Every individual, whatever its species or order, begins and increases until it attains to its state of fullest development, under certain fixed laws, and in consequence of their operation. The microscopic monad developes into a fœtus, the fœetus into a child, the child into a man; and, however marvellous the process, in none of its stages is there the slightest mixture of miracle;—from beginning to end, all is progressive development, according to a determinate order of things. Has Nature, during the vast geologic periods, been pregnant, in like manner, with the human race? and is the species, like the individual, an effect of progressive development, induced and regulated by law? The assertors of the revived hypothesis of Maillet and Lamarck reply in the affirmative. Nor, be it remarked, is there positive atheism involved in the belief. God might as certainly have originated the species by a law of development, as he maintains it by a law of development;—the existence of a First Great Cause is as perfectly compatible with the one scheme as with the other: and it may be necessary thus broadly to state the fact, not only in justice to the Lamarckians, but also fairly to warn their non-geological opponents, that in this contest the old anti-atheistic arguments, whether founded on the evidence of design or on the preliminary doctrine of final causes, cannot be brought to bear.