of which there is no manifestation until about the time when man was created.

Assuming that in successive geologic periods plants have been formed according to the same law, an assumption fairly warranted by facts,-Dr. Dickie has inferred that the association of colours will be similar, that is, they will harmonise with the forms of the plants. Accordingly, the prevailing colours in any geologic period may be determined by the prevailing forms of its vegetable life. In the earlier geological periods,-when ferns were the chief forms,-green, purple, and russet gave the landscape a sombre character; and in a subsequent stage, when cone-bearing plants rose everywhere, the general dulness was but little lessened. Not until the beginning of the chalk formation, is there a very evident advance towards existing forms and colours. Not, indeed, until the latest period, that nearest to Man,do we find the flowers which most enhance our pleasures invested with their fascinating colours, and so arranged as to exhibit those principles of science which Schools of Art are struggling to represent. "In a skilful piece of art, the more prominent figures are made to rise out of colours which attract no notice. It is the same in the beautiful canvas which is spread out before us in earth and sky. The groundcolours of nature, if not all neutral, are at least all soft and retiring. How grateful should we be that the sky is not usually dressed in red; that the clouds are not painted crimson; that the carpet of grass on which we tread is not yellow, and the trees are not decked with orange leaves! The soil, in most places, is a sort of brown; the mature trunks of trees commonly take some kind of neutral hue; the true colour of the sky is a soft blue, except when covered with grey clouds; and the foliage of vegetation is a refreshing green. It is out from the midst of these that the more regular and elegant

forms, and the gayer colours of nature, come forth to arrest the attention, to excite and dazzle us, not only by their own splendour, but by comparison and contrast." 1

Pains must be taken by art students to determine what colours should be in juxtaposition, and what kept at a distance from each other. In the manufacture of our finest fabrics, and in staining glass for windows, no one neglects those rules which are prescribed by science and sanctioned by experience; but it is only recently in the history of our civilisation that we have discovered those principles according to which colours in nature have been associated from the beginning. The colours suit us. They meet our taste; they delighted us in childhood and they please us in our advancing years. Not a flower in the field or the forest, not a coloured shell in sea or river, that fails to illustrate or exemplify permanent principles. Even the commonest of all our early favourites, shows the beautiful distribution of colours with as much exactness as the cell of the honey-bee or the whorl of the shell its mechanical lines.

How is it that the plants, the land animals, and the fishes, most conducive to man's wellbeing, only first exist when he comes in view? how is it that the minerals, the metals, the coals, the salt, the all things he needs, are stored within his reach? how is it that not until near the human period, the colours in nature are so harmonised alike in their gayer and their most subdued aspects, as most to give him delight? and how has man become so constituted as to be in such delicate relation to all around him? Surely there is benevolent purpose in all this.

In his well-known work on "The Origin of Species," Mr. Darwin asks you to believe that these beautiful adaptations

1 "Typical Forms and Special Ends," pp. 152, 153.

are not in the least due to design, but to the slow operations and decisions of natural selection, if indeed there can be decision without design. The very colours which man most admires are, according to this school of theorists, in no way representative of purpose. That the sky is blue and not scarlet, that the leaves of the landscape are not yellow and the soil not crimson, are the chance evolutions of this mysterious something, which has neither intelligence nor beginning of days. The mere suggestion that all this wealth of beauty in varied colours, and proportion in form, and gracefulness of movement, and the tint of the atmosphere are, in any respect, an end and not accidental, Mr. Darwin resentfully rejects. They are with him no part of a plan, nor are they intended to please. It is really difficult to believe in the possibility of such convictions as are seriously asserted. "Some naturalists," he says, "believe that very many structures have been created for beauty in the eyes of men, or for mere variety. This doctrine, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory." It comes to this, that the theory which you are asked to accept instead of that record in the first chapter of Genesis, is one which gives beauty without an end, laws without an author, works without a maker, and coordination without design. He excludes from creation, the idea of intended beauty. Man's history began, he knows not how, millions of millions of years ago, in that first germ of life out of which have been developed all plants and animals, by those processes, complicated and undefinable, which transpired, until, at last, he rose on the theatre of life, its crown and glory, "fearfully made" in body and still more mysteriously framed in spirit. To these facts we shall more fully direct your attention at a subsequent stage.

1 "Origin of Species," p. 219. See Phillips's "Life on Earth,” p. 63.

With what majestic comprehensiveness and precision must Natural Selection have guided all processes and struggles, when the lowest lichen or simplest spore has risen to be the apple tree, the peach, the plum, the nectarine, the wheat, the thyme, and the other grains and herbs necessary for man just before he came; with what precision did the lowest worms rise to be the fishes, the birds, and the quadrupeds he most needed; and with what astonishing parallel exactness did the chemical processes keep pace with all other movements in earth, and sea, and sky, when, in the use of the soil, in the structure of plants, in their form, in their foliage, in their flowers, there issued at last the distribution of those very forms and colours which not only most conduce to man's comfort but to the gratification of his taste! In separate spheres and without connection,-in the inorganic masses of the globe,-in plant and animal life,-in the atmosphere and in the heavens,-through long, fitful, imperfect, and frequently unfinished processes,-natural selection has been at work, and without a purpose, or design, or end in any shape, has given to the world its present wondrous structure, and to all life its present subtle characters. This whole theory draws excessively on our imagination, and raises difficulties incomparably greater than all those which Rationalism has conjured up against the miracles of the Bible.

CHAPTER VII.

The Bible Account of Man's Origin-The Opinion that he was Miraculously Born-The Theory that he was Naturally Developed.

"What man holds of matter, does not make up his personality. Man is not an organism, he is an intelligence served by organs; they are his, not he."-Sir William Hamilton.

H

AVING examined the geological evidence, showing the preparation of the earth for the human race, let us next inquire into

I.-MAN'S ORIGIN.

Whence is man? Was he miraculously born of some creature nearly human, as some Christian apologists are disposed to believe? Was he evolved from some germ of life originated untold ages ago, as some naturalists have endeavoured to demonstrate? or was he miraculously made of the dust of the earth, as the Scriptures have distinctly affirmed? While we have been taught to accept what the Scriptures have declared on this subject, we are not at liberty to disregard those difficulties which have weighed with others, nor the solutions which have satisfied them. Let us examine those accounts of man's origin which are at present most engaging attention.

1. The Bible Account.-It has the merit of explicitness, and is thoroughly intelligible. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over all the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. So God created man in his own