happen ; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, should as it were, through a languishing faintness, be- gin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; — what would become of man himself? whom these things now do all serve ? See we not plainly that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world ! " i xni. Well-being. — In accordance with another of our principles — that everything will be entitled to an amount of good, or enjoy a degree of well-being proportionate to the discharge of its obli- gations, or to the measure of its conformity to the laws of its ibeing ; we find that the well-being of the animal depends on its conformity to the laws of its own constitution. 1. The laws of its own being, physical, organic, and mental, are in conformity with each other, and with the laws of the external world ; and, provided nothing occurs to disturb that ' Works of Hooker, by Keble, vol. i. p. 257. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. MSk harmony, its well-being is secure. If the germ form which it springs be perfect, and if its embryonic development be unim- peded, it will come into existence as a complete organization, sound in its whole constitution ; but, if either of these condi- tions be wanting, it will be feeble and sickly, or else a mal- formation. If, from the first moment of its separate existence, it is supplied properly, as to quantity and quality, with food, air, light, and every physical element requisite for its support, the result will be a healthy development of its organs and powers, a pleasing consciousness of existence, and an aptitude for the performance of its natural functions ; but the result of non-compliance with these conditions, will be a stunted growth, imperfection, or an early death. K it duly exercises its or- gans according to the laws of its constitution, enjoyment wiU be experienced in the very act of exercise, and appropriate gratifications be acquired ; but the absence of such activity will result in the sluggishness and consequent derangement of the functions, together with the want of the appropriate grati- fications, and with a sense of uneasiness or of positive pain. " The whole life of animals," says Liebig, " consists of a con- flict between chemical forces and the vital powers. In the normal state of the body of an adult, both stand in equilibrium. Every mechanical or chemical agency which disturbs the res- toration of this equilibrium is a cause of disease. Disease oc- curs when the resistance offered by the vital force is weaker than the acting cause of disturbance. Death is that condition in which chemical or mechanical powers gain the ascendency, and all resistance on the part of the vital force ceases." 2. But this animal well-being does not depend, in a mere general and indefinite manner, on conformity with the laws of its constitution, but is exactly regulated in its kind and degree by the nature and relative importance of the laws obeyed. Some laws were intended to be subservient to others. If they are so subordinated, they both yield their own peculiar kind and degree of pleasure, and instrumentally enable the higher laws to minister their superior enjoyment. If the law of ap- petite be limited to its appropriate gratification, the pleasure of eating is enjoyed ; and, besides this, the animal is prepared for all the higher pleasures arising from muscular activity and the exercise of the senses. But if they are not so subordinat- ed, though the higher enjoyment is lost, they do not, therefore, necessarily and at once, cease to be productive of their oWn peculiar kind of pleasure. By feeding inordinately, the ani- 214 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. mal may render itself incapable of higher gratifications, of even avoiding the attacks to which it is exposed ; and may thus hasten the end of its life, and therefore, of this solitary pleasure of eating; still, while its appetite continues, it con- tinues to enjoy the animal gratification which arises from eating. 3. Here, again, we are reminded of the ideal perfection to which we have referred in the corresponding sections of the preceding parts. The chances, so to speak, that no two ani- mals of the same species have ever stood in precisely the same relations to the standard of absolute animal perfection, are here multiplied by all the additional laws, and all their possible combinations, which characterise the animal as compared with the vegetable economy. For the same reason, the chances are equally increased that no one animal has ever reached that standard. In the case of even that one which may have most nearly approached it, if certain incidents had been added to the myriads which had actually combined in its history, it would have approached still nearer to perfection. Its resemblance to the ideal standard is in exact proportion to its conformity to the laws of its being. 4. And thus we have found that everything in the vegeta- ble and animal world has an end of its own ; and that all such proximate ends are so placed in a line with the ultimate end, that everything answers it most effectually, by aiming at its own immediate end. The happiness of the creature and the glory of the Creator are thus seen to harmonize and become one. XIV. Analogy. — The relation of every part of the animal kingdom to every other part, as well as to all that had been created pre- viously, suggests another of our laws, that the whole is in anal- ogy^ or is arranged on a plan. 1. Accordingly, it is found that, notwithstanding the almost interminable variety of animal forms with which the earth, the air, and the waters, teem, the whole are reducible to a very small number of types, or principal schemes of organization. Cuvier, as we have seen, limited these models to four — the radiata, the mollusca, the articulata, and the vertebrata. Take any of these divisions — ^^say the vertebral — and it would al- most seem as if, in its construction, a definite type or standard SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 215' had been kept in view ; and to which, amidst endless modifi- cations, all the species had been conformed. For, in many instances, where the greatest diversity might have been ex- pected, this original type is departed from only just so much as is necessary for the purpose of adapting it to the destiny of the particular species ; while, in other instances, where the greatest dissimilarity of size, and form, and habit, exists, the closest analogy to the type is still traceable. Thus, the longest necked mammalian at present known, and the shortest necked, have the same number of bones in the neck — the giraffe the same as the hog or the mole. And the bones which we recog- nise in the paddle of the turtle, are, by slight changes and gra- dations, adjusted so as to form the fin of the whale, the wing of the bird, and the paw, the foot, and the hoof of the land mammifers. 2. Instances of particular change are always accompanied by the corresponding readjustment of the entire structure. No limb, organ, or structure, is isolated. Every part conforms to every other part. " We are inclined to say, whatever part oc- cupies our attention for the time, that to this particular object the system has been framed." Hence it is that the physiolo- gist acquainted with comparative anatomy can infer from the fossil fragments of a skeleton — a mutilated bone — the entire structure and the habits of the animal to which it belonged.i And were all the bones of any geological period to be laid at his feet, he would be able to build up all their frames, " bone coming to his bone ;" to reduce each species to its class, and each individual to its place, as harmonious parts of an all-re- lated system. 3. This unity of design is further illustrated by the fact that the same parts which are fully developed in some classes, exist in others only in what is termed "a rudimental" state. Thus, a row of small teeth are said to exist in the lower jaw of the young of the whale, before its birth ; but, as they do not rise above the gums, they are useless for mastication, and gradual- ly disappear. "Rudimental" organs of this kind may have special applications, of which we know nothing. In the in- s-tance named, lor example, both the coming and going of the teeth may minister to the pleasure of the unborn animal ; in which case, there would be the same reason for the process, as we are accustomed to assign for the existence of the animal at * Cuvier's Discourse, prefixed to his Ossemens Fossiles, p. 47. 816 THE PRE-AD AMITE EARTH. all. Our knowledge must not be made to limit the creative designs. But even if such rudlmental parts answer no other end, they indicate the relation of the species ; they point to a type, and are suggestive of the general plan. And as man could know little or nothing of the Divine Wisdom, apart from the classification of created objects, here are some of the innu- merable helps to the necessary arrangement. 4. Tliis comprehensive plan of animal life, viewed co-existr- ently, is still further illustrated by the recovery of the fossil remains of animals which have existed in successive states of the globe. They fill up the apparent blanks in the plan. Novel as many of these ancient forms are, they are never at variance with the order of the general system. Not one of them stands apart in isolation. The scheme is all-including ; so that the strangest organization belongs to it, and finds an appropriate place in it. 5. Now it was only to have been expected that such indica- tions of a great plan of animal existence would give rise to a number of hypotheses respecting both the mode of its produc- tion, and the principle of the classification of its members. Ac- cordingly, by dint of overlooking some phenomena, of seeing others which existed only in the imagination, of occasionally exalting particular instances into general principles, and of torturing doubtful circumstances till they seemed to utter the language desired, various theories have been formed, and have flourished in succession ; each being considered, for the time, a most remarkable discovery of science. 6. As to the mode of production, Lamarck took occasion, from the obvious traces of a scheme of animal life, to advocate, in his Philosophie Zoologique, tlie extravagant hypothesis of the transmutation of species ; according to which, there was no dis- tinction of species originally ; but each class has in the course of ages been derived from some other and different class, less perfect than itself, by a spontaneous effort at improvement. Now the only reply which is really due to this fancy, falsely called philosophy, is the origination of some counter fancy, equally baseless, but equally aspiring to the honors of philoso- phy. If, however, the reply must needs partake of a grave character, it is obvious to remark, first, that while fossil geology exhibits abundant remains of distinct species, it presents no remains of any species in a state of transition into other species. Striking as the resemblance may be between any two species, still, what more can be said than that the difference is specific ? . SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 1K17 Short as the step may appear to be from the one to the other, it is an impassable chasm. And hence the same species is found, in many instances, to retain its essential characteristics through a long succession of strata, while, in some one of these very strata, new species come into view, not by a gradual change, but suddenly and completely ; leaving it to be infer- red that all other species have had the same independent ori- gin. • On this subject, let us listen to the weighty testimony of Agassiz in his Report on the Fossil Fishes of the Devonian System, or Old Red Sandstone. " One of the first observations to be made on the ichthyological fauna of the old red sandstone is, that it is wholly peculiar to this formation ; its numerous species differ alike from those of the Silurian system, and from those of the carboniferous strata ; the greater portion of the genera, even of the Devonian system, are restricted to the dura- tion of this geological system. ... It is a truth which I con- sider now as proved, that the ' ensemble ' of organized beings was renewed not only in the interval of each of the great geo- logical divisions which we have agreed to term formations ; but also at the time of the deposition of each particular member of all the formations. For example, I think I can prove that in the oolitic formation, at least, within the limits of the Swiss Jura ; the organic contents of the lias, those of the oolitic group properly so called, those of the Oxfordian group, and those of the Portlandian group, as they occur in Switzerland, are as dif- ferent from each other as the fossils of the lias from those of the Keuper, or those of the Portlandian beds from those of the Neocomian formation. I also believe very little in the genetic descent of living species, from those of the various tertiary lay- ers which have been regarded as identical, but which, in my opinion, are specifically distinct. I cannot admit the idea of the transformation of species from one formation to another. In advancing these general notions, I do not wish to offer them as inductions drawn from the study of any particular class of animals, (of fishes for instance,) and applied to other classes ; but as the results of direct observation of very considerable collections of fossils of different formations, and belonging to different classes of animals, in the investigation of which I have been specially engaged for many years, in order to assure myself whether the conclusions which I had drawn from the tribe of fishes were applicable to this class only, or whether 19 218 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. the same relation existed in the other remains of the animal kingdom."! 7. The advocate for the progressive transmutation of a species may be fairly pressed with the inquiry, why the essen- tial parts which characterize every individual member of that species, have not exhibited any corresponding development. The eye of the extinct Trilobite, for instance, one of the most ancient forms of animal life, but which 4ias not been found in any strata more recent than the carboniferous series, exhibits an optical instrument as perfect as that of any crustacean now existing. Now surely if the condition of any crustaceous ani- mal of the present day is the result of a long series of improv- ing transmutations from an inferior condition of preceding crustaceans, we may analogically look for a corresponding im- provement in all its parts ; and, of all its parts, especially in its characteristic parts ; and, of these, especially in so complex an organization as the eye. But the eye of the earliest crustacean is found to be as perfect as the eye of the last living Scrolls that was caught ; leaving us to infer that the eye of this class has not depended for its structure on any preceding and pro- gressive improvements, but that " it was created at the very first, in the fulness of perfect adaptation to the uses "2 for which it was designed ; and, further, that if such changes had not been necessary in order to account for the condition of the crustacean eye, neither have they been necessary to the present condition of that animal as a whole, nor productive of that con- dition. 8. The observations of mankind for thousands of years, have furnished no instance of a transmutation of species.3 Exploded statements to the contrary are sometimes revived, and vague phenomena are, for a time, confidently reported. But on in- vestigation it will be found, that all the imaginary instances of such changes may rank under one or other of the following heads, — supposed spontaneous generation, which is a thing distinct from the translation of species, and which will be pres- ently noticed ; or else a variation of the individual plant or animal, owing, not to a natural cause, but to artificial treatment to that effect ; or else, that large class of instances which belong to an imagination more active than trustworthy, and not unwilling to be beguiled. But not one example of a trans- * Twelfth Report of the Brit. Assoc, p. 85. ' Dr. Buckland's B. Treatise, p. 403. * See Note F. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 21ft mutation of species, we repeat, has ever been witnessed or prov- ed. Now if it be said that this is a question of time, and that the evidence wanting to-day may come into existence a thou- sand ages hence, we have only to reply, that if we are to wait for the phenomena, we had rather wait also for the hypothesis which proposes to explain them. Meantime, we may record our wonder, that parties who, on other subjects, refuse to be- lieve anything in the absence of facts, evidence, induction, should here so readily dispense with them all as superfluities. 9. The hypothesis proceeds on the assumption that the pro- pensities of the animal have determined its organization ; that the structural peculiarities of a species have resulted from its prolonged efforts at something for which it was not originally adapted. Now, allowing this, it only remains for the theorist to explain what it is that determined the propensities of any given species. If, according to him, the organization, so far either from being one with the propensity, or from giving di- rection to it, has had actually to be conformed to it, whence then this pre-supposed, organizing, creative propensity ? 10. In direct opposition to the transmutation of species, all the great changes of animal conformation which come under our notice are prospective ; taking place, not in consequence of a new condition, but in preparation for it. Thus, the larva of the winged insect can only walk ; but, if we take it and dis- sect it, just before its metamorphosis is completed, we find an apparatus in progress for flight through the air. The embry- onic animal has a life adapted to its condition ; but this life is subordinate to the formation of organs for a life after birth ; and for which, during the whole period of gestation, it is un- consciously preparing. 11. Distinct from the preceding, in particulars, but aiming at the same end, is the embryotic hypothesis ; according to which it is affirmed that the organic germs of all animals are iden- tical, and that the higher animals, while in the womb, pass through all the successive conditions which, in the lower grades of animals, are permanent ; that the quadruped, for example, is successively a fish, a reptile, and a bird, before it attains its permanent organic form. And the assumption which professes to account for these mutations is that of " an advance under favor of peculiar conditions,"i by which, at some time, a fish produced a reptile ; a reptile, a bird ; and a bird, a beast. * Vestiges of Creation. 220 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 12. Now here again, we might remark, that as no such an advance has ever come under human observation, we might surely wait for the hypothesis, until the phenomena which it undertakes to explain are forthcoming. But as presumptive evidence of such an " advance " is supposed to exist in the embryotic changes referred to, we must not omit to glance at the nature of these changes. And the first remark proper to the subject seems to be this ; the strong antecedent probability there existed, that marked resemblances would be observable between the yet undeveloped embryos of different classes of animals. Resemblance to some extent was inevitable, for they are all to exist in the same world ; and the points of analogy would be multiplied in proportion to the analogous modes of their existence after birth. But prior to their birth, and while yet their ultimate differences were only in process of forma- tion, their apparent resemblances would be the greater, the farther back we can carry our observations — resemblances implying chiefly the imperfection of our tests. 13. It is obvious to remark also the strong likelihood there was, on subjective grounds, that embryotic resemblances would be overrated, and that mere likeness would be mistaken for identity. The tendency of the mind to generalize and conclude on insufficient data, admits of abundant illustration. It was only necessary for Marsigli to affirm certain spontaneous move- ments in the round apertures on the surface of sponges, and Ellis persuaded himself that he saw the same and something more ; and Pallas reported, without examination, the assertion of Ellis ; and, for more than half a century, it was received as an established fact in natural history. And in a similar man- ner, it was only necessary for certain physiologists to point out fissures improperly called bronchial, in the foetus of the mam- mal, and two or three other suggestive phenomena ; and forth- with others imagined that they saw the gills of the fish, the heart of the reptile, and the brain of a number of animals in succession, in the same foetal form; and others too readily gave currency to such reports as unquestionable facts. Now it ought to be sufficient to throw suspicion on the whole hy- pothesis when it is known, that these resemblances only relate to some one organ or part of the foetus at a time ; that the likeness is seen only by dint of refusing to see the difference ; and that the difference to be kept out of sight relates sometimes to the foetus, and sometimes to the object with which it is com- pared, — thus, the primitive streak of the embryo resembles SENTIENT EXISTENCE. t» the zoophyte in which nutrition is performed by imbibition, but no notice must be taken of the fact that this rudimentary streak extends into a membrane which becomes the vascular area ; it resembles a worm, inasmuch as it is cylindrical and has no limbs for motion, but no notice must be taken of the fact, that the wonii has rings and contractile bands, for its mo- tions, while the embryo has neither ; ' and its brain may be thought to resemble the brain of different orders of animals, provided only that a sufficient variety be summoned for the comparison, and that from these a selection be made at a " cer- tain point " of foetal development ; taking care that such point be any stage of the development at which the resemblance may be thought to be most striking. " With what shadow of reason," asks Dr. Clark, in his Memoir on Foetal Develop- ment, 2 " can any school of anatomists pretend to say, that one order of animals can pass into another order, in the way of ordinary generation, seeing that the indispensable respiratory foetal organs are so different in each ? The fallacy which allows for a moment such an absurdity to pass, is this — that, to serve their purpose, they describe their foetus by its centijal portions only, and not by its whole mass, including its organic appendages, which are essential to its continued life, and its matured structure. 14. It is to be remarked further, that many of those physiol- ogists who have looked not unfavorably on these progressive foetal resemblances, have yet qualified their statements with such remarks as to make them perfectly useless to the advo- cate of the transmutation of species by ordinary generation. Thus Fletcher, in his Rudiments of Physiology, after speak- ing of it as " a fact of the highest interest and moment " that the brain of every class of animals appears to pass, during its development, in succession, through the types of all those be- low it, adds, " it is hardly necessary to say, that all this is only an approximation to the truth ; since neither is the brain of all osseous fishes, of all turtles, of all birds, nor of all the spe- cies of any one of the above order of mammals, by any means precisely the same, nor does the brain of the human foetus at any time precisely resemble, perhaps, that of any individual ^ See Dr. W. Clark's Report on Animal Physiology in the Fourth Re- port of the Brit. Association, p. 114. 2 Read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, (1845). See aho the second volume of the Poissons Fossiles of Agassiz. 19* jBtm THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. whatever among the lower animals." Even if the resemblance had been substantiated, it would not have proved the truth of the hypothesis in question ; but here the inaccuracy of the re- semblance itself is confessed. 15. Beyond this, the serial character of the supposed devel- opment fails in the most essential parts. The first set of ger- minal membranes laid down are those of the organs proper to animal life, the nervous system and organs of motion ; but, ac- cording to the hypothesis, they ought to be some vegetable resemblances. The first indication of the embryo is, as we have said, the primitive trace, the rudiment of a back bone, and of a continuous spinal cord ; whereas, according to the hypothesis, it should have been something assimilating the embryo to the avertebral classes ; but these three entire classes — radiata, mollusca, and articulata — are passed over without any corresponding foetal type. As to the organs of respira- tion ; at the very time when the lower vertebrates are quitting the ovum, and " when frogs and fishes are beginning to breathe by bronchial tufts and gills, other amphibia and birds are breath- ing by allantoid, and never for an instant breathe by gills ; hot- blooded quadrupeds are breathing by allantoid and placenta jointly ; while man is breathing by placenta alone." As to the heart of the foetus of a mammal, " it does not pass through the form which is permanent in the amphibia, but it does pass through a form not found permanent in any known crea- ture. This grand correction of an old mistake we owe to the concurrent labors of Valentine, Rathke, and Bischoff, who stand in the first rank of discoverers ; and no good anatomist has pretended to contradict them. The hearts of birds and mammals do nof, therefore, pass through forms which are per- manent in fishes and reptiles." The development of the brain also is marked by corresponding differences ; and the same is true of the individuality in respect to sex.i Indeed, it is only during the first beginnings of life, and while the organic struc- ture is yet in its primary elements, that we are liable to be de- ceived by resemblances. But who would infer that because the far-distant mountain looked uniformly green, therefore only one kind of vegetable clothed it ? And yet this would be only parallel to the inference that because there is a time when, owing to our imperfect means of discrimination, the liver and the lung are indistinguishable, therefore they are identical. As ' Dr. Clark's Memoir on Foetal Development. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 9HP soon as ever organs begin to be distinguishable, the distinc- tions are found to be specific. And, as far as we know any- thing on the subject, these specific differences are constant and immutable. In the attempt, then, to advocate the transmutation of spe- cies by generation, we have phenomena adduced, the existence of which physiologists disprove ; as the basis of a hypothesis whose object is to explain other phenomena which, it is admit- ted, no one ever saw. 1 6. But, as if the foregoing hypotheses were not sufficiently indefensible already, each of them has to presuppose another hypothesis, in order to account for the existence of the first species, the hypothesis of spontaneous generation or produc- tion. By which it is meant, according to Buffon and others, that plants and animalcules make their appearance under cir- cumstances where no germs could have existed, and that they are originated by a power inherent in certain material parti- cles.i 17. When it is remembered, however, that most of the in- stances which were formerly relied on in proof of the hypo- thesis, can now be explained on ordinary principles, the natural inference is that an increase of knowledge will enable us to explain the residuary phenomena on the same principles. As to tenacity of life, it is known of some vegetable seeds that they will germinate after they have been kept for many cen- turies, and that such minute organisms as flour-eels, and wheel- animalcules may not only be reduced to perfect dryness, so that all the functions of life shall be suspended for years, yet without the destruction of the vital principle, but that in " de- spite of drying in vacuo, along with chloride of calcium and sulphuric acid, for twenty-eight days, subjected to a heat of 248° F., some of them have been observed to recover." And as to the subtle manner in which germs thus tenacious of life obtain access to the interior of living bodies, the probability is that they can enter wherever air can penetrate. The fact that minute infusory animalcules can be raised with the watery vapor, and floated for a season in the atmosphere, deserves, as Humboldt remarks in his Cosmos, to be well considered in connection with this subject ; especially, since " Ehrenberg has discovered in the kind of dust-rain frequently encountered iu the neighborhood of the Cape de Verd Islands, at a distance ' See Note G. 281- THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. of 380 sea miles from the coast of Africa, the remains of 18 species of siliceous-shelled polygastric animalcules." And if entozoa — creatures living in the interior parts of other ani- mals — have been found in embryos and in the eggs of birds ; so also, says Tiedmann, have pins and small pieces of flint. 18. Is it not enough to cast suspicion on the hypothesis, that when experimental efforts to procure spontaneous produc- tion have resulted in the appearance of anything, it should have been a full-grown forest of confervas, or an adult infuso- ria? These are certainly suggestive of pre-existing germs, and seem to presuppose them. But instead of the production of the more simple seed and egg, we have the complicated and developed individual itself. And that which further as- sures us that the individual animalcule has, in such instances, been derived from another individual of the same species as itself, is that its body has been found to be full of eggs. 19. Indeed, the revelations of the microscope were hardly more fatal to the Brahminical doctrine, that animal life should never be destroyed for food, than they were, in skilful hands, to the hypothesis of equivocal generation. As no stomach had been previously rendered visible in the smallest species of Infusoria, such as monads, Lamarck and others hastily re- garded them as consisting of a mere homogeneous substance, having neither mouth nor digestive cavity, and as nourished simply by means of absorption through the external surface of the body. And here, it was conjectured, we saw an illus-- tration of the natural development of a particle to a mammal, at that point of the process where the organism stands between the vegetable and animal worlds. But Ehrenberg, by sup- plying these microscopic species with organic coloring matter as nutriment, has demonstrated that their bodies are highly organized, " provided in all cases with at least a mouth and digestive system." Accordingly his arrangement of Infusoria is " based on the structure of the digestive system, which gives rise to the two natural classes of Polygastrica and Rotatoria"^ Besides a digestive apparatus, Ehrenberg has discovered in them a generative, and often a muscular system. Both in structure and in functions, therefore, they are placed compara- tively on a level with the larger animals. The blank which they were supposed to fill in the process of transmutation is left vacant. The only legitimate conclusion is, that the small- * Jenyns'ji Hepoi-t on Zoolojry, British Association. 18.14, p. 244. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. W6^ est of them is derived from an antecedent cause, as natural and uniform as that of any other class of animated being. 20. And this conclusion harmonises with the evidence of geology. Had spontaneous production, and the transmutation of species, been among the processes of nature, we might have expected to meet with abundant indications in the bosom of the earth.i The subterranean fossil museum might have been expected to be crowded with monstrous malformations. The fact is, however, that amidst all the vast accumulations of ani- mal remains, not a single abnormal specimen has yet been found. Every organic part is finished ; every animal com- plete, — the first of his race as complete as its offspring of the present day ; every species articulating with every other spe- cies, and falling into the place appointed for it in a perfect all-comprehending plan. Accordingly, the verdict returned by all the enlightened geologists of the day — some of them by no means unduly biassed in favor of the view, is " that species have a real existence, and that each was endowed at the time of its creation with the attributes and organs by which it is now distinguished."^ The following, therefore, are to be ^ " There are some," says Cuvier, in his Discours Preliminaire to the Ossemens Fossiles, " qui pensent qu'avec des siecles et des habitudes toutes les especes pourraient se changer les unes dans les autrcs, ou re- sulter d'une seule d'entre el les." But he naturally inquires, " Pourquoi les entrailles de la tcrre n'ont-elles point conserve les monumens d'une genealogie si curieuse f ^ Such is the conclusion at which Mr. Lyell arrives, after occupying the first four chapters of the second volume of his Principles of Geology, in a masterly examination of the arguments which have been advanced in favor of trarmnutation. See also De la Beche's Geological Research- es, p. 239. In the same view, Coneybeare and Buckland, Philips and Sedgwick, concur; and to these might be added the names of a number of eminent physiologists. Les especes perdues rie sont pas des variete's des especes vivantes, is Cuvier's first proposition. " Does the hypothesis of the transmutation of species afford any explanation of these surprising phenomena ?" asks Professor Owen, referring to the facts resulting from his anatomical examination of fossil animals : " Do the speculations of Maillet, Lamarck, and Geoffroy derive any support from this department of Paleontology ?" and he shows that comparative anatomy returns a decided negative. While Agassiz, at the end of his great work, Poissons Fossiles, after rejecting the scheme of natural development, affirms, " It is necessary that we recur to a cause more exalted, and recognise influ- ences more powerful, exercising over all nature an action more direct, if we would not move eternally in a vicious circle. For myself, I have the conviction that species have been created successively at distinct intert-als, and that the changes which they have undergone during a geological epoch are very secondary, relating only to their fecundity, and to migra- tions dependent on epochal influences," 226 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. regarded as among the first principles of physiology; that even those species which most nearly resemble each other, exhibit characteristic differences ; and that these characteristic differences are constant. So that however short the interval between any two steps in an animal series may appear to be, it is still in reality an abrupt transition. 21. Classification. — We have remarked also that the indications which are traceable that animal life is formed ac- cording to a plan, were likely to give rise to a number of hypotheses respecting the principle of the classification of the animal kingdom. Accordingly, some have fancied that if all the species could be collected and arranged, they would be found to form a cone or pyramid. Oken, and a German school of zoologists, contend that the animal kingdom is analogous to the anatomy of man — each class specially representing a divi- sion of the human organs, such as the articulate representing the viscera, and the vertebrata the motive organs. Kaup, and another school, extend the fancy to the representation of the " five senses." Mac Leay propounded the theory, which Swain- son and others have subsequently endeavored to develop, that all natural groups, of whatever denomination, form cu'cles ; and that each of these circular groups is resolvable into exact- ly five others. 22. Now the error which appeared in the transmutation hypothesis, is here repeated in another form. There, because there is evidence that relations of animal resemblance univer- sally exist, the method by which such resemblance is pro- duced is unphilosophically inferred without evidence. Here, because such relations render the animal kingdom susceptible of some arrangement, it is inferred that the arrangement must be one of determinate numbers, or of geometrical forms. Such a hypothesis, however, has no warrant either in reason or in observation. It assumes a regularity, if not even an actual organization, in that which is only a mere abstraction, the sys- tem of nature. It loses sight of the natural irregularities of the inorganic world in all geological periods ; for unless the strata of the earth had been formed as regularly as the con- centric coatings of an onion, the relations of their organized inhabitants could hardly be expected to be such as to presup- pose the square compartments of a museum. Indeed, as long as organic nature is influenced by inorganic, certain gaps in the former cannot fail to exist. To suppose the contrary would be to infer that in many cases whole tribes of animals have SENTIENT EXISTENCE. g^ been made, not with a view " to perform certain functions in the external world, but merely in order to complete the circu- larity of a group, to fill a gap in a numerical arrangement, or to represent (in other words, imitate) some other group in a distant part of the system."^ But the Divine Creator has higher ends in view ; nor can his mode of operation be thus prescribed, nor its results be predicted. 23. The true system of classification in the animal kingdom, as in the preceding kingdoms, may be supposed to be that which determines the affinities of animals according to the or- der and to the relative value of their distinctive characters. Thus, regarding the earliest as the lowest in value, we ascend to the organs of nutrition, each organ rising in value as the order advances ; then to the organs of reproduction in succes- sion, as of still greater value : and then to those of sensation and volition as of the highest value, including, of course, the development of the instinctive affections. So that the rela- tionship is to be regarded as nearest, when the resemblance lies between those characteristics which are of the highest value. 24. According to this method, 1. the classification presup- poses, in order to be perfect, a knowledge of all the physiolo- gical properties of animals; of the order in which the me- chanical, chemical, and symmetrical laws come into operation in their constitution ; and the order in which the nutritive and reproductive organs are developed. 2. The classification is made from a calculation of all the points of resemblance ; none being arbitrarily rejected as unimportant. 3. It requires that each group shall be formed of such individuals only as resem- ble each other more than they resemble anything else, or, as have the greatest number of important properties in common. 4. It combines the principle of the subordination of characters — as of the vegetable functions to the animal, with the coinci- dence of the two ; for it proceeds on the principle that each system is all-related, so that the one graduates with the other. 5. It provides not only for the arrangement of animals in nat- ural groups, but also for the arrangement of these groups in an ascending series according to the scale of animal perfec- tion ; for it recognises degrees of value or intensity in the main phenomena of the animal economy. 6. And, as we inti- * Strickland's Report on Ornithology before the British Association, 1844, p. 177. 228 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. mated when treating of vegetable classification, our method has become more obvious and certain in the present depart- ment, owing to the new points of comparison and the new means of verification consequent on the additional characters of motion, sensation, and constrained volition. And it fur- nishes the important test which arises from successiveness, or the order in which distinctive characters are developed. XY. Contingent. — Innumerable illustrations exist to show that the arrangements of animal life are contingent on the Divine appointment. 1. In calling attention to the complex adjustments between tlie animal constitution and pre-existing nature, we may be re- minded that such adaptations were made indispensable by the previous conditions of the system into which the new constitu- tion came. But we have seen that these conditions themselves exhibit no original and inherent material necessity, but were primarily dependent on the Divine volition. Whether, there- fore, we regard pre-existing nature as designed in anticipation of the animal constitution, or the latter as simply adapted to the former, we have a new complication of the proof of a de- signing will. Even if animal life could be shown to be a ne- cessary development of previously existing elements, still, as no one who admits that the properties and laws of the mine- ral and vegetable kingdoms were derived from God, would deny that He foresaw all such developments, they must be held to be a new illustration of the Divine intention. No one can imagine, for example, that the air produced the ear, any more than he can that the ear produced the air ; or that the two, with their complicated and refined adaptations, exist to- gether by accident. The light could not have produced the exquisite organization of the eye, any more than the eye, as an independent organization, could have anticipated the mys- terious laws of light. 2. But while the idea of a necessary development of animal Kfe is a mere assumption, the fact of the Divine origination of matter at first, is strongly in favor of the inference of the Di- vine origination of every new purpose to which it is subsequent- ly applied. In harmony with this view, we find that the fossil Fauna exhibits no indication of a regular development of spe- cies from the most simple up to the most complex. Of the 5ENTIENT EXISTENCE. 229 four divisions of the animal kingdom, indeed, the principal, or vertebral, appears last ; and, of this division, the four classes appear in the order of natural importance. But among the species of these classes, no such order is observable. For ex- ample, of the four orders of fishes, the oldest known fossil speci- men belongs, as Ave have seen, to the highest order, and occurs in the Silurian rocks ; while the two lowest orders do not make their appearance till we reach the cretaceous system. We might notice also the manner in which whole families ap- pear, increase, flourish for a time, then decline, and finally dis- appear. In the tertiary series, too, we come suddenly on an almost entire change of species ; and yet so complete was the plan or outline of animal life, even at that early period, that it requires no reconstruction, or essential enlargement, for the Fauna of the present day. 3. The directness of the Divine volition is to be inferred also from the ground there is to believe that animal life is more or less independent of mere external and pre-existing in- fluences. That it presupposes the laws of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, and is vitally related to them, we have seen. Animals involve, in their construction, certain func- tional references to the length of the day, and to the seasons of the year. The weight of the earth, the density of the air, the dimensions of the solar system, have been taken into ac- count in the plan of their constitution. But, besides this sys- tem of refined adjustments between things so widely diverse, there are numerous indications that the animal plan involves other and higher arrangements. There is, for instance, a par* ticular period of the year in which the reproductive system of animals exercises its energies. And the complicated opera- tions of this system " are so arranged that the young ones are produced at the time wherein the conditions of temperature are most suited to the commencement of life." Now, that the young should appear just at the season when their food ap- pears, is itself a striking instance of adaptation ; but that the time for the commencement of the reproductive process should have been fixed with a view to this coincidence; that this com- mencement for the food having been fixed, say, at two months before, the commencement for the feeder should have been fixed at seven months before that, in order that both might fall due at the same time, this must be regarded as preternatural. The striking contrast between the embryonic development of plants and animals is also deserving of attention ; for, while 20 iHc^ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARJTH. "the primary object of vegetable structures appears to be the estabhshment of the functions of nutrition," the first indication of organic development in the animal embryo is a trace of the nervous system, a rudiment of an organ destined to subserve a higher order of life, and to subordinate the mere vegetable or organic life to its use. The definite and arbitrary manner in which peculiar organic distinctions and instincts are given and confined to certain animals, is further illustrative of the con- tingency of the system on the Supreme will.i Surely no one can imagine that there was an inherent organic necessity why all animals which chew the cud should also cleave the hoof; or, any physical necessity why the cell of the bee should be hexagonal, and the bee be the only insect that builds a cell of such a form. Then, again, the very remarkable manner in which different nerves are endowed, not with sensibility in general, but each with a different kind of sensibility, demonstrates that this prop- erty does not inhere in them necessarily. The nerve of touch is insensible to light ; the eye may be fingered without pain, for the optic nerve is sensitive only to light. Each part of the nervous system is an arbitrary and special provision for a defi- nite purpose. Indeed, so long as it is evident that the mate- rial substance is not the principle of organic life, any more than the living principle is the material substance ; and so long as it appears that no one organ is universal in the animal kingdom, or essential to the phenomena of animal life, so long must we recognize in the arrangements of this kingdom the operation of the Supreme will. And the fact also that animals can be trained to changes of food, and climate, and to the ac- quisition of new habits, evinces that, within certain limits, they possess a constitution independent of everything but the creative appointment. 4. And the same direct dependence of animal life appears from the want of coincidence observable between the condi- tions of animal existence and the succession of these exist- ences. It can hardly be necessary to repeat our settled con- ^ That the power which determines these distinctions is not dependent on external physical influences, " is ascertained from the facts, that ova belonging to species the most different are all developed according to their kinds, under similar external conditions ; and that ova of the same species are true to their kinds, under conditions which are not absolutely the same for any two individuals." — Dr. W. Clark's Report on Animal Physiology, Brit. Assoc. 1834. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. viction that the appearance of animal life has been made to depend on certain physical and organic conditions. But it may be important to restate, that it is by no means a conse- quence of this arrangement, that the existence of these condi- tions shall be invariably followed by the existence of the life. According to the theory of natural development, indeed, this connection is invariable, inevitable; for these natural condi- tions are supposed to be causes, and the only causes necessary to the production of life ; so that if the new creation did not follow the new condition, the law of natural development would prove a fiction. Yet such apparent irregularities abound. For example, " as to the corals of the Silurian system, the Wen- lock species certainly did not make their appearance in the calcareous beds of the Caradoc series, where similar conditions prevailed." 1 Again, certain families, the Nautilus, Echinus, and Terebratula, have pervaded strata of every age ; why did the physical conditions of the secondary series fail to re-pro- duce the Trilobites, as they did the Nautilus, both of which had existed together in the preceding series ? Or what was there in the fishes — say the two orders of Cycloids and Cte- noids, which make their appearance for the first time in the cretaceous system, less suited to the temperature, and other conditions, of the preceding series, than in the Cestraciont fami- ly of that series to the conditions of the second and the third, throughout which they have continued to exist together even to the present day ? Evidently, the physical conditions of life are essentially distinct from its causes, and could never have been unphilosophically confounded with them, but in order to serve a hypothesis. Add to which, the facts which fossil geol- ogy supplies, if they are to be admitted as evidence at all, are directly opposed to the theory of development. For while, as we have shown, the order in which the great vertebral classes come into view, harmonizes with the law of creative progres- sion, the succession in which the orders of these classes make their appearance is, on the whole, in the reverse direction. Now if the succession of the classes favors the theory of natu- ral development, what is to be inferred from the succession of the orders ? It will not do to accept the one as evidence, and to put the other out of court. And then it is to be observed that, while the apparently different direction taken by these classes and orders may be perfectly compatible with the ope- ' See Note H. m THE PRE-ADAMITB EARTH. ration of Divine appointment, and even intentionally illustra- tive of it, a single deviation from the supposed straight line of natural development, is entirely subversive of the theory. 5. From such evidence, the only conclusion at which we can arrive is, that in the animal kingdom, as well as in the mineral and vegetable worlds, the originating cause is the Divine voli- tion. And if so, the time of its commencement, the varieties which it should include, the order of their appearance, their instincts and habits, and the geological and geographical dis- tribution of the entire plan, are dependent on the Sovereign wHl. XVI. Ultimata. — If animal life be thus dependent on the Divine volition, we must expect to find that it will reveal the existence of ultimate truths. In the last stage, we found the mystery of organic life. In the present, we find the great mystery of sen- sation, the medium of enjoyment, added to the mystery of life. What is the principle of a sense ? How is it that impressions on the nerves can speak to the animal of an external world ? How is it that, by the aid of its nervous system, it can become acquainted apparently not only with impressions, but with things ; with the forms, and qualities, and actions of objects ? And what is the underived cause of all the phenomena which we denominate instinct, affection, passion, and animal volition ? 1. There are those who have set about the vain task of re- solving all the phenomena of sensation into the operation of physical agents ; but one of the first discoveries they have made is, that they must be allowed to indulge in the slight in- consistency of supposing a principle not physical, in order to begin even to work out their theory. For a time, the vital principle was the popular hypothesis ; but this was a principle which, as it did not belong to the domain of physics, was the very phenomenon which required explanation. Bichat . pre- ferred animal sensibility and contractility ; and these words are as descriptive, perhaps, of what we believe to take place, as any that can be employed ; but still they leave us to seek for the cause of the phenomena. And, says Lamarck, one of the most extravagant speculators on the subject, " I was soon con- vinced that the internal sentiment constituted a power which it was necessary to take into account." And, hence, Lawrence, in his lectures on physiology, while affirming that the same SENTIENT EXISTENCE. JHi kind of reasoning which shows digestion to be the function of the alimentary canal, proves that sensation is the animal func- tion of its appropriate organ, adds, " if we go beyond this, and come to inquire the manner how, the mechanism by which, these things are effected, we shall find everything around us equally mysterious, equally incomprehensible." 2. Further, " it is useful to remark, that the ultimate laws of nature cannot possibly be less numerous, than the distin- guishable sensations or other feelings of our nature, — those I mean which are distinguishable from one another in quality, and not merely in quantity or degree." ^ In relation to the phenomenon of color, for example, no evidence that some chemical or mechanical action invariably preceded the phe- nomenon, would " explain how or why a motion, or a chemical action, should produce a sensation of color." And the same is true of every class of sensations. Point out as many inter- vening phenomena as we may, we sooner or later come to a point where a principle is to be presupposed. In every at- tempt at explanation, we have to introduce the idea of some antecedent or other which produces the sensation. In other words, the sensitive process is not caused by sensation, but by some power which exists independently of the animal in which its effects are developed. Here, again, animal life, like organic life, is to be viewed in relation either to space or to time. Regarded in its relation to space, the question arises, how came it really and objectively to be ? We may trace the phenomena which it exhibits, from the adult animal to the embryo ;2 or from the animal of to-day through fossiliferous strata of every age, and through varying generic forms, back to the first form of its existence, but at no stage can we find that it contains anything to account for its origination. And could we have investigated the first animal form that breathed, we must have felt instinctively, that the reasons of its sensational existence at all and of that existence being what it was, were grounded alike in the will of God. And then, as to its relation to time ; if the first moment of ani- ^ Mills' Logic, ii. § 2. ^ In his work on Physiology, Tiedemann remarks, " When it is said that organic movements are occasioned by external influences, we do not admit that they are the immediate effects of the external mechanical or chemical impressions ; but we assert that they are the effects of powers which the external impression, be it mechanical or be it chemical, has thus solicited to act." 20* W THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. mal sensation revealed a benevolent Creator, the second mo- ment revealed a benevolent or ever acting Providence, for that sensation continued. To suppose that because we see nothing more than the organic processes, therefore there is nothing more, is to confound the means of sensational manifestation with the thing manifested. Laws are not causes. Nor do the regularity of the laws denote the absence of the Law-giver. Rather, they demonstrate His presence. Nor does the con- tinuance of the organic processes render them less dependent than they were at first — as if they could acquire self-suffi- ciency by the lapse of time. They are now what they were when they were called into existence ; the mere means of the manifestation of an independent and anterior power. 4. And thus we have found that everything traceable to an ultimate fact, involves a mystery which points us silently but emphatically to HSm whose Nature it is calculated to illustrate. That one class of physical phenomena — for example, the in- organic — is associated with motion only ; that another class ' — the organic — is associated with motion and life ; and that another class of organized phenomena is associated with mo- tion, life, and sensation, is, substantially, all that we can learn. Why motion and matter, life and matter, or sensation and mat- ter, should thus be found in union, can be explained by no physical law whatever. Here all the sciences are equally and utterly at fault. They cannot show that the union is necessa- ry ; but only that, as far as observation goes, the conjunction is uniform. They cannot imitate, but only proclaim it. Our theory affirms that the sufficient reason why activity, life, and enjoyment exist in creation, is that the same properties exist in an infinitely higher respect in the Divine Creator ; that one reason, at least, why He uniformly associates each with a cer- tain class of phenomena, is that, as the ultimate end of each is the manifestation of His Nature, such uniformity is essential in order to our attainment of that end ; and that the mystery investing the union of each with a certain class of phenomena, is just that which necessarily attends the arbitrary conjunction of things essentially different — of Creative mind with created matter. The mystery would not, could not, be diminished, were activity, life, and sensation to be associated with any other class of material phenomena. And this very fact, by proclaiming the dependence of motion, life, and enjoyment on the Will of the Creator, promotes the ultimate end of creation by disclosing the power and wisdom, the goodness and bound- less resources of His exalted Nature. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 235 xvn. Necessary truth. — The law of ultimate facts conducts us to the law of necessary truth. 1. We have seen matter take possession of space, and life take possession of matter ; now, we find sensibility added to life. And whether we look at the addition as an object or an event, in its relation to space or to time, we cannot but feel that the idea of, at least, a conscious Creator is indispensable. The sentient object contains nothing in itself to account for anything more than the manifestation of its peculiar endow- ments ; the endowments themselves authoritatively refer us to an independent cause ; for to conceive of their absolute self- origination is impossible. Or if, tracing back the existence of animal life historically, we conceive of the first of its kind, we are compelled to pre- suppose an adequate cause of that life. Nor can we then con- ceive of that Conscious cause as not existing. We cannot but conceive of Him as existing prior to all objective revelation, and independently of it. In the objective world we behold the manifestation of an attribute, which could not but have existed subjectively from eternity. This new stage of creation brings to light another of the necessary perfections of the Creator. xvni. Change. — Once more we are brought to that point in our subject which leads us to speak of the law of change. 1. And, again, we have to remark that, in addition to the reason for expecting such a change derivable from the fact that it is involved in the very nature of a progressive system, the introduction of animal life brings with it an entirely new ground for anticipating yet another stage. But the question with which we have now especially to do, relates to the reason that made the time of the great change which brought in the human dispensation, the right time. For even those who, as we think, erroneously adopt the hypothesis of development by natural law, must admit that the Lawgiver would prospective- ly regulate the development of the law, for the same reason that the law itself was appointed. 2. Admitting, then, that the successive changes of creation have not hitherto taken place either accidentally or capricious- 236 THE PKE-ADAMITE P:A11TH. ly, we have to advert to the reason of the next change which ended the mere animal economy. Now the event has declared that the new stage was to be distinguished by the creation of man. The advocates of development by natural law would infer, therefore, that as soon as ever certain natural conditions were present, man would emerge into being by an inevitable necessity ; that the only reason for his appearance would be the concurrence of certain favorable organic conditions, inde- pendently of any Divine interposition. Now, while we freely admit that the time of man's creation presupposes the exis- tence of innumerable conditions, organic and inorganic, and shall hereafter have to direct our admiring attention to the in- conceivable complication of these conditions, we must protest more earnestly than ever against the attempt to confound crea- ted conditions with the Creating cause. For aught that geol- ogy can show to the contrary, man might have appeared at a much earlier period than he did, had it so pleased his Creator. The origin of many of the warm-blooded species around him dates from an earlier period ; and who shall say that the mere natural conditions which their appearance presupposes were not adequate for the time of his appearance, if the Deity had so pleased? Were we confidently to affirm their adequacy, we should not be so unphilosophical as they are who argue that because an event cannot take place without certain condi- tions, therefore it must uniformly and inevitably take place with them. 3. While it is admitted, then, that, in harmony with the law of progression, the creation of man could not be expected to take place prior to the existence of certain natural conditions, whether or not it might then be expected, would, we believe, depend on what we have called the law of the end ; or, rather, on the coincidence of the two laws. We have to ask, then, whether the ultimate end of the present stage of creation had, in any sense, been adequately attained? Does the long suc- cession of animal worlds, including the present, exhibit all the illustrations of all-sufficient Benevolence, which, under the cir- cumstances, might have been expected ? Now if we can be content with answering this question inferentially and approx- imately — the only kind of answer which, in the present in- stance, our mental constitution and our data render possible — we can only return one reply, and that in the affirmative. If it should appear, for example, not only that the animal econ- omy is minutely adapted for enjoyment, but that the complica- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. JW ted arrangements of the inorganic and vegetable worlds were prospectively constructed with a view to that enjoyment ; so that where before we saw only design we now see goodness also ; if it should appear, further, that animal life has been successively modified, so as to be kept in harmony with the altered character of other kingdoms of nature ; that this suc- cession of changes has been, on the whole, a succession of en- largements, so that both the domains of animal life, and the degree of animal enjoyment, have ever been on the increase ; and that every element, region, and situation, where life can exist, is crowded with animated beings, as if Goodness rejoiced to find, in the endless diversity of the physical conditions, scope for its own endless resources to meet them, and to convert them into new stores of enjoyment ; what more can be necessary to evince the all-sufficiency of Creative benevolence ? 4. Now that all these conditions are realized, and realize(f in a manner the variety and degree of which is inconceivable, is beyond all question. Animal physiology shows, as we have seen, that the ways in which the inorganic and vegetable crea- tions were preconfigured to the requirements of animal life, are literally innumerable. Complicated though the laws, even of the first of these, were, to a degree which science probably will never be able fully to explain ; the addition of the second complicated them still further ; and, though the complication was again repeated in the addition of the animal economy, yet every one of them all then became, for the first time, a channel of pleasure. As if every element and law of the material uni- verse had been selected, weighed, measured, and .commingled, to form a vast apparatus for animal well-being alone, the whole combined to welcome the new made sentient creation, and to bathe it in enjoyment. And " the world, once inhabited, has apparently never, for any ascertainable period, been totally despoiled of its living wonders. But there have been many changes in the individual forms ; great alterations in the gen- eric assemblages ; entire revolutions in the relative number and development of the several classes. Thus the systems of life have been varied, from time to time, to suit the altered con- dition of the planet, but never extinguished." ^ As we ascend from the first few species of the Snowdon slates, to the hun- dreds of species in the Silurian formations, and number almost * Supplementary Note to Prof. Powell's Connection, &c.; by John Phillips, Esq., p. 309. JM THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. by thousands in the oolite, and by thousands on thousands as we pass through the tertiary, till we emerge amidst the hun- dreds of thousands of now existing species, we are struck not merely with additions but with changes. Species, genera, whole groups of animals, come in, and die out ; to be replaced and followed by others in turn. Four times, at least, do these changes take place in the course of the tertiary era; and to an extent which leaves hardly a species of the first period extant among the species now living. Of testaceous creatures, for example, the conchologist finds about seven thousand living species. But of these he finds only one or two among the four thousand fossil kinds, by the time he has descended to the chalk formation. General analogies of structure and adapta- tion remain, but the species are all changed.' Of fishes, the carboniferous, oolitic, and chalk formations, present respectively an entire change of genera. Agassiz, who enumerates seven- teen hundred species of fossil fishes, and about eight thousand living species, states that, with the solitary exception of a spe- cies found in the nodules of claystone, on the coast of Green- land, and which is probably a modern concretion, he has " found no animal in all the transition, secondary, and tertiary strata, which is specifically identical with any fish now living." 2 In- deed, not a single species of fossil fishes has yet been found that is common to any two great geological formations.^ 5. The evidence, however, that animal life, once introduced on the earth, has been continued through immeasurable periods, and not only continued, but enlarged, and not only enlarged but changed again and again for new systems of life — though suf- ficient of itself to establish the power of the Deity to impart unlimited sentient enjoyment — we have the means of increas- ing to any amount. As to the wonderful diversity of animal sizes, we might begin with Ehrenberg's polishing slate, formed of infusoria, of which about 41,000 millions are contained in a cubic inch ; or still lower with the animalcules of the Rasen- eisen or iron-clod, of which a cubic inch contains about a bil- lion ; and we might show them ranging through all the inter- mediate degrees up to the crocodilean Megalosaurus of fifty or seventy feet in length, or to the Dinotherium giganteum, the largest of all terrestrial mammalia yet discovered. We might ^ Lyell's Prin., iii. 369—373. Fifth Edit. * Poissons Fossiles. Tom. i. pt. xxx., T. iii. p. 1 — 52. 3 Dr. Buckland, vol. i. p. 273—277. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 289 speak of the vast variety of animal forms ; but, of these, the mind is apt to fix only on the more strange and striking — the heavy-armed megatherium, the large-eyed ichthyosaurian, the colossal lizard iguanodon, the long necked plesiosaurian, and the still more monstrous bat-winged pterodactyle — and to overlook the ten thousand ordinary forms of animal life ; while to think of the internal structures suggested by, and answering to, all these forms, is to be absolutely overwhelmed. Advert- ing to the multiplication of life characteristic of some species, we might point to the remarkable fact that the creatures com- monly refen-ed to as the smallest in size, should be those which, by their rapid increase, present themselves in the most amaz- ing masses. Thus the Monada?, the smallest of infusoria, form, by accumulation, subterraneous strata many fathoms in thick- ness. The mountain limestone, about a thousand feet thick, and often many miles in length and breadth, consists of nothing else than the remains of coralline and testaceous forms com- pressed into hard masses. ^ In relation to animal fecundity, it is enough to refer either to parts of the Greenland seas so swarming with medusas that, as it has been curiously calcu- lated, in a cubic mile the number is such that, allowing one person to count a million in a week, it would have required eighty thousand persons, from the creation of the world, to complete the enumeration ; or to the hotter zones of the earth, where, between the tropics, many thousand square miles of ocean teem with light-engendering life ; and, of " the wide level glowing with lustrous sparks, every spark is the vital motion of an invisible animal world. " Of the universality of animal life we shall speak again ; for the present it may be sufficient to state, generally, that, from the floor of the ocean, where its depths surpass the height of our loftiest mountains, every suc- cessive stratum of waters is crowded with its own orders of life ; and that from the sea-shores where the innumerable hosts of light flashing mammaria " turn each wave into luminous foam," up through every stage of ground rising to the line of eternal snow, animal life is adapted to every part, and is dif- fused over the whole. 6. Here, surely, is evidence more than adequate to attest ^ There is now considerable evidence that the vast deposits spoken of here and in the preceding page, and supposed by Ehrenberg to consist of infusorial remains, should be referred to the vegetable kingdom. This circumstance, however, does not prejudice the train of thought which led to the reference. Other illustrations of it might be easily summoned. 240 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. the sufficiency of Divine benevolence for the same kind of sentient enjoyment to any possible extent. That the display, boundless as it is to us, is not absolutely infinite, is admitted, for such a display is an impossibility ; and, if possible, would be utterly useless to man as a proof of infinite goodness. That the display, indefinite as it is to us, might be more extended still, inasmuch as the planet itself might have been more ex- tended, is admitted, and the same might be said, and would be true, even though the enlargement should advance for ever. But the question is, whether the existing display of the Divine resources is not sufficient to warrant the conviction, that, even in the event of such enlargement, Creative Benevolence would be more than adequate to replenish the whole with enjoyment ; that though the largest material area must be necessarily lim- ited, the goodness of God could fill the whole, and show itself unlimited? Now, no one can doubt, judging from the proofs we possess, the adequacy of the divine resources for an ever increasing exercise of the same kind of benevolence to any extension of space or of time. But, if the design of the animal creation be to illustrate, in the sense explained, the all-suffi- ciency of the Divine goodness, we must admit, that not till the evidence of such sufficiency was complete, could the appropri- ate time for man's creation have arrived. XIX. Reason of the Method. — Respecting the reason of the Divine method in creation, we have again to remark that it is twofold; relating, partly, to the constitution of the creature hy whom the method is to he studied, and involving his well-being ; and partly to his destiny, as a being capable of voluntarily promoting the great end of creation, and so involving, in addition, the glory of the Divine Creator. 1. In illustration of the first part, it would be easy to show, were this the proper place, that there is not one of the laws of the method to which our attention has been directed, which is not indispensable. Thus, by placing the animal in universal relation to the inorganic and vegetable kingdoms, and by ex- pressing this complicated relation with all the constancy and regularity of law, the Creator was but saying, in effect, in ref- erence to man, Let his domestication of animals and their sub- serviency to him, be possible. And so also in constructing the animal economy according to a plan, He was, in effect, deter- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. ^41 termining that comparative anatomy, and animal physiology, should be possible to man. The training and government of animals are among man's first lessons on the art of self-gov- ernment, especially in the pastoral and agricultural states of society, while their habits and instincts are full of instruction, and the sights and sounds with which they enliven creation are perpetually appealing to his emotions. But, then, if man is to be educated and benefitted by this stage of the Divine procedure, a medium must be observed between a disheartening depth and diversity in its laws, on the one hand ; and a tame, unexciting superficiality and same- ness, on the other. The efl^ect of the former extreme would be, that the volume of nature would never be opened ; and the result of the latter, that it would be shut almost as soon as opened. Now that such a medium is observed, is evident from the event. The zoology of nature is, ordinarily, the first book that engages the attention of childhood, and stimulates its opening efforts at comparison. It was the book from which the father of the human race received his " first lessons on objects." 1 And though from that time to this, man has been exploring its pages, yet, so far from being exhausted, it never engaged so much attention as it does at present, nor so filled the student with the conviction that it is inexhaustible. But it addresses only the attentive eye and the willing ear. For the observant and comparing eye of an Aristotle,^ it has still unnumbered facts awaiting the right arrangement, and laws admitting of illustration to an indefinite extent. And for the listening ear, it is ever uttering new ^sopian fables, and each with a weighty moral ; but only for the listening ear. 2. The second part of the reason is equally self-commend- ing ; for if animated nature is to be so construed by man as to subserve the ultimate end of creation, all the laws which we have pointed out as belonging to the method of the Divine procedure are, in one respect or another, indispensable. They have made the manifestation of the Creator possible. We cannot, indeed, conceive of his operations, except as activity according to law ; for He is " the God of order." So that in embodying law, and making it visible, He is saying, in effect. Let the knowledge of the Lawgiver be possible. In imprint- * Gen. ii. 19, 20. ^ Conformity of structure is the leading principle of his classification of animals, in his work, Trepl Zwwy laropiar, as well as of Cuvier in hi« Le Regne Animal. 21 242^ THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. ing certain signs of dependence on animated nature. He is, in effect, leading up our minds to His own independence. The manner in which He has been pleased to add sentient enjoy- ment to organic life, is studiously adapted to remind us that the addition was by no means inherently necessary ; but that everything relating to the mode of its manifestations, to the extent of the animal kingdom, and to its progressive filling up, are all referrible to His own purpose. 80 also of the selected and prepared variety of natural productions which awaited the coming of man ; " till that variety was occasioned on the globe, it was not the fitting place for intellectual man that it now is. For, surely, among other uses and correlations of the visible creation, this is one — by its inexhaustible diversity, and ever-growing newness, to interest with a perpetual charm the growing mind of a rational being, and to lead him to the cultivation of the divine thing within him, which raises him above all that his senses make known ; and thus to fit him for the highest contemplation of which he is capable ; namely, the relation which he bears to the unseen Author of all this visible material world."i 3. Here again, however, the means must be measured, and the evidence balanced between two extremes. The signs of the Divine presence and agency must be sufficient for convic- tion, but not for compulsion. Accordingly, every law has its apparent exception ; and every phenomenon its centre or cir- cumference of difficulty and mystery. The uniformity of na- ture holds on its way, leaving man to infer its Divine origin- ation and superintendence, or, if he will, to '' explode the hypothesis of a God." The evidences of design are inexhaust- ible ; but if man chooses to call certain things w^hich his ' know- ledge but of yesterday' fails at present to explain, defects, no coercive power restrains him. Proofs of the Divine goodness are lavished around him ; but if he is pleased to infer that the conflicting instincts of animals, and animal death, are incom- patible with goodness, though forming, in fact, a provision for securing the greatest amount of sentient enjoyment — he is at responsible liberty to do so. The laws of nature are not audibly proclaimed from Sinai ; though, to the apprehensive mind, every object is a table of stone, written over with the finger of God. Nature is a volume which is " open night and day," and he that runneth may read. But while to one the * Professor Phillips. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 243 very first page is gloriously inscribed with the great name of the Author, to another every page is a blank ; for it is written throughout as with sympathetic ink. XX. The vltimate end. — The laws of the method, and the reason of it, find their end, in relation to the present stage of the Divine procedure, in contributing to illustrate the all-sufficiency of the goodness of God, 1. In harmony with the view already propounded, that each preceding display of the Divine perfection may be expected to be brought forwards and enlarged in each successive stage of creation, we have to remark on the continued exercise of the power of the Deity. During the whole of the period now under consideration, the forces of inorganic nature continued, as far as we know, in full activity. The celestial mechanism was ever in motion. On our own planet, the gradual uprising of the Carpathians, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and other moun- tain chains, showed the unspent activity of the subterranean forces. While the regular reproduction of organic life after each geological change, and on the return of every season, went on augmenting the proofs of the all-sufficiency of the Divine Power. But here were now new displays of the same energy. It originated and sustained the new principle of ani- mal life in all its endless varieties of organization. Life by no means necessarily results from any of these varieties. And hence it is that no organ is universal in the animal kingdom. Uniform, therefore, as the connection may be between animal organization and animal life, the former is necessary to the latter, not for its existence, but only for its exhibition. And the more complicated the organization, the richer the illustra- tion supplied of the energy of the great originating Cause. The single property of muscular contractility, adapted and employed as it is by the Divine wisdom, converts the breath- ing frame into a system of animal mechanics of prodigious power and incessant activity. But in order to form an idea of the display of energy added, by this stage of creation, to all that had gone before, we should be able to multiply the aver- age strength of each animal engine by the average number of myriads living at any one time, and these again by the myriads of ages which have elapsed since animal life commenced. 2. And here again Power is seen subservient to Wisdom ,* 244 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. presenting its vast resources as means for the accomplishment of important ends. In the first stage, for instance, we saw that air was the great agent in the changes of meteorology ; in the second, we saw every leaf of the forest feeding on it ; and now we find it discharging additional offices, as the breath of animal life, and the vehicle of sound. Thus, at every step, our views of the prospective arrangements of creation acquire a wider range, and the proofs of Design become more compli- cated and profound. Again : we saw that the atmosphere is composed of different kinds of air, and that these again are of different densities. What then will take place when two or more kinds of air are brought together ? will not the heavier subside, and the lighter ascend, like oil floating on water? The analogy of gases to liquids would lead us to expect this. But the " principle of gaseous diffusion," as it is called, deter- mines otherwise. Two kinds of air — say hydrogen and car- bonic acid, which latter, bulk for bulk, is twenty times heavier than hydrogen — cannot be in contact without melting away into each other, and becoming uniformly mixed. Is any end to be answered by this remarkable law ? Is it a provision ? Now that the animal kingdom is come, if not before, we can reply to the inquiry. If the heavy carbonic acid of the atmosphere, copiously generated as it is from a variety of sources, had simply obeyed the law of gravitation, and i*ested on the surface of the earth, animal life would have been poisoned in its birth. If the whole were collected into a bed or layer, it is calculated that it would surround the surface of the earth with a stratum of about thirteen feet in thickness. In this irrespirable all- encircling ocean, life would be impossible. But the law of inter-diffusion is always in silent operation, obviating the eviL By it the most noxious exhalations are diluted, and made inno- cent. And thus — not by a chemical action of the gases on each other — but by simple mixture, by an aerial mechanism, a world of life and happiness exists, where else there would have stagnated and slept an ocean of death. 3. What is the form or figure to be given to a solid body, of certain dimensions, in order that it may move through the air or water with the least resistance ? Mathematical reasoning of a very abstruse nature determines that it must be a curve. But the curve-like face or front of fishes anticipates the discov- ery, and shows their adaptation, on mathematical principles, for most easily moving through the element they were made to live in. The art of ship-building has reached its present per- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 10 fection as the result of many corrections, improvements, and slowly-matured devices. They are all forestalled in nature ; — the boat-like figure ; the paddle-shaped levers, and their suc- cessive impulses ; the rudder-like tail ; the sail-like membrane, hoisted or furled, with ease, for scudding before the breeze. The valves by which the maker of a hydraulic engine prevents the retrograde motion of the fluids which are to pass through particular parts, were performing their functions in the animal economy before man was made. Long-continued mathematical and chemical experiments have led to a succession of improve- ments in the instruments of the optician ; but on comparing each, in succession, with the eye, they are found to be all there ; together with a number of provisions — exquisite refine- ments of provision — unknown to man's imperfect workman- ship, and by which the refracting powers of the eye are instant- ly adjusted to the different distances of the objects viewed, the organ is rendered achromatic, is protected, kept clean, and moved in various directions. The engineer makes his axles and various parts of his machinery hollow, for it has been dis- covered that hollow rods and tubes, of the same length and quantity of matter, have more strength than solid ones. The bones of animals are all more or less hollow ; and thus attain the end of the greatest strength with the least weight and quantity of matter. In the bones of birds, this principle is remarkably exemplified, as well as in the construction of their quills; and thus they are adapted for flight. But, in addition, in distinction from all other animals, the air vessels of their lungs communicate with the hollow parts of their bodies, enabling them to blow out their bodies as we do a bladder, and thus to rise and to regulate their flight. The air- bladders of fishes answer a similar purpose. Mathematical reasoning demonstrates that if it be proposed to fill a certain space with the greatest number of little cells, all of the same size and shape, there are only three shapes which will answer ; and that, of these, that which combines the greatest convenience with the greatest strength, is the figure of six equal sides. Now this is precisely the shape of the cells of bees, by which they effect the greatest possible saving both of room and of material. But more ; the higher parts of algebra enable the mathematician to prove that, to save the most room, and to give the greatest strength to the cell, the loof and the floor must be made of three square planes meeting in a point ; and that there is one particular inclination of these planes to each 21* Wm THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. Other where they meet, which effects a greater saving of mate- rial and of labor than any other inclination could effect. Thou- sands of years before the mathematician had slowly and ab- strusely worked his way to this conclusion — a conclusion of which Newton was ignorant, though it is one of the fruits of his most wonderful discovery — the bee was acting in harmony with it in every cell which it made. As far as we know, the beaver builds his dam on principles as mathematically correct, to give the greatest resistance to the water in its tendency to turn the dam round, as the bee its cell.' But the illustrations of Creative wisdom, in the animal kingdom, are endless. Every page of science teems with them. 4. The particular and proximate ends attained in the ani- mal economy are innumerable, and yet all related. For exam- ple : there is hardly a bone which has not a constitution of its own, or a disposition of its material specifically adjusted to its place and use ; there is not one of these which is not formed in relation to the whole individual structure to which it belongs ; there is not an individual structure which is not formed in relation to the entire scheme of animal organization ; while that scheme itself exists in close relationship to the whole circle of external nature. Still more are we impressed Math the resources of Creative wisdom when we reflect, that while the admission of a single new principle into a complicated machine is attended with results which the utmost ingenuity can hardly anticipate, the indescribable variety of form and condition in which animal life seems to revel is the result of a principle endlessly diversified, as if for the sole purpose of showing that the difficulties created can be overcome. We might instance the various modes of reproduction, gemmiparous and gemmuli- parous, fissiparous and oviparous, marsupial and viviparous ; and the diversified kinds of locomotion. The number of dis- tinct species of insects already known is about a hundred thou- sand ; but while every species differs from all the rest, conform- ity is preserved throughout the whole to the same general plan of construction. Even when the purpose to be attained is identical, the means which are employed are inconceivably diversified, and although this diversity has to be carried through the minutest parts of the organization, yet every structure, from the most simple to the most complicated, is alike finished, * See the admirable Preliminary Treatise of the Library of Useful Knowledge, on the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. Ml and perfectly adapted to its destined condition. And when we find, in addition, that all this variety of mechanical contrivanceSj chemical agencies, prospective arrangements, compensations, and comprehensive inter-dependencies, is the development of a scheme which embraces the whole range of zoology ; and that even when no other end appears to be answered by any part of the process, it has, at least, a direct application in fill- ing up a place which would be otherwise unoccupied in the all-comprehending system, we almost involuntarily confess to the boundlessness of the Creative wisdom. 0. But here, both Power and Wisdom are seen in subser* vience to Goodness. The results of the preceding stages of creation are brought on to the present. So that on looking back from this advanced position, we can now see goodness, where before we beheld only wisdom and power ; for we per- ceive that both the productions of power, and the ari-angements of wisdom, waited to find their places in the service of Benevo- lence ; that when Omnipotence was laying the foundations of the earth, and Infinite Wisdom was rearing the superstruc- ture, it was only that Goodness might have a theatre in which to display its inexhaustible resources of animal enjoyment. 6. Now what are the conditions on which the conclusion — • that animated nature is calculated to illustrate the all-suffi- ciency of the goodness of God — might be reasonably accept- ed ? The most obvious and general of these seems to be, that the tendency of animal life should decidedly preponderate in favor of enjoyment. The monuments of power and skill are to us infinite. Had the amount of animal suffering borne any proportion to them, or had it been nearly balanced with ani- mal enjoyment, we might have hesitated as to the Benevo- lence of the Creator, in this particular. But the tendency to suffering as compared with the immensity of his works, is quite as small as the proportion of cases in which design is un- discoverable is to those of acknowledged contrivance. So evi- dently and so designedly is the tendency of animal existence in favor of enjoyment, that it can only be accounted for by re- ferring it to Divine Benevolence. " Contrivance proves de- sign," says Paley,! " and the predominant tendency of the con- trivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with contrivances ; and all the contrivances which we are acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes." ^ Moral Phil, p. 51. 248 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 7. But if this representation be correct, we may expect that a Benevolent Being will create as great a number of animals as possible, consistently with other claims, in order that the amount of enjoyment may be the greater. And, as the same kind of animal could only exist in one condition, and yet the conditions of external nature are exceedingly diversified, we may expect, for the same reason, that different races will be created for different conditions ; so that the means of happi- ness may be improved to the utmost. And, as the amount of animal life might be vastly increased, if a portion of the food required could be animated and happy till it is wanted as sus- tenance, we may expect, that, if consistent with goodness, life will be thus conditionally granted to it. Now all these condi- tions are found to be fulfilled on a most magnificent scale. As to the existing numbers of the animal kingdom, more than a thousand species of quadrupeds, five thousand species of birds, and as many of fishes, are now known to naturalists. , Of reptiles, the number and variety are immense but unknown., " The species of shell-fish or testacea, crustaceous animals,? worms, radiated animals, and zoophytes, which almost coveu. the bottom of the vast abyss, exceed all calculation. Tha , forms of animalcules vary in almost every infusion of vegeta- , ble or animal matter which nature presents." Nine hundred I species of intestinal worms have already been extracted from • the bodies of animals, and even some of these worms have parasites within them. And of insects, a hundred thousand species are known. But the number of species affords but a faint idea of the incalculable myriads of individuals which some of them include. Vast flocks of birds sometimes darken the heavens like an eclipse. Clouds of life float in the atmos- phere. Immense tracts of the ocean are often colored by me- dusae, or covered as with a sheet of fire. Every drop of the. ocean, from pole to pole, teems with existence. "These all wait upon thee, O God ; and thou givest them their meat iu due season." Nor is any part of the surface of the globe untenanted. The tropical desert, and the arctic sea, the stagnant marsh, and the deep sands of the ocean, the mud and the rocky strata, the sub- terranean cavern and the eternal hills of Polar ice, not less than the temperate clime, and the open and undulating plains are full of animal existence. The malaria fatal to one race is the necessary condition of life to another. Where one species terminates its range of enjoyment, another begins. Desola- tion owns not a foot of tlie globe. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 249 To increase the amount of happiness still further, not only is a large proportion of the food of animals endowed with life ; some exist entirely on ova, and on the rapidly multiplied em- bryos of others, thus preventing their injurious increase ; some on the excreted matters of the skin ; and some, not only on, but in others, inhabiting the organs and secretions of the inte- rior, to the mutual advantage, probably, of both kinds. One of the ends of the Divine arrangement of the animal kingdom evidently is, the production of the largest amount of life and enjoyment. 8. But if every element, region, and situation where life can exist is to be thus crowded with animated beings, the same animal conformation would be so ill adapted for many of these external conditions that life and wretchedness w^ould mean the same thing. The benevolence of the Creator, therefore, may be expected to find scope in adapting the animal to its condi- tion. Accordingly, these adaptations exist ; and so numerous, varied, and minute are they, as to defy description. If we take only the law of gravitation, we find that to secure them from the dangers of its infraction, " the goat, which browses on the edge of precipices, has received a hoof and legs that give precision and firmness to its steps ; the bird, destined to sleep on the branches of trees, is provided with a muscle in the leg and foot which makes it cling the faster the greater its liability to fall ; the fly, which walks and sleeps on perpen- dicular walls, and the ceilings of rooms, has a liollow in its foot, from which it expels the air, and the pressure of the atmos- phere on the outside of the foot holds it fast to the object on which the inside is placed ; the same is true of some kinds of lizards ; the walrus is provided with a similar apparatus for climbing up the sides of icebergs ; and the broad and spread- ing hoof of the camel fits it for the loose and sandy soil of the torrid desert." And still more does the benevolence of this arrangement appear, when we remember, that each modifica- tion of a part of the animal requires the co-adjustment of the entire structure. Buffon and others, indeed, have expressed commiseration for some species, especially for the tardigrade family, as if they were the victims of a defective organization, because their mo- tions, as compared with our own, are so remarkably slow. But our sensations are not the standard by which to estimate their condition. The rapidity of our motions would be death to the sloth. He is made for his condition ; nor does he less find se- 250 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. curity and subsistence in it, than the lion ranging the plain, or the eagle sweeping the horizon of a continent. As an illustration of the diversity of ways by which the Creator adjusts the habits of the animal to its external condi- tion, " let us imagine a noble forest tree, in whose luxuriant foliage the birds of the air find shelter, and whose leaves sup- ply food to hosts of insects. In this respect, the tree may be considered a world in itself, filled with different tribes of in- habitants, differing, not only in their aspect, but even in the stations or countries they inhabit, and assimilating as little to- gether as the inhabitants of Tartary do with those of England. . . . Some of the insects, as caterpillars, feed upon the leaves ; others upon the flowers ; a few will eat nothing but the bark ; while many derive their nourishment from the internal sub- stance of the trunk. ... If we examine further, new modifi- cations of habits are discovered. Those insects, for instance, which feed upon leaves, do not all feed in the same manner, or upon the same parts : a few devour only the bud ; others spin the terminal leaves together, forming them into a sort of hut, under cover of which they regale at leisure, upon the ten- derest parts ; some, apparently, even more cautious, construct little compact cases, which cover their body, and make them appear like bits of stick, or the ends of broken twigs ; some eat the outside of the leaf only — like the caterpillars of New Holland, mentioned by Lewin — bore themselves holes in the stem, into which they carry a few leaves ; sally out during the night for a fresh supply, and feed upon them at their leisure during the day. It seems, in fact, impossible to conceive greater modifications than are actually met with, even among insects which feed only upon leaves ; while other variations are equally numerous in such tribes as live upon other por- tions of the tree. . . . Let us now look to those tribes of the feathered creation which would frequent this same tree for the purpose of seeking food. The woodpeckers begin by ascend- ing the main trunk ; they traverse in a spiral direction, and diligently examine the bark as they ascend ; wherever they discern the least external indication of that decay produced by the perforating insects, they commence a vigorous attack : with repeated strokes of their powerful wedge-shaped bill, they soon break away the shelter of the internal destroyer, who is either dragged from his hole at once, or speared by the barbed tongue of his powerful enemy. Next come the creepers and the nuthatches : they have nothing to do with the tribes of in- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 251 sects just mentioned ; their food is confined to the more expos- ed inhabitants of the bark, the crevices of which they examine with the same assiduity, and traverse in the same tortuous course, as do the woodpeckers : the one taking what the other leaves. In temperate regions, like Europe, few insects are found -on the horizontal branches of trees ; and this seems the true reason why we have no scansorial birds which frequent such situations ; but in tropical countries the case is different ; and we there find the whole family of cuckows exploring such branches, and such only. Finally, the extreme ramifications, never visited by any of the foregoing birds, are assigned — in this country at least — to the difterent species of titmice, whose diminutive size and facility of clinging are so well suited for such situations.''^ 9. If the well-being of the animal depend on its conformity with the laws of its constitution, the benevolence of the Crea- tor would be further displayed by associating that conformity with sensations of pleasure. And it is so. The legitimate exercise of every sense is accompanied with pleasure. Ac- tivity itself yields gratification. But activity so operates as to render rest peculiarly delicious. The voluptuousness of re- pose again is succeeded by a desire for exertion, while every appetite, properly indulged, yields a measure of enjoyment. And thus " nature resembles the law-giver, who, to make his subjects obey, should prefer holding out rewards for compli- ance with his commands, rather than denounce punishments for disobedience." 2 10. But as the constant activity of the vital functions is es- sential to life, would not the Divine benevolence be shown in withdrawing their operation from the contingencies of animal volition, and in rendering it involuntary and independent ? It is so. " For the continuance of life a thousand provisions are made. If the vital actions of an. animal's frame were directed by its volition, they are necessarily so minute and complicated, that they would immediately fall into confusion. It cannot draw a breath, without the exercise of sensibilities as well or- dered as those of the eye or ear. A tracing of nervous cords unites many organs in sympathy ; and if any one filament of these were broken, pain, and spasm, and suffocation, would en- sue. .The action of its heart, and the circulation of its blood, ^ Swainson's Discourse on Nat. History, p. 175. ' Lord Brougham's Illustrations of Paley's Theology, vol. ii. p, 65. 252 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. and all the vital functions, are governed through means and by laws which are not dependent on its volition, and to which its mental powers are altogether inadequate. For had they been under the influence of its volition, a doubt, a moment's pause of irresolution, a neglect of a single action at its appoint- ed time, would have terminated its existence."! 11. Still, as neither of these arrangements will secure for the animal entire exemption from danger, would not Benevo- lence be as apparent in guarding the animal against the evil by a warning pain, as in rewarding its obedience by pleasure ? Now, such an arrangement does exist. The senses have been called sentinels placed at the outposts of life, to give timely warning of approaching danger. Every sense has its own sphere of perception, ranging circle beyond circle. Every appetite, if denied the gratification necessary to animal well- being, becomes uneasy and importunate. While the skin, drawn over the entire surface of the body, becomes a robe of sensi- bility and protection to all the parts within. This view affords the appropriate reply to the inconsiderate inquiry, " why is there pain at all ? or, why is not every action performed at the suggestion of pleasure ? " For, not only is pain the necessary alternative to pleasure, but, if pleasure were to precede the act of obedience, as well as to attend, and to follow it, where would be the inducement to activity ? K the animal, while in danger of famishing, be happy, what in- ducement would it have to arise and eat ? But, according to the existing arrangement, it is aroused to the necessary activity by a twofold stimulus — insipient hunger inciting it from with- in, and the desire of gratification in prospect. Besides which, it is often of the utmost importance that the notices of the presence of objects should be transmitted instant- ly to the brain ; for the slightest delay would be attended with serious evil, and might even lead to fatal consequences. " Could the windpipe and the interior of the lungs be protected by a pleasurable sensation, inducing a slow determination of the will — so well as by that rapid and powerful influence which the exquisite sensibility of the throat produces upon the act of respiration, or by those forcible yet regulated exertions which nothing but the. instinctive apprehension of death can excite ? " ' Very slightly altered, for the sake of adaptation, from Sir C. Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 13. ?" SENTIENT EXISTENCE. Slfi9 12. But while the benevolence of the Creator is thus appa- rent in employing pain as a safeguard against danger, most remarkably is it displayed in the manifold contrivances adopt- ed for economizing suffering. We have seen this illustrated in the graduated scale of sensibility, and the other alleviating arrangements, included in the system of prey. When death is the result of age, the power of feeling gradually ceases, and the last moments of departing life assume the tranquillity of approaching sleep. In the case of an injury short of death, the vis medicatrix is called into activity, or a power tending to remedy the evil. This is seen in the tear which flows to wash the irritating particle from the eye ; and in the new bone and new flesh produced to make the parts severed by accident knit again and heal. The vast majority of sensations intended to guard against evil, are unattended with pain. And even of those which may become painful if prolonged, many, at first, are merely calcu- lated to excite attention : such is the insipient sensation of hunger. The sense of danger is generally timed and proportioned according to the urgency of the case. Were the sensations always equally distressing, the animal would suffer unnecessa- rily ; for the great majority of its dangers are trivial. Were they always equally slight, the animal would soon be destroy- ed ; for some of its dangers require a sudden and strenuous effort, which it would not have a sufficient inducement to make. " It is provided that the more an organ is exposed, or the greater is its delicacy of organization, the more exquisitely contrived is the apparatus for its protection, and the more per- emptory the call for the activity of that mechanism : and as, in such instances, the motive to action admits of no thought and no hesitation, the action is more instantaneous than the quickest suggestion or impulse of the will." ^ "The velocity with which the nerves subservient to sensation transmit the impressions they receive at one extremity, along their whole course, to their termination in the brain, exceeds all measure- ment, and can be compared only to that of electricity passing along a conducting wire. These nerves may, in fact, be re- garded as constituting a system of electric telegraphs, estab- lished by nature as the general medium of instantaneous trans- ' Sir C. Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 202. 22 ^54 THE PBE-ADAMITE EARTH. missions of sensorial agencies between all, and even the most distant parts of the body."i Every perception of a different kind of danger has its own distinct sensation. This is essential, in order that the kind of effort to be made may answer to the nature of the evil to be avoided. For if the sensation arising from intense heat were the same as that occasioned by intense cold, the danger might be increased in the very attempt to escape from it. But by thus varying the sensation with the danger, an important end is gained in the diminution of pain ; for the same painful sen- sation, however trifling at first, becomes by repetition or con- tinuance intolerable. But that which strikingly illustrates the Divine benevolence here is, the law that each part of the body should be endowed with a susceptibility to pain from those impressions only which tend to injure its structure ; while it is comparatively insensible to every injury to which it is not likely to be exposed. " The extreme sensibility of the skin to the slightest injury, conveys to every one," says Sir C. Bell, " the notion that the deeper the wound the more severe must the pain be. This is not the fact; nor would it accord with the beneficent design which shines out everywhere. The sensibility of the skin serves not only to give the sense of touch, but to be a guard upon the deeper parts ; and they cannot be reached except through the skin, and pain must be suffered therefore before they can be injured, it would be superfluous to bestow such sensibility upon these deeper parts themselves. If the internal parts, which act in the motions of the body, had possessed a similar degree and kind of sensibility with the skin, so far from serving any useful purpose, it would have been a source of inconvenience and continual pain, in the common exercise of the frame." On the same principle it is that the nerve of touch is insensible to excess of light ; the nerve of vision is insensible to touch ; and so are also those important organs, the brain and the heart ; for had they possessed such sensibility, it would have been useless as a protection, since no external injuries could reach them without a previous warning having been received through the sensibility of the skin. What, then, is the kind of sensibility with which these va- rious parts are endowed ? In every case it is different, for it is appropriate to the function of every part. The eye may be ' Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 330. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. BM rudely fingured without inflicting pain ; for the optic nerve ia sensitive only to excess of light — its nerve of touch is distinct. The heart may be handled without feeling it ; but, as the great circulatory organ, it is in the closest sympathy with all the vital powers, and keenly alive to their slightest variations. The brain is as insensible to touch " as the sole of our shoe ; '* but let it be diseased, and consciousness departs. The bonea may be exposed and cut with impunity ; but the application of a force which tends to fracture them will cause exquisite pain. The tendons and ligaments which cover them may be exposed, and cut, pricked, or even burned, without the animal suffering the slightest pain ; but let them be violently stretched, and the warning pain is instantly felt. Now by this benevolent arrangement pain is reduced to a minimum. The sensibility of each part varies with the function of the part ; is limited to the peculiar liabilities of that part ; and is occu- pied in its protection. 13. But do not these facts intimate the great truth that 2k nerve is not necessarily sensible, but only by the Divine ap* pointment ? We have already seen that no organization, no mechanical hypothesis, no chemical process, will suffice to ac- count for life. And here we are brought to the analogous con- clusion, that the sensibilities of the living frame are not quali- ties necessarily arising from life ; that still less are they the consequences of delicacy of texture ; but that they are endow- ments appropriate to their assigned and respective offices. For not only have the different parts of the nervous system totally distinct endowments, there are nerves, as we have remarked, *' insensible to touch and incapable of giving pain, though ex- quisitely alive to their proper office ;" and thus showing that, in each instance, that office is a special provision for a definite purpose — the benevolent purpose of animal enjoyment. "We here perceive design, because we trace adaptation. But we, at the same time, trace Benevolent design, because we perceive gratuitous and supererogatory enjoyment bestowed. See the care with which animals of all kinds are attended from their birth. The mother's instinct is not more certainly the means of securing and providing for her young, than her gratification in the act of maternal care is great, and is also needless for making her perform that duty. The grove is not made vocal during pairing and incubation, in order to secure the laying or the hatching of eggs ; for if it were still as the grave, or were filled with the most discordant croaking, the mm THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. process would be as well performed. But thus it is that nature adds more gratification than is necessary to induce the creature to obey her calls." 14. And when the complicated and minute provision neces- sary for this enjoyment is considered, the benevolence of the Creator is still further conspicuous. The mathematical struc- ture of the eye alone, on which the pleasures of sight depend, and its exquisite adaptation to the physical laws of light, might well fill us with astonishment at the goodness of God. But this is only one of numberless arrangements having the same kind tendency ; and when we remember that all these are parts of a prospective plan contemplated before the birth of the ani- mal ; that the foundation of the whole is laid in the germ of which its after life is only the development; that maternal care awaited its coming ; that the season of its birth is adjust- ed to the season of the year, and to the period of the food, most conducive to its well-being, our conviction of the goodness of God is still more increased. Nor can we thoughtfully pause at any moment, and try to bring before our minds all the ful- ness of animal life the world contains, and the infinitely varied sounds, and motions, and signs of enjoyment which it exhibits, without saying with Paley, " it is a happy world after all ;" nor recollect that every sense, of every animal, of every herd, and shoal, and swarm, and flock, which throng creation, is a gift of Sovereign goodness — a channel in which the Divine benevolence may pour forth a stream of enjoyment, and be- hold the reflection of its image, without gratefully exclaiming, " How great is His goodness l" And this we conceive to be pre-eminently the design of the animal creation — the mani- festation of the Divine benevolence. 15. But if the animal possess not the power of apprehend- ing the great End of its creation, it may be expected to act from an instinctive regard to that end which is relative to the great End, namely, its own happiness. And, as it can answer the end of its creation only by, and as long as it retains, its relative perfection, we may expect that a strong desire will be implanted in its nature, and form a part of it, to maintain its well-being. Accordingly, life, enjoyment, and offspring, form the objects of all the animal instincts. From its own kind, it derives higher happiness than from any other objects in crea- tion. In obeying the highest and most important instinct of ' Lord Brougham's Illustrations, &c. vol. ii. p. 66. SENTIENT EXISTENCE. Wf. its nature, it derives the highest pleasure. And in the posses- sion of offspring, the resources and enjoyments of two distinct beings are, in a sense, imparted to each. Even the manner in which, in the higher classes of animals, nutriment has been provided for the helpless young, evinces the kindest consider- tion ; for, besides that the nourishment itself is " the most perfect type of food in general that it is possible to give," the way in which it is imparted is a source of tranquil enjoyment both to the giver and the receiver. Indeed, the entire arrange- ment by which the multiplication and perpetuation of animal life is secured, appears to carry animal enjoyment to the high- est point. 16. But does this great theatre of animal enjoyment de- monstrate the absolute infinity of the Divine goodness ? Our reply is similar to that which we have returned to the same question in relation to the displays of Divine power and wis- dom. If it were a proof of goodness, metaphysically infinite, all the illustrations of benevolence subsequently exhibited in the history of man, and which may be hereafter displayed in the progress of the universe, would, as further evidence, be superfluous or extra-infinite. Analogous remarks were made in the preceding Parts, relative to the power and wisdom of God ; and from the advanced point which we have now reach- ed, we can see how erroneous it would have been to treat the proof as already completed, or to limit our views of those Divine perfections by the evidence then before us ; inasmuch as that evidence is still in process of augmentation. And in a similar manner, the illustrations of Goodness are constantly receiving fresh accessions. To which it is to be added, that even if the objective exercise of the Divine goodness were literally infinite, it would be utterly useless for all the pur- poses of manifestation, since its infinity would remain unknown to us ; except, indeed, on Divine testimony. But how should we know that testimony to be true, except on infinite evidence ? and so on, ad injinitum. If we utter any complaint at all, then, relative to the limitation of our knowledge of the Divine perfections, we should begin with the complaint that our minds are limited ; which would be to complain in effect, that they are created, and not uncreated. Even as it is, the actual il- lustrations of the goodness of God exceed our conceptions ; and yet, indefinite as they are, they go on multiplying at a rate which defies all human computation. 17. The only way, then, in which an infinite proof of infinite 22* THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. goodness can be presented to finite creatures, or be received by them, is by a progressive accumulation through endless duration ; so that it must be always in the course of exhibi- tion. It is easy to conceive, however, of such a display of benevolence within a space and a time not unlimited, as should furnish free agents, capable of reasoning from analogy, with ample evidence of benevolence unlimited. And such a dis- play of goodness we believe to have been made in the animal creation. Now, in attempting to show this, it is to be borne in mind, as a fact universally admitted, that the limitations of matter in relation to space, are necessitated by the nature of matter itself; and therefore, the limitations of the uses made of it also. If, then, the material medium through which bene- volence is to be displayed is itself inherently conditioned by limits, we have to determine what evidence of goodness, exhib- ited under such circumstances, we, as beings constituted to reason by inference, and from analogy, should be justified in deeming an adequate illustration of goodness unlimited — of the kind of goodness, that is, which is displayed in sentient enjoyment. Displays of other kinds are, hypothetically, yet in store. 18. Now, we can conceive of intelligences so superior to ourselves as to be able to recognise in the first forms of sen- tient life that appeared on our earth, an adequate proof of the unlimited goodness of the Creator. Their view of cause and effect might be such as to enable them to say definitively, and at once, " the Being that could originate these forms of happi- ness, must be distinguished by infinite goodness." For, be it remembered, that the full understanding of these primitive forms would include also the full understanding of the inor- ganic and vegetable worlds ; and would evince that the pro- duction of these sentient beings had always been in the con- templation of the creative mind. But these primeval creatures were actually accompanied or followed by a world of animal existences. True, those early creations were not probably so diversified in their species as the later creations ; but geology shows that, at a very early period, the sea-covered earth swarm- ed with individual life. It would have been useless for man, had he then lived, to attempt the individual enumerations of beings contained in even a section of " the great and wide sea ;" and yet every being was a distinct argument for the goodness of the Creator, since every one of them all w^as com- prehended in his Divine plan. Now surely a human specta- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. m tor of that scene could not have expended years and ages in the contemplation of animal enjoyment, especially as viewed in connection with the complicated provision made for it from the beginning, and with the endlessly diversified manner in which all nature ministered to it, without receiving an over- whelming impression of Creative benevolence. Long before he could have fully estimated the proofs of benevolence teem- ing around him, a new creation would dawn, and a new world of animate wonders come into view ; and as he gradually dis- covered that phenomena which at first appeared at variance with goodness, only required to be understood in order to be- come remarkable illustrations of it ; that where a liability to pain existed, the most refined and complicated means are re- sorted to for reducing it to the smallest amount possible, or for providing against it altogether ; and that even the system of prey is resolvable into the greatest amount of animal enjoy- ment compatible with the existing plan of creation, he could not but feel that the benevolence to which all this was owing, must be literally past finding out. Let him revisit the earth in imagination time after time, with intervals of ages between each visit : surely he could not remark that every change of external condition was associated with a corresponding change in animal organization ; that these changes were diversified to a degree designed apparently to impress him with their inex- haustibleness ; that the systems of life and enjoyment were ever on the increase, and that the analogy of every part with all the rest showed the whole to be in accordance with a plan which must have ever existed in the Divine mind, without being impelled to the conclusion that for such displays of goodness to an indefinite extent, God is all-sufiicient. And, beyond this, he should remark that the amount of actual life exhibited at any given time on the earth, is as nothing com- pared with the amount of potential life and happiness which it contains. The vegetable seeds germinating at this moment on the surface of the earth, are, probably, insignificant com- pared with the number concealed below to an unknown depth ; and who shall calculate the superficial extent of the world, or worlds, which those seeds would be sufiTicient speedily to clothe with verdure ? And so also of the ova of some animal spe- cies, such as the carp, the cod, or the flounder, in an individual of which more than a million have been counted, — who shall say the number of Atlantics which either of these species would fill in the course of a thousand years, if all their ova 260 THE PRE-ADAMITE EAETH. were allowed to be developed ; or how many atmospheres, of the same extent as that of our planet, would, in the same time, become crowded and darkened, by the unchecked multiplica- tion of so minute a thing as a fly ? Now he could not survey the recovered fossil species of former worlds, remembering that all traces of many species have probably vanished ; and then glance at the five hundred thousand species now living, remembering that the actual multiplication of some of them, prodigious as it is, is as nothing compared with their possible increase ; and that this has been always true from the begin- ning, without yielding to the full impression, that, subjective- ly, the Creative goodness can know no limitation ; and that, objectively, H^ is all-sufficient for replenishing alike a single planet, or ten thousand worlds, with sentient happiness, and for sustaining the whole for an age, or for ever. This we believe to be the impression which a world of sentient enjoy- ment was intended to produce on the mind of man. That it is adapted to produce this very effect is evident, for it actually produces it. And the very manner in which this end is at- tained — the mental effort which it demands, and the apparent moral difficulties which it involves — still farther evinces the far-reaching purpose of the Creator, in making it the means of man's intellectual and moral education. But man, " the interpreter of nature," is yet to come. 19. Now, suppose a being capable of appreciating the suc- cessive stages of creation as we have endeavored to describe it, to have taken a survey of the whole on the eve of that great revolution which gave occasion to the Adamic creation, what an enlarged view must it have afforded him of the power, and wisdom, and g.iodness of God ! Could he have cast back a mental glance to the remote antiquity when the first creative fiat went forth, and then have called before his mind all the long series of creation on creation with extended intervals be- tween, which had since then taken place, — could he have remembered how many vegetable kingdoms had successively existed and perished, only to be followed by others better adapted to the altered globe ; and how every such change had been followed by a corresponding adaptation in all the indefi- nite varieties of animal life, so that the earth had been kept " full of His goodness," without feeling, with a depth of con- viction no language can express, and long before he had ar- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. f6l rived at the close of his retrospection, the all-sufficiency of God for the indefinite enlargement and continuance of similar manifestations ! He would have seen that, here, every object and event formed at least a letter in the great name of God — a symbol of the Divine perfections. Even if the creative process had been arrested at this point, never to be resumed, he would yet have felt that he was worshipping in a temple dedicated to " the eternal power and Godhead ;" for the she- kinah of the Divine presence was everywhere visible. But that temple had ever been enlarging and receiving fresh me- morials of the Deity ; and long before he had deciphered every symbol, and bowed at every altar sacred to these perfections, he would have felt prepared for the unveiling of another aspect of the Divine character. 20. Could he then have had disclosed to him the nature of man's constitution, — physical, mental, and moral, — the crea- tion would forthwith have seemed to assume a new character. He would have seen that man was not to be made for the world, but that the world from the first had been made for man ; that all its laws were mute predictions of what he would be ; that all nature was pre-configured to him, and looked forwards to his coming. The earth, then, he might have said, is to be a school for the education of the human being. What a severe and useful discipline will it be for him, if left to his own unaided efibrts, to determine the point from which his physical studies should start, the method they should observe, and the direction they should take. When the time shall come for him to try to ascertain the position of his planet in the system to which it belongs, and the disposition of the parts of that system, what prolonged and improving efforts is it like- ly to call forth ? for he will see it " not in plan but in section /* his point of observation will lie in the general plane of the system, while the notion he will aim to form of it will be, not that of its section, but of its plan ; as if he should attempt to make out the countries on a map, with his eye on a level with the map. I Even the size and physical geography of the planet itself are relative to the powers of the being destined to oc- cupy it ; for, while it is not so diminutive and unvaried as to promise no reward to curiosity and effort, neither is it so vast and unmanageable as to depress and forbid them. For him, the Creator has " weighed the mountains in scales and the ^ Sir J. Herschel's Nat. Phil., p. 267. 262 THE PRE-ADAMITE EAHTII. hills in a balance." Here, objects are so formed as to call him to activity, and to give him lessons in self-government ; and secrets so hid in the depths of nature as to invite his dis- covery, and to correct his pre-judgments ; and events so inti- mately and universally related, as to reveal to his attentive eye the fact, that all nature is united in a close net-work of mutual connections and dependence. Here, advancing from the domain of facts, he will ascend to the region of laws. His discovery and generalization of these will constitute his natu- ral science, his practical application of them will be his art and occupation. From this commanding point, all creation will assume the appearance of order, and be seen under law. And every onward step in this direction will bring him, by a path increasingly luminous, nearer to the throne of the Eternal, in whose hand all laws will be seen to meet. 21. The being who is supposed to be intelligently antici- pating the creation of man, would foresee that the earth was designed also to be a temple for worship. Here — he might have said farther — wherever man may look, he willfind himself surrounded by the symbols of the Godhead. Every object on which his eye will rest, is either an " altar of memorial," or an offering to be laid on it. Even the earth itself, as it goes speeding through space, what should it be but an altar, at which he should be perpetually ministering, as the high-priest of nature ? Here, if he ask for proofs of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God, he may ascend, by higher and higher gene- ralizations, from phenomenal causes to the Great First Cause Himself; and from the contemplation of the uninterrupted order, the symmetry of relations, and the harmonious combi- nation of laws observable throughout organic nature, to the conviction of universal design in the Creating Cause; and from the perception that all this exercise of wisdom is directed to the multiplication and happiness of a world of sentient life, to the conclusion that the Creator is as benevolent as He is powerful and wise. But geology will give a range to his views of the Divine all-sufficiency beyond all admeasurement ; it will admit him to a succession of departed worlds, stored with the monuments of the Creator's inexhaustible resources. Plunge as far back as he may into the past, he will still find himself in the province of the same Creator, and surrounded by evidences that " He seeth the end from the beginning." SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 268 But what impressive views of the same perfections will open on him when he shall come to perceive, that all the long series of creations by which the globe is adapted to become his habitation, has distinctly contemplated his own well-being ? Were his advent among the creatures to be that of a distin- guished being from some paradise above, means for develop- ing his hidden powers, the exquisite adjustment of things to strike him with the kind forethought of the Being who had sent him here, provision for his heaUh, and comfort, and entire well-being during his stay, could hardly have been made more obvious and abundant than they actually are. Of all the spe- cies of animated beings that have inhabited the earth, he will be the first to look upon nature with an intelligent eye. Till he comes, this glorious volume of the Creator will remain un- read ; and not only will he be able to interpret nature, it will be his prerogative to employ it for his improvement. The only use which the brute creation unconsciously make of it, is that of sustaining and perpetuating their kind. He will employ it also for the same purpose, but this very employment of it may be of a nature to call forth the exercise of his reason, and to tend to his intellectual progress. So that even in that one solitary respect, in which he and the animals will appear to be placed on a level, he will be able in reality to assert his essen- tial superiority over them ; and from it he may date his actual rise above them. They only use and only need some of the present products of the earth. Man may employ the products of every departed world. In his hands the extremes of geo- logical duration may meet. The granite of ten thousand ages back may be made the foundation of his dwelling, or the pe- destal of his image. The mountain limestone — petrified exu- viag of departed worlds — may serve to cement and beautify his abode. The wreck of the forests, that for ages waved on the surface of the ancient lands, and the ferruginous accumu- lations deposited in primeval waters may supply him with the principal means of his material progress and comfort. From the rich metallic veins which interlace the earth, he may de- rive the means of his choicest ornaments, the representatives of all his material wealth, and knowledge " more precious than rubies." Every flood which swept over the ancient continents, and every dislocating earthquake, which contributed to the formation of cultivable soils, may re-appear in man's science, and be converted to his purposes. The loadstone, in his hands, may become an instrument by which to call the stars to his 264 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. aid, and to bid defiance to the apparent boundlessness of the ocean, while, in quest of scope for his enterprise, he steers to a distant region of the globe. The subterranean treasuries of the earth contain nothing which he will not be able to use ; and who shall say but that the time may come in his history when its stores will prove to have been not unnecessarily great? Surely the creature who will point to little artificial contrivances of his own in proof of his sagacity and skill, will not fail to recognize in these vast prospective arrangements for his coming, convincing indications of a beneficent superin- tending mind ! And surely as time advances, and new and more profound adaptations of nature rise to view, as man comes to find that his race have been living for ages in the midst of complicated adaptations of which they were uncon- scious, and which could be developed only as the result of a long series of prior discoveries, but all tending to his develop- ment and well-being, his recognition of the Creative wisdom and goodness will become more vivid and grateful, and the earth become more sacred in his eyes ! Probably, too — the supposed soliloquist might have con- tinued — probably, as preceding changes of the earth have been followed by new and enlarged creations of animal life, the period of man's creation may be marked by some new pro- ductions of the Divine power, designed to contribute yet fur- ther to human welfare. But, whether it should be so or not, the earth, even as it is, appears to be so replete with prepa- rations for his coming, that He alone could perceive any defi- ciency, whose unlimited power is able to supply it. It is only in such a world that a creature like man could live, and his character be developed. Here, every part of his nature will find its appropriate domain. The phenomena of geology alone — what lessons will they read to his intellectual and moral na- ture ? Can he recognise in the series of organic worlds, dis- tinct evidence of a succession of creations, without feeling as if he were reading so many proclamations of the Divine power laid up for his perusal ? feeling it with a vividness which could hardly be increased even if he could reach the foundation of the earth and there find the inscription, " Laid by the Divine Hand, to be discovered and deciphered by man unnumbered ages hence." When he shall perceive that these successive creations are only the gradual filling up of a vast and harmo- nious outline, will he not be penetrated with wonder at the comprehensiveness of the Divine plans, and the unchangeable- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 'M ness of the Divine nature ? Can he ever attempt a computa- tion of the enormous periods which must have elapsed since life first moved on the globe, without being carried back in imagination to a past eternity ; and without thinking, by the mere rebound of the mind, of an eternity yet to come ? And, then, will it be possible for him to mark how all the stu- pendous miracles of the past have conspired to prepare the earth to receive him, without feeling that the adaptation must have been contemplated from the first, and without surrender- ing himself up to the emotions of adoration and joy ? And shall these geological records of the past furnish him with no ground of conclusion, or of rational conjecture, re- specting the future ? He will be able to point to an era when his race had not yet begun to exist. An age after, and man had been called into being, and had entered on his career. Every one of his posterity, therefore, traced back to his origin through the preceding generations of mankind, will carry about in his own person indubitable evidence of a miracle. And may he not justly reason that, unless the Supreme Power can be supposed to have exhausted itself in his own creation, the energy which could perform the long succession of stupendous miracles of which the production of the first man was the crowning act, must be capable of performing other miraculous acts ? And unless he should suppose that he himself has been created without any object, or that God has excluded Himself from his own world, and has bound Himself in the iron chain of an everlasting mechanism, will it not be natural for him to infer that the object for which the miracle of his own creation was wrought may subsequently require the performance of other miracles in harmony with the primary one, and leading to the same result ? And unless it could be shown that no be- neficent provision whatever had been originally made for hu- man happiness, the existence of such provision will surely warrant the conclusion that, if ever circumstances should arise in which it would be more for the well-being of man to modify or to enlarge that provision than not to do so, it would — all other things being equal — be worthy of Divine Goodness so to modify or enlarge it. And will not the persuasion that he istands in the midst of a system yet in progress — a system, therefore, from which God is never absent — tend to invest the earth with the hallowed character of a temple, and to con- vert his eveiy inquiry respecting the past and the future into an act of worship ? 23 366 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 22. But what if this same being who had been given to understand that the earth would be a school for man's educa- tion, and a temple for his worship, had been foretold also that it would be the sphere of human probation ; that even its natu- ral scenery and productions would, in a sense, be conveyed into the mind of man, and be taken up into his character ; that every object and event in nature would, in a variety of ways, be wrought into the texture of man's moral history ; and that every law expressed, and every truth symbolized, in nature, would sooner or later become a test of character, what a field for solemn conjecture would have been opened before him ? Perversions of these truths which have become familiar to us, would doubtless have appeared to him so gross as to be next to impossible. Whatever errors man may imbibe, we may suppose him to have said — it is not to be imagined that he will ever so far discredit his reason as to mistake those created exponents of certain attributes of the Divine Nature for that Infinite Nature itself ; converting the intended means of wor- ship into objects of adoration. Man's moral freedom, if nothing else, seems to require that the period of the earth's origin should be hid in a dateless antiquity ; but surely he will not therefore irrationally jump to the conclusion that it is eternal and uncre- ated. For the same reason, it would seem to be necessary that the successive stages of the creative process should not be so obtrusively marked and palpable as to compel the judgment to the right conclusion ; but can it be that all other evidence except that of visible creative interference shall go for nothing with a being meant to reason ; or that advantage will ever be taken of the absence of mere visible evidence, to affirm the non-existence of an invisible Agent ? Whatever may be meant by the uniformity of the course of nature, it is evident that it must be something compatible with a succession of changes in which new races have been brought into being, differing from all previous existences. Contrary, therefore, as such a crea- tive change may be to the course of nature for a certain period, evidently, it is by no means contrary to the great scheme to which that limited period belongs. And confidently as the permanence of nature may be relied on during a given period, with equal confidence may a change be looked for, sooner or later, to put an end to that period. The changes may be as regular on a large scale of things, as is the intervening uni- formity on a smaller scale. Both are only parts of a great ^hole. It cannot be that man, who will actually owe his ex- SENTIENT EXISTENCE. ^67 istence to one of these miraculous changes, should ever come to question their possibility ; that, arguing from his own uni- form experience of a few ages, he should feel himself warranted to pronounce against such changes during the vast preceding cycles compared with which his ages will be as moments ; and that he should do this in the face of all the successive worlds of geological evidence to the contrary. The Divine Creator is the " God of order ;" regularity is the natural characteristic of His procedure ; without it, man will not be able to arrive at any knowledge respecting Him : and can it be that man will take occasion from the very order of nature to " explode the idea of a God ?" shall those sequences, without which he will not be able to infer the Creative Existence, be the very reason why he denies it ? shall the very laws whose existence are essential in order that he may understand anything of the Law- giver, become, in his hands, weapons for dethroning Him ? If it shall appear from the event that one of the great rea- sons of the Creator for adopting the actual method of creation, was that it might be preconfigured to man's intelligent, volun- tary, and moral nature, can it be that any human creature will ever come to construe the infinitely complicated coincidence of the two into a proof of its accidental origin — as if the proof of design diminished in proportion as the evidence increased. If man's free-agency is not to be overborne by the visible display of immediate Divine operation ; if the evidence of creative agency is to be enough to convince, but not so much as to over- whelm, the attainment of this balance will involve relations and adjustments of infinitely diversified complication, and will form, in truth, the grand sphere for the exercise of creative wisdom and goodness ; surely no human being will ever employ this freedom in questioning the existence of the agency which alone makes it possible ! Without it, there would be no rea- soning — no man ; with it, shall there be, for him, no God ? If the ultimate end both of the creative method and of its reason in respect to man, be the unfolding of the Divine all- sufficiency, can it be that he will ever derive two directly oppo- site conclusions from the same creative displays ? that he will at one time contend, that as his inferences can only go to the extent of his evidence, his views of the Divine perfections, derived from natural theology, are necessarily limited ; and, at another, that the Being who could originate the universe must be too exalted to interest himself in any of its mere details ? Is it possible that, on a survey of creation, one man should 1W8 THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. ■withhold from the Creator the homage involved in the recogni- tion of His infinity ; and that another, on the ground of His infinite greatness, should " compliment Him out of this world as a place too mean for His reception," and excuse Him from its government, as a care and an incumbrance unsuited to His dignity ; and from its worship, as a thing beneath His regard ? Thoughts such as these — had there been a being to enter- tain them — might well have projected a deep shadow over the earth as the scene of man's approaching probation. But may we not suppose that the gloom would have been relieved and brightened by anticipations of a very opposite tendency ? Here, the imaginary seer might have said, as he recalled the past and glanced over the present — here is a great system of argumentative appeals, for the infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness of God, appeals which predict a constitution fitted to receive and respond to them. More than one part of that con- stitution will be constructed to respond. Often, the response will be so sudden as to anticipate the slow conclusions of the reasoning process ; so clear and distinct as to be heard by the most unwilling ear ; and so authoritative and impressive as to be remembered and felt long after every opposing voice has ceased. Rightly considered, creation will be regarded as a hymn of praise to its Maker ; and man will aspire to lead the song. While from the depths of the earth — from the wreck of former worlds — he will derive materials with which to erect an altar of gratitude to Him who " reneweth the face of the earth." And what even if man's moral relations to the Deity should be disturbed, and his condition should consequently become such as to require information which it is not in the power of nature to impart ; even then — though some of his race, alas ! owing partly to the very scantiness of their natural knowledge of God, and in proportion to it, may blindly profess to be satisfied and to desire no more, — yet the natural theol- ogy of others will, in proportion to its extent and fulness, tend to awaken a thirst for a higher and more enlarged revelation of the Divine character, and prepare them to expect it. Insuf- ficient as the knowledge of God derivable from nature may be as a sanctuary for conscious guilt, it may yet serve as the sub- structions and steps of another temple, from the sacred reces- ses of which may be caused to issue the oracles of Holiness, Mercy, and Love. And as the vastness of the Divine re- sources displayed in nature, joined with the consideration that, indefinite as they must be to man, they are after all finite to SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 269 God, is the reflection which, more than any other, will impress him with the all-sufficiency of God in creation, so it may in- spire him with the hope of the Divine all-scfficiency for his moral recovery, and be even employed by God to image that sufficiency forth. 23. A being placed, and informed respecting the past and the future, as we have supposed, could not have recognized the signs of approaching change — if such signs there were — symptoms of the impending revolution of a portion, at least, of the earth's surface ; and then have recalled before his mind the succession of new creations, which had followed from like revo- lutions before, without rising to adoration, and saying, in effect, *' Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands ; they shall perish, but thou remainest ; yea, they all shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." And as he stood on the verge of the crisis, with the ominous shadows of the last evening settled around him, and all nature hushed in portentous silence, he could not picture to his mind the pos- sibilities involved in the impending stage of the Divine pro- cedure, without being conscious of an earnest desire to behold the creature, man, and the wondrous scenes which would sig- nalize his eventful history. 23 -'.;-<' NOTES. Note A, p. 13. I HAVE been humbled at finding the view advocated in the text, spoken of by some — teachers of theology too — as an im- peachment of the Divine disinterestedness ; or, in other words, as an imputation of Divine selfishness. This misrepresentation might arise either from a jealousy of the Divine Greatness, or from a mistaken jealousy for it, accompanied with an indolent misconception of the subject. In the first of these instances, it is human self-importance entering into competition with Infinite Greatness and laboring to dethrone it, only that it might occupy the vacated seat. In the second the objector appears to argue in oblivion of all the facts appropriate to the subject, and under the anthropomor- phising Impression that God " is altogether such an one as himself.'* First, he forgets that no objection can be alleged against the view that Grod will be his own end in the eternity to come, which does not equally lie against the view that He was his own end in the eternity past ; and yet no one can raise a question on thia- point, for during the past eternity He alone existed. Secondly, the objector forgets that the view 7nust be true In some high and substantial sense, for the doctrine that " of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things," runs through the Bible like a line of light. Thirdly, the selfishness which the view is supposed to impute or imply is purely anthropopathic, or arises from a mental transference to the infinitely blessed God of human pas- sions, and, as such, it can have no place with God ; for selfishness implies the appropriation of happiness, or of the means of happi- ness, belonging to others, whereas, in the present unique Instance, the idea of appropriation can have no place, since all that man enjoys is of Divine impartation. Fourthly, the only alternative 272 NOTES. to God being the chief end of creation is, that man be that end. But the only reason which could be assigned for this view is (not that it is right, as in the case of one human being benefiting an- other, but) that it appears to some to be more worthy of God; which is only saying, in other words, that that must be the end of creation which is most worthy of God, and most glorious to him — thus, in reality, affirming the doctrine in the very act of denying it. And, fifthly, the happiness of the creature requires that the manifestation of the Divine All-sufficiency be the chief end of creation. Surely, it could not conduce to the happiness of an intelligent creature to believe that the Infinite existed for the finite, and was subordinated to it. On the contrary, the blessed- ness of holy beings must consist mainly in their conscious and chosen dependence on infinite excellence; in the ever-present idea of its infinity contrasted with their limitation, leaving room for progress unending. Further, I might proceed to remind the objector that if it is thought no impeachment of any Divine per- fection to believe (as he himself probably believes) that animal enjoyment, though an end of the animal kingdom, was not the highest end contemplated by the animal creation ; that the man- ner in which it has contributed to the enjoyment, education, and well-being of the human race, is a yet higher end ; so man's crea- tion may, consistently with the same Perfection, point to an end beyond itself; and what end can that be, but the only one which is infinite ? I can hardly bring myself to confess that, in more than one instance, I have actually met with an objection to the view I am now advocating, which amounted to this, " we do not object to the fact that the highest end of creation should be the manifestation of the Divine excellence ; perhaps this is right ; perhaps it is even unavoidable, and arises necessarily from the very nature of things ; we only demur to the idea of the Divine Being designing it!" Evidently, their conception of the Majesty of heaven is that of a great human being ; of one who, (to adopt the sentiment of the poet,) having " done good by stealth," is ex- pected to " blush when he finds it fame !" He must not accept the homage of heaven as his right, but as praise unexpected and undeserved. He, not the adoring seraphim, must veil. Their heau-ideal of Perfection omits prescience ; for how otherwise could the Creator fail to foresee the results of his own creation ; and, foreseeing, how could He do otherwise than accept, adopt, or design them ? But to do this is, in their eyes, to sacrifice the proprie- ties ! ! " O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee ! " NOTES. Note B, p. 75. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without form and waste, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." — Genesis i. 1, 2. From a careful consideration of the subject, it is the full con- viction of the writer, that the first of the two verses just quoted was placed by the hand of Inspiration at the opening of the Bible as a distinct and independent sentence ; that it was the Divine intention to affirm by it, that the material universe was primarily originated by God from elements not previously existing ; and that this originating act was quite distinct from the acts included In the six natural days of the Adamic creation.^ It should be observed that this interpretation by no means implies that Moses himself put this construction on the sentence, or intended to con- vey this meaning, He might ; or he might not. He was only the organ for its transmission. But it is a well-known canon of Scripture interpretation, that the statements of the word of God are to be understood, not merely in that sense in which they were apprehended by the human instruments employed t/O make them, nor in that sense to which their hearers or readers at the time could reach, but In the sense which He himself attached to them. For example, there is ground to believe that Moses himself was not aware of the profound spiritual meaning of much of the ritual which he was employed to institute. It was an obscure text, which awaited the Divine commentary of the Christian dispen- sation. Nor Is it meant to be implied by this interpretation that the Bible was designed to teach astronomy, geology, or any other branch of natural science. When we are enlarging on the histor- ical parts of Scripture, for instance, no one infers that we mean to affirm that the Bible was designed to teach either the mere facts, or the philosophy, of history. Its object, in such parts, is to teach the doctrine of God's government of the world ; and all that we are supposed to mean is, that the events related in proof or illustration of the doctrine, were matters of fact^ actual occur- rences, divinely attested. So here ; the obvious purpose of the inspired writer is to teach the great truth that God is the Creator of all things ; and all that the nature of the case requires — and ^ See Dr. J. P. Smith's admirable work on Scripture and Geology. Lecture VI. Part II., and Notes P. Q. Second Edition. 274 NOTES. this it does seem to require — is, that, however anthopomorphic and popular the language employed may be, the events related in illustration of the truth should be actual occurrences. But being such, it follows that they will be found in harmony with the facts of science. The view just propounded, and which appears to the writer to be the only just construction of the verse in question, involves the following three propositions ; that, by " the heavens and the earth," are Tiere to be understood the material universe ; that the original act of creation was the calling of the material of the universe into existence ; and that this act was not included in the six days of the Adamic creation. The first of the propositions — that by " the heavens and the earth," are here to be understood the material universe — hardly admits of a question. Even if the phrase, " the heavens and the earth," does not include more than the material universe — (name- ly, dependent sentient and intelligent beings also) — it cannot be regarded as denoting less. In proof of which, if proof be neces- sary, it may be alleged, ttat the material universe is the subject immediately taken up in the verses following ; that the phrase in question became a Hebrew formula for expressing the material universe, a formula most likely adopted from this opening verse ; and that such appear to be the inspired exposition of the phrase — as in Psalms cii. 25, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands." The second proposition — that the original act of creation was the calling of matter into existence — though not, at first sight equally obvious, appears, on examination, to be equally certain. There are those, indeed, who, while they firmly believe that mat- ter is not eternal, refuse to admit that this verse affirms its origi- nation. Their persuasion is, that the verse takes us back only to the beginning of the Adamic creation, and affirms that God was the immediate former of the present state of things ; and that the verses following unfold the process of the formation. And the chief reason which they assign for this view is, that hara — created, according to the usus loquendi, signifies, not to call a thing out of non-existence, but to re-constitute something already in existence ; and is used indifferently and interchangeably in many passages with asah — made, and yatsar — formed or fashion- ed ; and that there does not appear to be any word in any lan- guage which expresses the idea of creation independently of pre- existing matter. In reply, I would submit that this objection, even if it could NOTES. 2^ be substantiated, does not meet the requirements of the case ; and that the only appropriate evidence is that which is derivable from the interpretations of the phrase, and of the subject, as found in other parts of Scripture. For, first, from the very nature of the subject, the usus loquendi never can obtain in relation to any word employed to express creation out of nothing. And the ap- parent singularity of the fact might have well awakened inquiry how it is that, while every language has the idea, no language has a term exclusively employed to express it, but adopts a phrase instead.' The obvious reason is, that even if a term — bara, for example — had been at first devised and employed to express the Divine origination of matter, man, according to a well-known and universal tendency, would soon have adopted it as the most em- phatic mode of expressing his own secondary origination, or mere formation, of things. And then as, in its primary signification, it could only, in the nature of things, be applied to a single act of the Divine Being, while in its secondary sense it could be applied to all kinds of human origination of all kinds of things, the usus loquendi would speedily place the secondary meaning first. Let it be imagined that a new term were to be now devised to express the idea in question — let it be the term exnihilate — and immediately man would adopt it to express his own produc- tion of things, just as he now speaks of annihilating them ; though he can do either only in a secondary sense. And as, in this sec- ondary sense, he would be daily exnihilating, while the term, in its primary signification, could be predicated only of the one ori- ginating act of the Divine Being, of course the usus loquendi would immediately obtain in favor of the secondary sense. Now, admitting the term bara to have meant, when employed in the first verse of Genesis, the actual creation of matter, its secondary application would soon have acquired, in this manner, the sanc- ^ When Dr. Pusey, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, states, (Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, note, p. 22,) that "our very addition of the words ' out of nothing,' shows that the word creation has not. in itself," the force of absolute origination, he appears to overlook the only point in the discus- sion worth remembering, namely, that this additional phrase is properly employed only when something is supposed already to exist, out of which the thing made might possibly be produced. On the other hand, when speaking of the origination of primordial elements, no one could say that they were created out of nothing without tautology ; for this would be to state formally that the tirst has no antecedent, or that the first is not sec- ond. So that the word creation, when predicated of primordial matter— and this is the precise thing in question — does possess, without any ad- ditional words, the force of absolute origination. 276 NOTES. tion of custom ; and then, as inspired language did not differ from ordinary language, the term would subsequently come to be used, in Scripture, interchangeably with asah — made and yatsar — formed. Our only resource, therefore, is to ascertain the scrip- tural interpretation of the term in those passages in which the first Terse of Genesis was present to the mind of the inspired writers. Or if, secondly, the verb hara was taken by inspiration from a prior and familiar application to a human process, and was employed metaphorically to denote a Divine act of an analogous but unique description, then also, as the thought would govern the word, and not the word the thought, we should have to look for that thought in other parts of the inspired volume. Now, that the first verse of Genesis is to be regarded as an- nouncing the proper creation of the matter of the visible universe, is apparent from the following passages : — 1. A comparison of the second and following verses in Gen. i. with the first verse, justifies the conclusion that the act denoted by hara in the first verse must have been essentially different from mere formation out of materials already existing ; for after that first act had been performed, the earth still remained in a form- less chaotic state. On this point, I avail myself of the critical judg- ment of Professor M. Stuart of America ; and I do so the more readily, because he is avowedly an anti-geologist, and is therefore free from all suspicion of a bias from that quarter. " All order and arrangement plainly seem to be considered, by the writer of Gen. i. as having been eff*ected after the original act of creation. * * * The original act of creation, as understood by the sacred writers, appears plainly to have been, the calling of matter into being, the causing of it to exist; and out of this the heavens and the earth were afterwards formed, i. e., reduced to their present order and arrangement."^ 2. In the opening verses of St. John's Gospel we read, " In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. * * * All things were made by him." Here, it is evident that the design of the sacred writer is to affirm that, before anything existed ad extra, the Logos existed ; for his object is to prove that everything was brought into existence by the Logos. If Scripture, then, is to be its own interpreter, we must infer that the phrase, in the beginning, as employed in the book of Genesis, takes us back to the same period. And this conclusion becomes inevitable when we observe that, in using this phrase, ^ Hebrew Chrestomathy, p. 112. NOTES. 277 the Gospel designedly, and for obvious reasons, imitates the his- tory. If the Mosaic use of the phrase, therefore, does not take us back to a period prior to the origination of matter, it cannot be justly inferred that the apostolic sense of the phrase does ; but that the " all things made by him," excepts matter, i. e., that matter was not made by him, and that he did not exist before it. S. In harmony with the view for which we are contending, and apparently conclusive of it, is Heb. xi. 3, " By faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen, were not made from those which do appear." It cannot be justly questioned that the Divine de- claration, by faith in which we attain to this conviction, is that contained in Gen. i. 1, for the apostle next refers to Gen. Iv. 4, and next to Gen. v. 24 ; and so on, in orderly succession. Now, the apostolic exposition of that declaration is, " that the worlds were formed by the word of God" — by the commanding word^ — " the symbol of the Almighty and self-competent power, which requires no means exterior to itself."^ And, still further to evolve and expound the idea of absolute origination, it is added, " so that the things which are seen, were not made from things which do appear ;"3 or, which amounts to the same, " the things visible were made from things not visible ;""* i. e., not from anything pre-existing ; they were strictly originated by the creative fiat. Had the apostle meant merely that the visible creation was form- ed from a pre-existing invisible matter, he surely would not have made it a doctrine of faith. This is rather a doctrine of sense, in antagonism to faith ; and, as such, it has been always accept- able to a sensuous philosophy. Indeed, it does not appear that any other meaning was ever attached to the Mosaic statement, by the ancient church, than that given by the apostle. " God made them [heaven and earth] from things that do not exist ;"5 i. e., from nothing previously * Psalm xxxiii. 6 ; cxlviii. 5. ^ Tholuck on the Hebrews, in loc. ^ E/f TO jir] EK faivofiivuv tu pXeTznixeva jeyovivai. * M?} (patvofiivui^ being here equivalent to fi^ ovtuv ; for, as God alone existed to see or to know, if there was nothing visible to Him, there was nothing. Just as in Hebrew, nimtsa — that which is found, is a term em- ployed to denote that which exists ; and, with the negative particle, to denote the not-found, meaning the non-existent. S-ee Bloomfield, in loc. ; Stuart, Storr and Flatt, § xxxi.; Knapp's Theology, \ xlvi. note; the translations of Sacy. Osterwald, Luther, Diodati, and the English ver- sions of 1557 and 1611. ° Ot'/c £^ 6vTU)v inoiijaev avru 6 Qebc. 2 Mace. vii. 28. The Vulgate, ex nihilo fecit Dens cceluni et terrain. 24 278 NOTES. existing. According to the Rabbins,^ the verse should be ren- dered, " God, in the beginning, created the substance of the heavens, and the substance of the earth." The Syriac transhitor understood the verse in the same sense.2 It is clear, says Chry- sostom, in his paraphrase of the apostolic interpretation, " that God, from things not in being, made those which are in being ; from those not visible, the things which do ai)pear ; and, from things having no subsistence, those things which subsist." But if such is the apostolic exposition of Gen. i, 1, it follows that the same exposition must be received as the inspired interpretation of the whole of that class of parallel passages in the Old Testa- ment, of which that verse stands at the head. The third proposition is, that this absolute origination of mat- ter was a Divine act not included in the six days of the Adamic creation. The question, here, does not respect the length of the interval between that originating act and the Adamic creation. The proposition simply affirms that there was an interval ; and im- plies, that the inspired text neither asserts its brevity nor denies its length. Its duration is supposed to be indicated in indelible characters elsewhere — in the crust of the globe itself. The scriptural record is simply, but significantly, indicative of an in- terval. The principal objection to this view is derived from Exod. xx. 11, wherein, as the reason for observing the Sabbath, the entire and complete work of creation is supposed to be described as car- ried on and ended in six days. To which it should be sufficient to reply, that so much of the creative process is there referred to — and only so much — as related to the law of the Sabbath, namely, the six days of the Adamic creation ; or the making of the heaven and the earth as described in Gen. i. 3, &c. But, secondly, the same rule which leads one objector to rely on Exod. XX. 11, as a proof that the entire creation was comprised in six Adamic days, would justify another in insisting that it was com- prised in one day, because it is said. Gen. ii. 4, " These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, in their being created, in the day of Jehovah God's making earth and heavens :" the obvious meaning of the original being, however, at the time of ' Who understand eth, here to denote the substance or material. Com- I)are Gescnius, sub voce ; Aben Ezra ; Kimchi, in his Book of Roots ; and Buxtorf s Talmudic Lexicon. '■^ In Walton's Polyglott, the Syriac is very properly translated, esse coeli et esse terras — the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the earth. NOTES. 279 their creation, or after they were created. And, thirdly, it is a violation of an essential rule of sound interpretation to infer the meaning of an author from a condensed sentence, introduced incidentally, instead of deriving it from his more direct, connect- ed, and ample statements on the same subject. Now, the full and formal treatment of creation occupies the whole of the first chapter of Genesis. To affirm, without proof, that the verse in Exodus condenses the whole of the chapter, is to beg the very question at issue. That the chapter includes all that the verse relates to, I admit. But it includes more. It affirms, for exam- ple, in the second verse, the significant fact, that there was a period when " the earth was without form and void :" respecting this the verse in Exodus is silent ; while, in the first verse, the chapter affirms that at some period prior to that state of chaos — in the beginning — God originated the material of the universe. And the question is, whether, according to the critical aiid cor- rect rendering of the text, that period was not prior to the six days of the Adamic creation. When it is objected to this priority, that the decision of the question might be safely left to any unbiassed mind on a perusal of the English version of the text, the objector is evidently cal- culating on the effect likely to be produced on the " unbiassed mind" by the mere juxtaposition of the opening verses, and by the conjunctive meaning, and, given to the Hebrew particle yaw, which commences the second verse. This, however, is an appeal, not to his knowledge, but to his ignorance. It is to take advan- tage, not of his judgment, but of his prejudice. For unless, by an act of marvellous intuition, he could infer the Hebrew original from the English rendering, he may, for aught he knows to the contrary, be pronouncing on the meaning of a faulty translation. So that the question to be first decided, relates to the correct rendering of the original. If, for example, according to the learn- ed and judicious Dathe, that rendering should be, " In the be- ginning. God created the heaven and the earth. But afterwards the earth became waste and desolate," — an unbiassed mind, in that case, could arrive only at the conclusion that a period was spoken of prior to the six natural days described in the verses following. Now such appears to be the true sense of the original. The connecting particle at the beginning of the second verse leaves the question of time entirely open. It does not rule the sen- tence ; the sentence rules it, and determines what its particular shade of meaning was intended to be. Even in our English ver- 280 NOTES. sion, It is often translated by other conjunctions : thus, in the very next chapter, verse 17, it is rendered hut. Sometimes, it begins whole books. At other times, as in Numb. xx. 1, it spans a wide chronological interval. Indeed, as the general connective particle of the Hebrew language, it is employed as copulative, continuative, adversative, disjunctive, and for other purposes ;' the specific purpose, in every case, being determinable by a con- sideration of the context alone. To an examination of the text, then, let the question be refer- red. Now, that the originating act, described in the first verse, was not meant to be included in the account of the six Adamic days, is evident from the following considerations : First, the creation of the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days, begins with the formula. And God said ; it Is only natural, therefore, to conclude that the creation of the first day begins with the third verse, where the same formula is employed, " And God said, Let there be light." But if so, it follows that the act described in the first verse, and the state of the earth spoken of in the second, must have both belonged to a period anterior to the first day. Secondly, the only adequate reason assignable for the account given In the second verse is, to prepare the reader for the description which follows of the six days' work. For it both intimates the necessity for such work, by affirming the chaotic condition of the earth ; and describes the Spirit of God as hover- ing over the chaos, preparatory to it. Not only the originating act in the first verse, therefore, but also the commencement of the energizing process In the second, appears to have preceded the opening fiat of creation on the first day, and to have been Intro- ductory to it. Thirdly, If It be admitted that the regular unfold- ing of the six days' work begins at the third verse, It follows that the origination of the earth, In the first verse, was anterior to and Independent of It ; for no such an act Is again adverted to In the subsequent verses. On the whole, then, my firm persuasion is, that the first verse of Genesis was designed, by the Divine Spirit, to announce the absolute origination of the material universe by the Almighty Creator ; and that It Is so understood In other parts of Holy Writ : that, passing by an indefinite Interval, the second verse describes the state of our planet Immediately prior to the ^ Gesenius, sub voce. The lexicographer refers to the particle in Gen. i, 2, as an instance of its continuative force merely — i. e., as employed for the simple purpose of connecting one part of a subject with the next which followed it in the order of the writer's design, without any refer- ence to the length of intervening time. NOTES. 281 Adaraic creation ; and that the third verse begins the account of the six days' work. If I am reminded that I am in danger of being biassed in favor of these conclusions by the hope of harmonizing Scripture with geology, I might venture to suggest, in reply, that the danger is not all on one side. Instances of adherence to tradi- tional interpretations, chiefly because they are traditional and popular, though in the face of all evidence of their faultiness, are by no means so rare as to render warning unnecessary. The danger of confounding the infallibility of our own interpretation with the infallibility of the sacred text, is not peculiar to a party. If, again, I am reminded, in a tone of animadversion, that I am making science, in this instance, the interpreter of Scripture, my reply is, that I am simply making the works of God illustrate his word, in a department in which they speak with a distinct and authoritative, voice ; that "it is all the same whether our geological or theological investigations have been prior, if we have not forced the one into accordance with the other ;"J and that it might be deserving consideration, whether or not the conduct of those is not open to just animadversion, who first undertake to pronounce on the meaning of a passage of Scrip- ture irrespective of all the appropriate evidence, and who then, when that evidence is explored and produced, insist on their a priori interpretation as the only true one. But in making these remarks, I have been conceding too much. The views which I have exhibited are not of yesterday. It is " important and interesting to observe, how the early fathers of the Christian church should seem to have entertained precisely similar views ; for St. Gregory Nazianzen, after St. Justin Mar- tyr, supposes an indefinite period between the creation and the first ordering of all things. St. Basil, St. Caesarius, and Origen, are much more explicit.''^ To these might be added Augustine, Theodoret, Episcopius, and others, whose remarks imply the ex- istence of a considerable interval " between the creation related in the first verse of Genesis, and that of which an account is given in the third and following verses."^ In modern times, but long before geology became a science, the independent character of the opening sentence of Genesis was affirmed by such judi- ' Dr. S. Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 672. ^ Principal Wiseman's Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revealed KeliEX. tem, 90 ; on star-clusters, 122 ; on causation, 125. Hooker, on the stability of nature, 211. Humboldt, Alexander, on volcanic activity, 87, 88 ; on the distances of heavenly bodies, 122; on the abundance of vegetable life, 1 65. Hypothesis, the legitimate use of, 10 ; of an atom proving an infi- nite being, 21 ; nebular, 7-3, 78, 85. Idea of causation, how derived, 66. Ideal physical perfection suggested, 96; botanical, 153; animal, 213. Ideal section of the earth's crust, 67. Influence, law of, stated, 59 ; illus- trated from inorganic nature, 93 ; from organic life, 149; from sen- tient existence, 207. Inorganic nature, 64. Instinctive mind, 184-193; why dif- ficult to explain, 184, 187 ; sensa- tion, a property of, 184 ; percep- tion, 185; muscular contraction, ib. ; volition, ib. ; its proximate end, 186 ; vital, ib ; adaptive, 187 ; mental, 187; advocates of animal rationality prove too much, 188, 189 ; incapable of transmitting knowledge, 190; of barter, ib. ; of speech, ib. ; what intervenes between its perceptions and voli- tions, 191 ; its memory and asso- ciations, 191; unconscious of its own ends, 192 ; why without speech, 193. Instincts of the same species perma- nent, 210. Jenyns, on the arrangement of infu- soria, 224. John, the Gospel of, i. 1-3, 30, 276. Kant, on organization, 137. Knoviiedge, instinctive, not trans- missible, 189. Lamarck, on organic continuity, 195 ; on transmutation of species, 216 ; on the internal sentiment, 232. Laplace, his nebular hypothesis, 73 ; on chance, 82, 98, 101 ; on the stability of the heavens, 93, 97. Law, meaning of, as applied to na- ture, 81, 94, 95. Law of resemblance, stated, 50 ; of the end 51 ; of relation, 52 ; of obligation, 53 ; of well-being, ib. ; of necessary truth, 54 ; of contin- gent tnith, 55 ; of ultimate facts, 56 ; of progression, ib. ; of con- tinuity, 57 ; of the past carried forwards, ib. ; of activity, 58 ; of development, 59 ; of order, ib. ; of influence, 60 ; of subordina- tion, ib. ; of uniformity, 61; of analogy, ib. ; of change, 62 ; of the method, 63. Lawrence, on the mystery of sensa- tion, 232. Laws deduced and stated, 50. Leibnitz, on continuity, 84 ; on the calculable nature of the universe, 98. Liebig, on the influence of natural science on mental improvement, 167; on organic activity, 199; on organic continuity, 207 ; on chemical forces and vital powers, 213. Life, organic, 136 ; assimilation, a distinction of, ib. ; propagation, 137; excitability, 146; freedom of life, 150 ; organization, a con- dition of, not its cause, 151; not necessitated by its physical con- ditions, 158; known only by its manifestations, 159 ; explained by physiology, in what sense, 160; its relations to creation and provi- dence, 161 ; distinguished from animal, 183, 195 ; always con- tinued on the earth, 197 ; supe- riority of animal to vegetable, 200 ; embryotic, first traces of, 205, 208. Limestone beds, 69. Limitation of creation, inherent in matter, 126, 173. Limits of astronomical science, 74. Lindlcy, Dr., on the decomposition of plants, 133; on botanical rela- tions, 142. " Logos," considered philologically, INDEX. 31 ; historically, ib. ; exegetical- ly, 32. Lusus naturae, accounted for, 1 99. Lyell, C, Sir, on geological grada- tion, 87 ; on the permanence of instincts in the same species, 210 ; transmutation, 225. MaccuUoch, John, M. D., on geo- logical gradation, 86 ; on the in- consistency of not recognising a Designing Cause, 168. Man, his voluntary nature consult- ed, 117, 166-168, 240-243 ; a me- ditation on his coming, 260; his well-being provided for, 263. Manifestation of God, not verbal merely, 33, Matter, " creation of, a display of power, but not exclusively, 77, 119; inorganic, its constitution, 81 ; its undccompounded forms, ib. ; its properties, 81 ; its laws, ib. ; its combinations, ib. ; relations of, to space and to time, distinction be- tween, 109 ; proportion of, to space. 122 ; origination of, not included in the six days of the Adamic creation, 278-281. Means and ends, distinguished from causes and effects, 1 38. Mediatoi'ial, the constitution of the universe, 29. Method, law of the, stated, 63 ; illus- trated, from inorganic nature, 117- 119; from organic life, 166-169; from sentient existence, 240-243. Mill, J. S., on the legitimate use of hypothesis, 11 ; on laws of nature, 94 ; on their supposed explanation, 104 ; on ultimate laws, 233. Miiller, on the prhiiitive trace., 206. Murchison, Sir R. I., on fossil plants, 141 ; on increase of species, 197. Natural Theology, 262, 266 ; connec- tion with revealed, 271. Nature, inorganic, 64 ; distinguished from organic, 147. Nature, laws of, 81, 94, 95; compat- ible with numerical increase, 94 ; with perturbations, 94, 203 ; and with certain changes in its con- stitution, 94; regularity of, often confounded with explanation, 104; anticipated art, 244. Nebular hypothesis, its design, 35; and claims, 73, 77, 85. Necessary truth, law of, stated 54 ; illustrated from inorganic nature, 110; from organic life, 161 ; from sentient existence, 235 ; time and space, necessary conditions. 111; power, both cause and condition,ib. Necessar\^ development, an assump- tion, 1 62, 232. Nerves, each class of, specific, 230, 254-256; benevolent arrangement of, 253 ; sensibility of each nerve varies with its function, 255 ; not necessarily sensitive, 230, 256. Newton, on the perturbations of the planetary system, 93 ; on the di- vine agency in nature, 104 ; on the relation of physical science to the first cause, 124. Nichol, Prof., on planetary changes, 85. Obligation, the primary, 34 ; moral, ib. ; varies with the relation, ib.; mediatorial, ib. ; Scripture assumes it, 37 ; reason of, 38-41 ; essential to the Divine manifestation, 42; unending, ib. Obligation, law of, stated, 53 ; illus- trated from inorganic nature, 95 ; from organic life, 154; from sen- tient existence, 211-212. Old red sandstone, 69. Oolitic formation, 68. Order, law of, stated, 59 ; illustrated from inorganic nature, 92; from organic life, 148; from sentient existence, 205-207. Order of the manifestation, 64. Organic life, a display of wisdom, but not exclusively, 131 ; laws of, essential to man's interests, 166; distinguished from animal, 183, 195, Organs, perfect from the first, 218; no one animal organ universal, 230. INDEX. Organization, 137 ; a condition of life not its cause, 152. Owen, Professor, on the orders of fos- sil reptiles, 196 ; on the transmu- tation of species, 225. Pain, compatible with creative good- ness, 178-181, 287; its warning nature, 252 ; contrivances for eco- nomizing it, 253. Paley, his definition of Instinct, 187 ; all nature pervaded by the same characteristics, 205, 210 ; on the preponderance of animal enjoy- ment, 247. Past, brought forwards, law of, stat- ed, 57 ; illustrated from inorganic nature, 79 ; from organic life, 133- 136; from sentient existence, 182. Perfections, divine, not separable, 65, 77, 129. Phillips, Professor, on the earliest fossil forms of life, 133; life and its conditions, 158; its uninterrup- ted maintenance, 197, 237 ; adap- tation of the globe to man, 242. Plan, botanical, 142, 148, 153, 174; animal, 198, 214; all related, 246. Planetary system, magnitude of, 121. Powell, iiev. Professor, on the evi- dence of power and wisdom com- pared, 140. Power, fundamental to every other attribute, 65 ; creation of matter, a display of, but not exclusively, 77, 120; creative, unlimited in re- lation to time, 126, 173; evidence of, increased, 169. Power creative, the display of, not absolutely infinite, 115, 120, 124, all-sufiicient, 117, 120, 128; a dis- play of, unlimited, requires time unlimited, 120; interpositions of, direct, 157, 231 ; increased display of, 243. Preliminary Treatise of the Library of Useful Knowledge on creative arrangements, 244-246. Primary formation, 69 ; fossil flora of, 142; fauna of, 196. Primary obligation, 34. Primitive trace of embryonic life, 209. Progression, law of, stated, 56; il- lustrated from inorganic nature, 82, 83 ; from organic life, 136 ; from sentient existence, 183-193. Progressive, display of divine all- suflSciency, 20. Propagation, distinctive of life, 137. Prospective contrivances, 170, 219, 243, 255. Prout, on the molecular constitution of matter, 101. Proximate principles of life, not imi- table, 160. Purpose, the ultimate, 20. Pusey, Rev. Dr., on Gen. i. 1, 275. Reason, the great, 13, 271. Recency of man's creation, 76. Relation, the fundamental, 29 ; me- diatorial, 30 ; preceded creation, ib. ; subservient to the display of the Divine all-sufficiency, 31 ; rea- son of, 37-40; will never termi- nate, 42. Relation, law of, stated, 52 ; illus- trated from inorganic nature, 90, 92; from organic life, 147; from sentient existence, 203-208 ; rela- tions of matter, co-existent, 90; successively existent, 91 ; to God, 92 ; of resemblance, 97 ; of organic life, external, 147, 153; internal, 147 ; of the animal, external and co-existent, 203 ; internal and suc- cessive, 204. Resemblance, law of, stated, 50 ; il- lustrated from inorganic nature, 77; from organic life, 131-133; from sentient existence, 178, 180. Resisting medium, 73. Revelation and natural science, 273. Right, the supreme, 42 ; of the Me- diator to the agency of the Holy Spirit, ib. ; to the service of the creature, 43 ; to all its legitimate increase, 44; to the satisfaction arising from the accomplishment of His creative designs, 44 ; from beholding the progress of His pro- vidential scheme, 45; the effects of His interposition for man's re- coveiy, 47 ; from the homage of the recovered, 48 ; from being the INDEX. H^ object of infinite complacency, ib. ; from the attainment of the ulti- mate end, ib. Roget, P. Mark, M. D.. on the part of the foetus first perfected, 206 ; on the nervous arrangements, 254. Rudimental organs, 154, 215. Schleiden, his illustration of wild speculations on life, 291. Schmid, on life, 137. Science versus atheism, 71, 80. Secondary strata, 67 : fossil flora of, 143; fossil fauna of, 196. Sedgwick, Rev. Prof, on the suc- cession of fossil species, 197. Sensation, a property of animal mind, 187 ; known only by its manifes- tations, 232 ; physiological expla- nations presuppose it, 232-234 ; its relation to Creation and ProA^- idence, 233. Sensibility to pain involved in sen- sibility to pleasure, 181; of each class of nerves specific, 230, 254. Silurian system, 69. Smith, Dr. J. P., on John i. 1-3, 31 ; 273, 282, Species, increase of, 197. Spontaneous generation, 222-225. Stewart, D., on the pervading na- ture of the Divine agency, 106; on the regularity of physical laws, 210. Strickland, on classification, 227 ; re- lation of organic distribution and physical conditions, 292. Stuart, Prof. M., on the original act of creation, 276. Subordination, law of, stated, 60 ; illustrated from inorganic naturej 93 ; from organic life, 1 59 ; from sentient existence, 208. Succession of vegetable worlds, 171. Supreme right, 42. Swainson, on animal adaptation and enjoyment, 250. Tertiary strata, 67; fossil flora of, 143; fossil fauna of, 196. Theology, natural, 262-266. Tholuck. Prof, on the " Logos," 31, 277 Tiedemann, on the ultimate charac- ter of life, 233. Transmutation of species, 216, 291. of individual organs, unknown, 218. Ultimate end, proximate ends con- cur with the, 214. Ultimate facts, law of, stated, 56; illustrated from inorganic nature, 102-110; from organic life, 159; from sentient existence, 232. Ultimate purpose, 20. Unending display of Divine all-suf- ficiency, 21. Uniformity, law of, stated, 61 ; illus- trated from inorganic nature, 93- 95 ; from organic life, 1 50 ; from sentient existence, 209. Unity of organic composition, 138, 199. Universe dependent, 18; its consti- tution mediatorial, 29 ; self-acting, without analogy, 106; material, magnitude of, 121. Vegetable, did it precede animal, life? 133; variety of, 164, 172; worlds, succession of, 172. Velocities of the heavenly bodies, 123. Vertebral classes, or-dcr of succes- sion, 197. " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," on continuity and deve- lopment, 84 ; on the relative dis- tances of the planets, 86 ; creation made independent, 103 ; anthro- pomorphizing views of, 105-109 ; embryotic hypothesis of, 219. Vital functions, involuntary, 251. Well-being, law of, stated, 53 ; illus- trated from inorganic nature, 96 ; from organic life, 152 ; from sen- tient existence, 212. Whewell, Rev. Dr., on crystalliza- tion, 79 ; on laws of nature, 95 ; on gravitation, 101 ; contingency of natural laws, ib. ; on organization, 137, 138, 141 ; on final causes, 138, 282; on instinct, 185. Wisdom, what, 129: its display to be expected, ib. ; displayed, but 800 INDEX. not exclusively, in organic life, 131 ; creative, all-sufficiency of, 164-166, 173-175; display of, not absolutely infinite, 165, 173; infin- ity of, inferrible, 173; unlimited, in relation to time, 1 74 ; increas- ed display of, 243, 256. Wiseman, Rev. Dr., on the inter- val between the original and the Adamic creation, 281. Words, progressive enlargement of their meaning, 196. VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC WORKS PUBLISHES BT GOULD, KENDALL, AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. LAKE SUPERIOR, ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTER, VEGETATION, AND ANIMALS, COMPARED WITH OTHER AND SIMILAR REGIONS ; BY L. AGASSIZ. WITH A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY J. E. CABOT. "The character of these scientific labors of Prof. Agassiz is eminently philosophic and suggestire ; and the grand idea of the work is the demand for the recognition in nature of the agency of a personal God, as a scientific fact, above and beyond all the conditions of physical cause." — Literary World, " A work rich and varied in matter pregnant of lofty suggestions and comprehensive truths. We commend it to all intelligent readers, whether scientific or otherwise, and whether lay or clerical." — Christian Register. " The results of this remarkable expedition have been carefully written out by dif- ferent members of the party. It is a work full of interest and instruction to all who have given even the slightest attention to the Natural History of the United States, and will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the most important contributions which this country has ever made to that most fascinating science." — Providence Journal, PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY. TOUCHING THE STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, DISTRIBUTION, AND NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE RACES OF ANIMALS, LIVING AND EX- TINCT j WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. PART I. — COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY. BY L. AGASSIZ AND A. A. GOULD. *' This book places us in possession of information half a century in advance of all our elementary works on this subject. . . . No work of the same dimension* has ever appeared in the English language containing so much new and valuable infor- mation on the subject of which it treats." — Prof. Jamea HaU, in the .Albany Journal. " A work emanating from so high a source hardly requires commendation to give it currency. The volume is prepared for the student in zoological science ; it is simple and elementary in its style, full in its illustrations, comprehensive in its range, yet well condensed, and brought into the narrow compass requisite for the purpose intend- ed." — Silliman'a Journal. In preparation, PART II. — SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION ARE APPLIED, AND THE PRINCIPAL GROUPS OF ANIMALS ARE BRIEFLY CHARACTERIZED. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. FOOT-PRINTS OF THE CREATOR; OR, THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS. BY HUGH MILLER. WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS. FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION. WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. BY LOUIS AGASSIZ. " In ita purely geological character, the 'Fool-prints' is not surpassed by any mod- ern work of the same class. In this volume, Mr. Miller discusses the development hypothesis, or the hypothesis of natural law, as maintained by Lamarck, and by the author of the ' Vestiges of Creation,' and has subjected it, in its geological aspect, to the most rigorous examination. He has stripped it even of its semblance of truth, and restored to the Creator, as governor of the universe, that power and those func- tions which he was supposed to have resigned at its birth. * * * The earth has still to surrender mighty secrets, — and great revelations are yet to issue from sepulchres of stone. It is from the vaults to which ancient life has been consigned that the his- tory of the dawn of life is to be composed." — North British Review. "Scientific knowledge equally remarkable for comprehensiveness and accuracy; a style at all times singularly clear, vivid, and powerful, ranging at will, and without effort, from the most natural and graceful simplicity, through the playful, the graphic, and the vigorous, to the impressive eloquence of great thoughts greatly expressed ; reasoning at once comprehensive in scope, strong in grasp, and pointedly direct in application, — these qualities combine to render the 'Foot-prints ' one of the most per- fect refutations of error, and defences of truth, that ever exact science has produced." — Free Church Magazine. " In Mr. Miller we have to hail the accession to geological writers of a man highly qualified to advance the science. His work, to a beginner, is worth a thousand didac- tic treatises." — Sir R. Murchison's Address. Dr. Buckland, at a meeting of the British Association, said, he had never been so much astonished in his life by the powers of any man as he had been by the geological descriptions of Mr. Miller. That wonderful man described these objects with a facil- ity which made him ashamed of the comparative meagreness and poverty of his own descriptions in the "Bridgewater Treatise," which had cost him hours and days of labor. He would give his left hand to possess such powers of description £is this man ; and if it pleased Providence to spare his useful life, he, if any one, would certainly render the science attractive and popular, and do equal service to theology and geol- ogy. It must be gratifying to Mr. Miller to hear that his discovery had been assigned his own name by such an eminent authority as M. Agassiz, and is another proof of the value of the meeting of the Association, that it had contributed to bring such a man into notice. Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, Publishers, Boston. IN PRESS. THE OLD RED SANDSTONE; OR, NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD. BY HUGH MILLER. FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION ILLUSTRATED, " The excellent and lively work of our meritorious, self-taught countryman, Mr, Miller, is as admirable for the clearness of its descriptions, and the sweetness of it» composition, as for the purity and gracefulness which pervade it." — Edinburgh Refh "A geological work, small in size, unpretending in spirit and manner; its contents, the conscientious and accurate narration of fact ; its style, the beautiful simplicity of truth ; and altogether possessing, for a rational reader, an interest superior to that ot a novel." — Dr. J. Pye Smith. "This admirable work evinces talent of the highest order, a deep and healthful moral feeling, a perfect command of the finest language, and a beautiful union of phi losophy and poetry. No geologist can peruse this volume without instruction an torv, and biography. Tt", typography throughout is beautiful." — Christian Rijlector, Boston. " The design has been well executed by the selection and concentration of some of the best productions of English intellect, from the earliest .\nglo-S.ixon writers down to those of the present day. No one can give a glance at tlie work without being struck with its beauty and cheapness." — Boston Courier. " We should be glad if any thing we can say would favor tliis design. Tlie elegance of the execution feasts the eye with beauty, angi.Ir» tho numerous pictorial illustrations in the Eiiclish Eiliiioii, tliev Imvc greatly eiiriche