We come, in short, to a being beyond Nature,--its Author, its God." ...

"When we speak of Natural Law, we only speak of _the mode in which the Divine power is exercised_; it is but another phrase for _the action of the ever-present and sustaining God_."[54] It is admitted, then, _first_, that there must have been a primary act of creation, in the highest and strictest sense, by a direct and immediate interposition of Divine power, at the commencement of created existence; and, _secondly_, that, even in the continuous work of creation, which is supposed to have been subsequently carried on after the method of development by established natural laws, Divine agency is still equally real, although it is differently manifested, and is indispensably necessary to account for the resulting products.

Now, can it be reasonably asserted that the direct and immediate creation of such a being as Man would be more derogatory to the wisdom and power of God than the primordial production of "a universal Fire-Mist," or even of "electricity and albumen ?" or, will it be pretended that immediate creation of molluscs as molluscs, of fishes as fishes, of reptiles as reptiles, would be less worthy of the great Author of Nature than the establishment of a system which _must_ in due time give them birth, and that, too, not without the concurrence and cooeperation of the Divine will; for "natural law is but another phrase for _the action_ of the ever-present and sustaining God ?" But, while we hold that there is no good ground for an affirmative answer to these questions, we would carefully guard against rushing to the opposite extreme, and affirming, either that the production of new races by the method of natural law was, on _a priori_ grounds, impossible, or that God might not have adopted that method, had He so pleased, in perfect consistency with the manifestation of His wisdom and power.

We see that He has done so, under the actual constitution of Nature, so far as the production of _individuals_ is concerned; we see not why a similar provision might not have been made for the production of _genera and species_.

In either way His power and His wisdom might have been displayed.