154 EVOLUTION [CHAP. Ill 



Letter 105 To C. Lyell. 



Down, June i;th [1860]. 



One word more upon the Deification l of Natural Selec- 

 tion : attributing so much weight to it does not exclude still 

 more general laws, i.e. the ordering of the whole universe. 

 I have said that Natural Selection is to the structure of 

 organised beings what the human architect is to a building. 

 The very existence of the human architect shows the 

 existence of more general laws ; but no one, in giving credit 

 for a building to the human architect, thinks it necessary to 

 refer to the laws by which man has appeared. 



No astronomer, in showing how the movements of planets 

 are due to gravity, thinks it necessary to say that the law of 

 gravity was designed that the planets should pursue the courses 

 which they pursue. I cannot believe that there is a bit more 

 interference by the Creator in the construction of each species 

 than in the course of the planets. It is only owing to Paley 

 and Co., I believe, that this more special interference is 

 thought necessary with living bodies. But we shall never 

 agree, so do not trouble yourself to answer. 



I should think your remarks were very just about 

 mathematicians not being better enabled to judge of 

 probabilities than other men of common-sense. 



I have just got more returns about the gestation of hounds. 

 The period differs at least from sixty-one to seventy-four 

 days, just as I expected. 



I was thinking of sending the Gardeners' Chronicle to you, 

 on account of a paper by me on the fertilisation of orchids by 

 insects, 2 as it involves a curious point, and as you cared about 

 my paper on kidney beans ; but as you are so busy, I will not. 



1 " If we confound ' Variation 3 or ' Natural Selection' with such crea- 

 tional laws, we deify secondary causes or immeasurably exaggerate their 

 influence " (Lyell, The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, 

 with Remarks on Theories on the Origin of Species by Variation^ p. 469, 

 London, 1863). See letter 131. 



2 " Fertilisation of British Orchids by Insect Agency." This article in 

 the Gardeners' Chro?iicle of June 9th, 1860, p. 528, begins with a request 

 that observations should be made on the manner of fertilisation in the 

 bee- and in the fly-orchis. 



