They believed that relationships between species could be discerned from developmental patterns in embryology, as well as in the fossil record, but that these relationships represented an underlying pattern of divine thought, with progressive creation leading to increasing complexity and culminating in humanity.
Oni su vjerovali da se odnosi među vrstama mogu razaznati iz razvojnih obrazaca u embriologiji kao i u fosilnim ostatcima, no da ti odnosi predstavljaju temeljni obrazac božanske misli s progresivnom kreacijom koja vodi povećavanju složenosti i kulminirajući u čovječanstvu.