ch. in.] RELIGION. 6 



n 



" Although I did not think much about the existence of 

 a personal God until a considerably later period my life, I 

 will here give the vague conclusions to which I have been 

 driven. The old argument from design in Nature, as given 

 by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, 

 now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. 

 We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful 

 hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made bv an intelli- 

 gent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems 

 to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, 

 and in the action of natural selection, than in the course 

 which the wind blows. But I have discussed this subject 

 at the end of my book on the Variation of Domesticated 

 Animals and Plants* and the argument there given has 

 never, as far as I can see, been answered. 



" But passing over the endless beautiful adaptations 

 which we everywhere meet with, it may be asked how can 

 the generally beneficent arrangement of the world be 

 accounted for ? Some writers indeed are so much impressed 

 with the amount of suffering in the world, that they doubt, 

 if we look to all sentient beings, whether there is more of 

 misery or of happiness ; whether the world as a whole is a 

 good or a bad one. According to my judgment happiness 

 decidedly prevails, though this would be very difficult to 

 prove. If the truth of this conclusion be granted, it har- 

 monizes well with the effects which we might expect from 

 natural selection. If all the individuals of any species were 

 habitually to suffer to an extreme degree, they would neg- 

 lect to propagate their kind ; but we have no reason to 

 believe that this has ever, or at least often occurred. Some 

 other considerations, moreover, lead to the belief that all 

 sentient beings have been formed so as to enjoy, as a gen- 

 eral rule, happiness. 



" Every one who believes, as I do, that all the corporeal 

 and mental organs (excepting those which are neither ad- 



* My father asks whether we are to believe that the forms are preordained 

 of the broken fragments of rock which are fitted together by man to build his 

 houses. If not, why should we believe that the variations of domestic animals 

 or plants are preordained for the sake of the breeder ? " But if we give up 

 the principle in one case, ... no shadow of reason can be assigned for 

 the belief that variations, alike in nature and the result of the same general 

 laws, which have been the groundwork through natural selection of the forma- 

 tion of the most perfectly "adapted animals in the world, man included, were 

 intentionally and specially guided.' 1 Variation of Animals and Plants, 1st 

 Edit. vol. ii. p. 431. F. D. 



