afterwards, only families or orders. These are the words of naturalists; but the truth simply is, that in early formations, animals resembled the present in broad general characters; afterwards they resembled them in characters more particular; finally, they become identical. Always as we advance, the total mass of the animal creation puts on more and more of the appearances which it now bears. It may be asked if this does not seem to imply that the present system of things is essentially connected with the past; in which case, if the present is a natural system, we have an additional proof that the past was a natural system also. So also it is admitted that, however nearly the specific forms may experience an entire change from one formation to another, there are always resemblances and approximations between each two which are adjacent to each other. "If," says M. Pictet, an opponent of the views here advocated, "we compare two successive creations of one and the same epoch, such as the faunas of the five divisions of the cretaceous formation, we cannot fail to be struck with the intimate connexion they have with each other. The greater part of the genera are the same: a great part of the species are very closely allied and easily confounded. [Referring to two of these sub-formations,] is it probable that the albian fauna had been completely annihilated, and then, by a new and independent creation, replaced by a fauna altogether new, and so similar to it? I am aware that these facts may be referred to the general plan of creation [that is, a supposed plan, according to which the divine power had operated in its special successive creative operations]; but is the mind entirely satisfied with this explanation?" We may echo the last question. Can we be content to assume-for, after all, it is assumption-that a series of miraculous creations was invariably to be in the manner of a piecing on and blending from one to another, when we have the alternative of presuming (grant it were to be left to presumption alone) that these connexions are only memorials of a natural law presiding over the development of the whole organic creation, and making it one

and not many things? We can only wonder that a man learned in the subject can see such a difficulty as he has here stated, and find it more easily passed over than the bare fact that certain mammalia have not changed for three thousand years,for such is the only difficulty he states on the other side.

It must further be recollected, that we are not only to account for the origination of organic being upon this little planet, third of a series which is but one of hundreds of thousands of series, the whole of which again form but one portion of an apparently infinite globe-peopled space, where all seems analogous. We have to suppose, that every one of these numberless globes is either a theatre of organic being, or in the way of becoming so. This is a conclusion which every addition to our knowledge makes only the more irresistible. Is it conceivable, as a fitting mode of exercise for creative intelligence, that it should be constantly paying a special attention to the creation of species, as they may be required in each situation throughout those worlds, at particular times? Is such an idea accordant with our general conception of the dignity, not to speak of the power, of the Great Author? Yet such is the notion which we must form, if we adhere to the doctrine of special exercise. Let us see, on the other hand, how the doctrine of a creation in the manner of law agrees with this expanded view of the organic world.

Unprepared as most men may be for such an announcement, there can be no doubt that we are able, in this limited sphere, to form some satisfactory conclusions as to the plants and animals of those other spheres which move at such immense distances from us. Suppose that the first persons of an early nation who made a ship and ventured to sea in it, observed, as they sailed along, a set of objects which they had never before seen-namely, a fleet of other ships-would they not have been justified in supposing that those ships were occupied, like their own, by human beings, possessing hands to row and steer, eyes to watch the signs of the weather, intelligence to guide them from one place to another-in short, beings in all respects like themselves, or

only showing such differences as they knew to be producible by difference of climate and habits of life? Precisely in this manner we can speculate on the inhabitants of remote spheres. We see that matter has originally been diffused in one mass, of which the spheres are portions. Consequently, inorganic matter must be presumed to be everywhere the same, although possibly with differences in the proportions of ingredients in different globes, and also some difference of conditions. Out of a certain number of the elements of inorganic matter are composed organic bodies, both vegetable and animal: such must be the rule in Jupiter and in Sirius, as it is here. We, therefore, are all but certain that herbaceous and ligneous fibre, that flesh and blood, are the constituents of the organic beings of all those spheres which are as yet seats of life. Gravitation we see to be an all-pervading principle: therefore there must be a relation between the spheres and their respective organic occupants, by virtue of which they are fixed, as far as necessary on the surface. Such a relation, of course, involves details as to the density and elastictity of structure, as well as size of the organic tenants, in proportion to the gravity of the respective planets-peculiarities, however, which may quite well consist with the idea of a universality of certain types, such as we see exemplified upon earth. We come to comparative matter of detail, when we advert to heat and light; yet it is important to consider that these are universal agents, and that, as they bear marked relations to organic life and structure on earth, they may be presumed to do so in other spheres also. The considerations as to light are particularly interesting, for, on our globe, the structure of one important organ, almost universally distributed in the animal kingdom, is in direct and precise relation to it. Where there is light there will be eyes, and these, in other spheres, will be the same in all respects as the eyes of tellurian animals, with only such differences as may be necessary to accord with minor peculiarities of condition and of situation.'

'The fishes that inhabit our own deep seas are circumstanced, as regards light, very much like the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune.- Correspondent.

It is but a small stretch of the argument to suppose that, one conspicuous organ of a large portion of our animal kingdom being thus universal, a parity in all the other organs-species for species, class for class, kingdom for kingdom-is highly likely, and that thus the inhabitants of all the other globes of space bear not only a general, but a particular resemblance to those of

our own.

It must be obvious, that, if organic beings are thus universally distributed, the idea of their having all come into existence through the power of God acting by the laws everywhere applicable, is strictly conformable to the principle suggested for our own limited sphere. As by one set of laws he produced all orbs, their motions and geognostic arrangements, so by another set of laws he may be supposed to have overspread them all with life. The whole productive or creative arrangements would thus appear in unity.

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PARTICULAR CONSIDERATIONS

RESPECTING

THE ORIGIN OF THE ANIMATED TRIBES.

PROBABILITY being shown as in favour of a natural mode of origin for living beings, it becomes necessary to inquire how far the notion is countenanced by the constitution of organic bodies, and if any trace is observable in organic nature of such a means and method on the part of its Creator.

To the generality of men of science, it either appears that the origin of the animated creation is an impenetrable mystery, or that, by reason of the invariable production of like by like in our age, we only can suppose for it an origin exceptive in its character from the ordinary procedure of the deity in nature. Nevertheless, there are many facts which very much favour the idea that a rise of life out of inorganic elements is within the scope of the natural operations of deity, albeit we cannot pretend to know much of the absolute character of life itself.

First, with regard to the constituents of organic bodies, it is found that they are merely a selection of the elementary substances which form the inorganic or non-vitalized world. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, are the chief. The first combinations of these in animals are into what are called proximate principles, as albumen, fibrin, &c., out of which the animal body is composed. So far from there being anything peculiar or