Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-11-24
CREATION PROGRESSIVE.

Whether we look to the inspired record in
Genesis, or the disclosures of geology, we are
taught that the work of creation was pro-
gressive one. First, there may have been a
time when the earth was simply mineral; then
it appears clothed with plants animals in due
time came forth to browse upon them and,
as completion, man stands up to gaze with
intelligent eye upon the whole. There is a
unity of plan running along this series. The
plant, when it comes, is higher than the mine
ral-a new power, the vital, has been superin-
duced; but still the organic is dependent for
the nourishment on the inorganic, and all the
forces which operate in the mineral are active
in the plant. When the animal appears, it
has something not in the plant-in particular,
1t has power of sensation and voluntary mo-
tion but still it retains all the power that is
I'M the mineral, and is dependent for food on the
vegetable and so clearly are tire plant and
brute allied, that it is difficult to draw line
which will decidedly separate higher forms of
the one from the lower forms of the other.
And when man walks forth to complete all
these objects, it is evident that there is high
er principle in him, which is not in the mine
raj, or in the plant, or in the brute; but it is
just clear that he has affnites with the low
er creation tending upwards to him. Made of
the dust of the ground, his bodily frame is
subject to all the inorganic laws of the world,
and at last returns to the dust out of which it
was formed. AS an organism, he is subject
to all organic laws he needs breath and food
from without, and has an allotted period of
existence. AS an animal, his bones and his
muscles, his very nerves and brain, are after
the same model as those of the brutes like
them, he needs organized matter wlereon TO
feed; and like them, he is susceptible of plea
sure and pain. 1t may be maintained that the
lower animals are, in sense, anticipations of
humanity, and have appetites, instincts, at
tachment-as Tor offspring and home-percep-
tions, and sort of intelligence, which, though
not identical with, are homologous to, certain
of the lower endowments of man.
All this does not prove, some would ar
que, that man is merely an upper brute-pos-
sibly sprung from the monkey, or removed
from 1t only as one species is from another.
In his bodily frame he may be simply new
species-the highest organisms-with the fore
limbs turned into hands, and his frame raised
into an upright attitude-even in this so far
anticipated by the ape. But in his soul, en-
dowed with power Of discerning the difference
between good and evil capable of cherish
ing voluntary afiections-w which alone (and not
mere instructive attachments,) are deserving
the name of love-and of rising to the knowl-
edge of God, and Of communion with him !;
by reason of his SOul-responsiblea and immor-
tal-he belongs not merely to a new species
or genius OF nature, but to new order in
creation. In respect to this his nobler part,
he is made not after the likeness of the brute.
but after the image of God. He stands on
this earth, but with the upright face he looks
upward to heaven.-Hugh Miller.