the period of physical development is extended over a considerable space of time, but in the original creation, the seed having been first formed, development proceeded more immediately to that fulness essential to self- sustenance, which in no case necessarily required a further development at birth than is yet common with some animals.
Since the creative forces are from the Creator, who, being infinite and eternal, is unchangeable, they are constant in their efforts to bring forth. His vital action still makes every particle of the spiritual atmosphere an image of Himself by imparting to it His nature in a degree, and by filling it with His own energy to create. This creating endeavor, constantly proceeding from Him, finds nature responsive in seeds and in organized bodies, and thus perpetually clothes itself through existing plants and animals, and forms their offspring. The constancy of the creative forces and their perpetual endeavor to shape matter in correspondential forms is exemplified in the crystallization of minerals, in the plant-like disposition of the frost upon the windows, and in the arborescent forms in dendrite.
The Creator, being a Divine Human Person, as has been shown in a previous chapter, and thence having the faculty of volition and direc-
