It would be an insult to reason to deny the power of the Omnipotent to create at once plants and animals out of inorganic or any kind of matter: on the other hand, it would be equally irrational to doubt His power to ordain and sustain laws, through the instrumentality of which originally created organisms could be modified and adapted to external changes. The two modes may be designated,—the first, Autotheogeny,—and the second, Genetheonomy.

I hold that an organism, whether it typifies a species, a genus, a family, an order, or a class, is an autotheogen, if it possesses a set of characters which isolate it from other equivalent groups; also, that such an organism, through being acted on by inherent and external forces, may become more or less modified, thereby resulting in genetheonomous forms. I see no reason why Mr. Darwin should not admit the same, notwithstanding that his present belief merely recognizes among animals “at most only four or five” autotheogenous roots of apparently as many classes. On psychological grounds alone, Man must be regarded as isolated from all other organisms; hence I consider him to be an autotheogenous species.