Chapter X X IV .
Conclusion.
I n our last Chapter we have considered the N a ture
o f the Evidence afforded by unorganized
mineral bodies, in proof o f the existence o f design
in the original adaptation o f the material E le ments
to their various functions, in the inorganic
and organic departments o f the Natural World,
and have seen that the only sufficient Explanation
we can discover, o f the orderly and wonderful
dispositions of the material Elements “ in
measure and number and weight, throughout
the terraqueous globe, is that which refers the
origin of every thing above us, and beneath us,
and around us, to the will and workings o f One
Omnipotent Creator. I f the properties imparted
to these Elements at the moment o f their Creation,
adapted them beforehand to the infinity of
complicated useful purposes, which they have
already answered, and may have further still to
answer, under many successive Dispensations in
the material World, such an aboriginal constitution
so far from superseding an intelligent Agent,
would only exalt our conceptions of the consummate
skill and power, that could comprehend
Such an infinity of future uses under future systems,
in the original groundwork of his Creation.
In an early part o f our Enquiry, we traced
back the history o f the Primary rocks, which
composed the first solid materials o f the Globe, to
a probable condition of universal Fusion, incompatible
with the existence of any forms of organic
life; and saw reason to conclude that as
the crust of the Globe became gradually reduced
in temperature, the unstratified crystalline rocks,
and stratified rocks produced by their destruction,
were disposed and modified, during long periods
o f time, by physical forces, the same in kind with
those which actually subsist, but more intense in
their degree of operation ; and that the result has
been to adapt our planet to become the receptacle
o f divers races o f vegetable and animal
beings, and finally to render it a fit and convenient
habitation for Mankind.
We have seen still further that the surface of
the Land, and the Waters o f the Sea have during
long periods, and at distant intervals o f time,
preceding the Creation o f our species, been
peopled with many different races of Vegetables
and Animals, supplying the place of other
races that had gone before th em ; and in all
these phenomena, considered singly, we have
found evidence o f Method and Design. We
have moreover seen such a systematic recurrence
o f analogous Designs, producing various ends by