466 Science and the Bible. [July,
able
assurance, therefore, that what we read, we read aright, if reason is
just to itself and to its Author. We hence speak confidently when we
say that science has traced out the history of the earth from its youth
onward; that it has noted its featureless beginnings, a mere globe of
fire ; its spreading lands and multiplying rocks, forming continents
and rising mountains, coming forth in order; till, finally, it
appeared finished, with all its diversity of detail, in climate,
surface, rivers and oceans, fitted for its great destiny. So we have
read, too clearly to doubt, respecting a parallel progress in living
beings, from the time of their first appearance : the earlier tribes,
of inferior grade; then others, ranging to a higher level in species ;
and so on, gaining in superiority, through the ages, according to an
exact system. And we have learned, besides, that all this progress,
both of lands and life, reached its culminant point in man.
There
is progress, therefore, and progress by law, as truly as in any
developing germ. The details on this point were, to some extent, given
in our first Article. We now pass to the consideration of the question :
What is the true idea of Nature''s individuality ?
Among species, in the world, there are two kinds of individuality : the inorganic and the organic. Only
the last involves in itself any true progress, or the principle of
cyclical developments; and this, alone, can be the type of any plan of
progress in nature. Still, the inorganic is at the basis of the
organic and of universal laws. We therefore may review some of the
characteristics of individuals in this, as introductory to a statement
of those in the other, department of nature.
I. Inorganic Individuals.
1. Made of matter, combining or accreting through its ultimate forces,1 and reaching its perfection of individuality in
1
It should be understood that modem science knows of no forces in nature
but those that were early recognized by man. She has only studied out
the
