stem, and resulted in the completion of that system in
the form which it now bears, or at least in the final adjustment of
the motions and relations of the earth; and we have reason to believe
that the condensation of the luminous envelope around the sun was one
of the most important of these changes. On the hypothesis of La Place,
already referred to as most in accordance with the earlier stages of
the work, there seems to be no especial reason why the completion of
the process of elaboration of the sun and planets should be
accelerated at this particular stage. We can easily understand,
however, that those closing steps which brought the solar system into
a state of permanent and final equilibrium would form a marked epoch
in the work; and we can also understand that now, on the eve of the
introduction of animal life, there is a certain propriety in the
representation of the Creator interfering to close up the merely
inorganic part of his great work, and bring this department at least
to its final perfection. The fourth day, then, in geological language,
marks _the complete introduction of "existing causes" in inorganic
nature_, and we henceforth find no more creative interference, except
in the domain of organization. This accords admirably with the
deductions of modern geology, and especially with that great principle
so well expounded by Sir Charles Lyell, and which forms the true basis
of modern geological reasonings--that we should seek in existing
causes of change for the explanation of the appearances of the rocks
of the earth's crust. Geology probably carries us back to the
introduction of animal life; and shows us that since that time land,
sea, and atmosphere, summer and winter, day and night--all the great
inorganic conditions affecting animal life--have existed as at
present, and have been subject to modifications the same in kind with
those which they now experience, though perhaps different in degree.
In this ancient record we find in like manner that the period
immediately preceding the creation of animals witnessed the completion
of all the great general arrangements on which these phenomena
depend. The Bible, therefore, and science agree in the truth that
existing causes have been in full force since the creation of animals;
and that since that period the exercise of creative power has been
limited to the organic world. This has a curious bearing, not often
thought of, on modern theories of evolution a