the
particular care of that same Almighty who willed at once the whole means
by which infinity was replenished with its worlds?" ... "Is it
conceivable, as a fitting mode of exercise for Creative Intelligence,
that it should be constantly paying a special attention to the creation
of species, as they may be required in each situation throughout those
worlds at particular times? Is such an idea accordant with our general
conception of the dignity, not to speak of the power, of the Great
Author?" ... "It would be distressing to be compelled to picture the
power of God as put forth _in any other manner_ than in those slow,
mysterious, universal laws which have so plainly an eternity to work
in."[53]

Such is the author's presumptuous decision on a matter which is far "too
high for him." We offer the following remarks upon it:

_First_ of all, let it be observed that, unless on the principle of
absolute Atheism, which he professes to repudiate, he cannot but
acknowledge that _once_, at least, the power of God must have been put
forth _in another manner_ than "in those slow, mysterious, universal
laws" of which he speaks; and that, even if he could succeed in
disproving "repeated interferences of creative power," he could in
nowise dispense with a primitive act of direct, immediate, supernatural
creation, since he does not profess to believe in the eternal existence
of matter and its laws. We find, indeed, that even in the subsequent
acts of a continuous, but mediate creation, he is compelled to
acknowledge a supernatural power as acting, in each individual case,
according to established natural laws; for he says expressly, "There
cannot be _an inherent intelligence in these laws_; the intelligence
appears _external to the laws_, something of which the laws are but as
the expression of the will and power. If this be admitted, the laws
cannot be regarded as primary or independent causes of the phenomena of
the physical world. 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