Robert Chambers

But in this lies, perhaps, one of its strongest claims to the faith of mankind.

a fundamental unity pervades and embraces them all, collecting them, from the humblest lichen up to the highest mammifer, in one system, the whole creation of which must have depended upon one law

all the various organic forms of our world are bound up in one

The same law of development presides over the vegetable kingdom. ...where a special function is required for particular circumstances, nature has provided for it, not by a new organ, but by a modification of a common one, which she has …

The limbs of all the vertebrate animals are, in like manner, on one plan, however various they may appear.

variations being merely modifications of that plan to suit the particular conditions in which each particular animal has been designed to live

variations of a fundamental plan

While the external forms of all these various animals are so different, it is very remarkable that the whole are

This statistical regularity in moral affairs fully establishes their being under the presidency of law. Man is now seen to be an enigma only as an individual; in the mass he is a mathematical problem.

to suppose him acting constantly in particular ways for particular occasions.

To a reasonable mind the Divine attributes must appear, not diminished or reduced in any way, by supposing a creation by law, but infinitely exalted. It is the narrowest of all views

prevalent ideas about the organic creation appear only as a mistaken inference from the text, formed at a time when man's ignorance prevented him from drawing therefrom a just conclusion.

all the procedure is represented primarily and pre-eminently as flowing from commands and expressions of will, not from direct acts. ...Thus

only in accordance with the views here taken.

The first chapter of the Mosaic record is

how can we suppose that the august Being who brought all these countless worlds into form by the simple establishment of a natural principle flowing from his mind, was to interfere personally and specially on every occasion when a new …

Some other idea must then be come to with regard to the mode in which the Divine Author proceeded in the organic creation. Let us seek in the history of the earth's formation for a new suggestion on this point.

a somewhat different idea of organic creation from what has hitherto been generally entertained.

can scarcely fail to introduce

a constant shifting as well as advance

to find not only frequent additions to the previously existing forms, but frequent withdrawals

Ascending to the next group of rocks, we find the traces of life become more abundant, the number of species extended, and important additions made

One important remark has been made, that a comparatively small variety of species is found in the older rocks, although of some particular ones the remains are very abundant...

When we come to consider specific characters, we see that a difference exists—that, in short, the species and even genera are no longer represented upon earth. More than this, it will be found that the earliest species comparatively soon …