istocracy of nature? Are the beings which we
call inferior only the cadets of the universe, and are they too in their
turn to mount all the steps of the ladder? Must we admit that there is
going on the continual production, not only of living cellules which are
beginning new series of generations, but also of new matter, which,
setting out from the most rudimentary condition, is beginning the
evolution which is to raise it into life? They do not venture to put
forth theses of this nature, and, in order to account for the diversity
of things, recourse is had to circumstances. The diversity of
circumstances explains the diversity of developments. But whence can
come the variety of circumstances in a world where all is produced in
the way of fatal necessity, and without the intervention of a will and
an intelligence? This is the remark of Newton. Study carefully the
systems of materialism: their authors declare that to have recourse to
God in order to account for the universe is a puerile conception
unworthy of science, because all explanation must be referred to fixed
and immutable laws; and then you will be for ever surprising them in the
very act of the adoration of _circumstances_. Convenient deities these,
which they summon to their aid in cases which they find embarrassing.

But we will not insist on these preliminary considerations. We have
allowed, for argument's sake, that all organized beings have proceeded
by means of generation from cellules presenting to sensible observation
similar appearances. Natural history cannot prove, nor even attempt to
prove, more. Let us transport ourselves, in thought, to the moment at
which the highest points of the continents were for the first time
emerging from the primitive ocean. We see, on the parts of the soil
which are half-dried, and in certain conditions of heat and electricity,
particles of matter draw together and form those rudiments of organism
which are called living cellules. These cellules have the marvellous
faculty of self-propagation, and the faculty, not less marvellous, of
transmitting to their posterity the favorable modifications which they
have undergone. Generations succeed one another; gradually they form
separate branches. New characteristics show themselves; the organisms
become complicated, and becoming complicated they separate. The
vegetable is distinguished from the animal; the plant which will become
the palm-tree is distinguished from the oak which