Or comet on his farthest journeyings,
Or all the extent which philosophic ken
Has given to infinite space, the elastic soul
Springs over”——
and claims kindred with the image of the heavenly, whence it came, and whither it seeks and aspires to return.
While, therefore, to wild speculations like these nature and geology give no countenance, but demonstrate the reverse to have been the course of creation in all the present, and in every past epoch,—that races, like individuals, have their terms of existence,—that all die out or are violently exterminated,—and that new families are created, adapted to the changes which have taken place, and organically distinct from all that preceded them,—there is, at the same time, a theory of progression and development distinctly traceable in all the divine actings in this world. This view of things is in every stage of it visibly dependent upon His will, as it emanates directly from His appointment, and stands in pleasing contrast to the rationalist phasis of creation.
“Wisdom’s artful aim
Disposing every part, and gaining still
By means proportioned, her benignant end.”