conception of the Creator, to assume it as granted that his
combinations are exhausted upon any one of the theatres of their
former exercise, though, in this, as in all his other works, we are
led, by _all analogy_, to suppose that he operates through a series
of intermediate causes, and that, in consequence, _the origination
of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be
found to be a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous
process_,--although we perceive no indications of any process
actually in progress which is likely to issue in such a result. In
his address to the British Association at Cambridge, (1845), he
said with respect to the author's hypothesis of the first step of
organic creation--'The transition from an inanimate crystal to a
globule capable of such endless organic and intellectual
development, is as great a step--as unexplained a one--as
unintelligible to us--and in any sense of the word as _miraculous_,
as the immediate creation and introduction upon earth, of every
species and every individual would be!'"

The Rev. Dr. PYE SMITH is next adduced:--

"'Our most deeply investigated views of the Divine Government,'
says he, 'lead to the conviction that it is exercised in the way of
_order_, or what we usually call _law_. God reigns according to
immutable principles, that is _by law_, in _every part of his
kingdom--the mechanical, the intellectual, and the moral_; and it
appears to be most clearly a position arising out of that fact,
that _a comprehensive germ which shall necessarily evolve all
future developments_, down to the minutest atomic movements, is a
more suitable attribution to the Deity, than the idea of a
necessity for irregular interferences.'"