“What a magnificent view one can take of the world: Astronomical
causes, modified by unknown ones, cause changes in geography &
changes of climate superadded to change of climate from physical
causes – these superinduce changes of form in the organic world,
as adaptation & these changing affect each other, & their bodies, by
certain laws of harmony keep perfect in these themselves – instincts
alter, reason is formed, & the world peopled with Myriads of distinct
forms from a period short of eternity to the present time, to the
future – How far grander than idea from cramped imagination that
God created. ... How beneath dignity of him, who is supposed to
have said let there be light & there is light.”