An Expository Outline of the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 2

and
material conclusion, his address, like that of the apostle of temperance,
is mostly mild and equable, with occasionally a little gentlemanly
fervour to give animation to his discourse. His style is mostly felicitous,
sometimes beautiful, lucid, precise, and elevated. In tone and manner of
execution, in quiet steadiness of purpose, in the firm, intrepid spirit
with which truth, or that which is conceived to be true, is followed,
regardless of startling presentments, the Vestiges call to mind the
Mecanique Celeste, or Système du Monde. In caution, as in science, the
author is immeasurably inferior to LAPLACE; but in magnitude and
boldness of design he transcends the illustrious Frenchman. LAPLACE

sought no more than to subject the celestial movements to the formulas
of analysis, and reconcile to common observation terrestrial
appearances; but our author is far more ambitious--more venturesome
in aim--which is nothing less than to lift the veil of ISIS, and solve the
phenomena of universal nature. With what success remains to be
considered. That great skill and cleverness, that a very superior mastery
is evinced, we have conceded, and, we will also add, great show of
fairness in treatment and conclusion.
No partial opening is made; the great design, in all its extent, is
manfully grappled with. The universe is first surveyed, next the
mystery of its origin. After ranging through sidereal space, examining
the bodies found there, their arrangement, formation, and evolution, the
author selects our own planet for especial interrogation. He
disembowels it, scrutinizing the internal evidences of its structure and
history, and thence infers the causes of past vicissitudes, existing
relations, and appearances. These disposed of, the surface is explored,
the phenomena of animal and vegetable existence contemplated, and
the sources of vital action, sexual differences, and diversities of species
assigned. Man, as the supreme head and last work of progressive
creation, challenges a distinct consideration; his history and mental
constitution are investigated, and the relation in which a sublime reason
stands to the instinct of brutes discriminated. The end and purpose of
all appropriately form the concluding theme, which finished, the
curtain drops, and the last sounds heard are that the name of the Great
Unknown will probably never be revealed; that "praise will elicit no
response," nor any "word of censure" be parried or deprecated.
"Give me," exclaimed ARCHIMEDES, "a fulcrum, and I will raise the
earth." "Give me," says the author of the Vestiges, "gravitation and
development, and I will create a universe." ALEXANDER'S ambition
was to conquer a world, our author's is to create one. But he is wrong in
saying that his is the "first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a
history of creation, and thence to eliminate a view of nature as one
grand system of causation." The attempt has been often made, but
utterly failed; its results have been found valueless, hurtful--to have
occupied without enlarging the intellect, and the very effort has long

been discountenanced. Great advances, however, have been made in
science since system-making began to be discredited; nature has been
perseveringly ransacked in all her domains, and many extraordinary
secrets drawn from her laboratory. Astronomy and geology, chemistry
and electricity, have greatly extended the bounds of knowledge; still,
we apprehend, we are not yet sufficiently armed with facts to resolve
into one consistent whole her infinite variety.
Efforts at generalization, however, and the systematic arrangement of
natural phenomena, are seldom wholly fruitless. If false, they tend to
provoke discussion--to lead to active thought and useful research. A
solitary truth, though new and useful, rarely obtains higher distinction
than to be quietly placed on the rolls of science, while a bold
speculation, traversing the whole field of creation, and smoothing all its
difficulties, satisfies for the moment, and fixes general attention. Of
this the Vestiges of Creation are an example. Without adding to our
positive knowledge by a single new discovery, demonstration, or
experiment, they have excited more interest than the Principia of
NEWTON. From this popular success, if good do not accrue, no great
evil need be anticipated. Hypotheses are most hurtful when accredited
by an irreversible authority--when erected into a tribunal without
appeal, they become the arbitrary dictator in lieu of the handmaid of
science. Discussion and invention, in place of being stimulated, are
then fettered by them; the human mind is enslaved, as Europe was for
centuries by the Physics of ARISTOTLE, and still continues to be in
some of the ancient retreats and conservatories of exploded errors. But
these form the exceptions, not the rule of the age, which is free and
equal inquiry. Errors have ceased to have prescriptive immunities; and
mere conjectures, however sanctioned or plausible, if inconsistent with
science--with the ascertained facts of experiment and observation, are
speedily passed into the region of dreams and chimeras.
Whether this will