Page:Evolution and Natural Selection in the Light of the New Church.djvu/9

Rh and ﬁxed laws, in no degree involves any limitation of His Power. Law implies Intelligence, and therefore the manifestation of law in all the works of Creation incontestably proves that God's Power acts intelligently and according to the wisest method that His inﬁnite Love and Wisdom can devise. Without Intelligence there can be no Law, without Law there can be no Order, and without Order no good or useful work can ever be accomplished.

This subject would be incomplete without some notice of development in its higher aspect, as effected in each human being during the process of regeneration. In the work of regeneration, that is, the new birth of the human soul into a true and perfect man, there is a process of mental and spiritual development, each succeeding and higher affection in the perfecting soul being a progressive development, not from, but still dependent upon, each preceding affection; even as each succeeding and higher material form in the work of creation was a progressive development, not from, but still dependent upon, previously existing forms. But each material form in the process of creation, and each spiritual affection in the process of regeneration, are only distinct steps in the Divine plan of progress; and the writer can no more believe that the first and lowest material form contained the power, inherent in itself, to develop. into a sheep or tiger, a dove or eagle, a monkey or a man, than he can believe that the ﬁrst and lowest affection in the human mind has the inherent power to develop itself into a perfect man, free from all impurity and sin.

The theory of, that is, the variations of structural form resulting from change in surrounding conditions, and the consequent increased use or disuse of certain organs, which, to some extent, forms part of the