DARWINISM AND DIVINITY. i 97 



lace has described what he calls protective resemblances. A butterfly 

 which precisely suits the palates of certain birds would be speedily ex- 

 terminated if it were not for an ingenious device. It cleverly passes 

 itself off under false colors by imitating the external shape of some 

 other butterfly, which the bird considers as disgusting. So oysters, if 

 they were quick enough, might evade the onslaught of human appe- 

 tites by taking the external resemblance of periwinkles. A very simi- 

 lar variety of protective resemblance may be detected in the history 

 of opinions. The old-fashioned doctrine remains essentially the same, 

 but it changes its phraseology so as to look exactly like its intrusive 

 rival. "We have already given an instance. It is permissible, it ap- 

 pears, for orthodox Catholics to hold that the series of facts alleged by 

 Mr. Darwin actually occurred, and that the ape changed by slow de- 

 grees into the man ; only they must save themselves by calling the 

 process miraculous, and thus, for a time at least, the old theory may 

 be preserved. Perhaps it will strike people, in the course of years, that 

 if all the phenomena conform to the law established by philosophers, it 

 is rather absurd to say that they do not conform in virtue of the law, 

 but in virtue of a specific interference of Divine power. Still the in- 

 genuity of the artifice is obvious, and it affords an instructive example 

 of the method of reconciling old things and new. In the same way, 

 the theological doctrine of development mimics the historical accounts 

 of the process by which opinions have actually been formed. Just as 

 the skeptic rashly fancies that he has brought matters to a conclusive 

 issue, the theologian evades his grasp by putting on the external form 

 of the very doctrines which he has been opposing. 



Thus, for example, Dr. Newman argues in the " Grammar of Assent " 

 for the doctrine of the Atonement, on the ground (among others) that 

 a similar belief is found to exist in all barbarous nations. It may seem 

 strange, he goes on to say, that he should take his ideas of natural re- 

 ligion from the initial and not from the final stage of human develop- 

 ment. His " answer is obvious," and it comes shortly to this, that our 

 " so-called civilization " is a one-sided development of man's nature, 

 favoring the intellect, but neglecting the conscience ; and that, there- 

 fore, it is " no wonder that the religion in which it issues has no sym- 

 pathy with the hopes and fears of the awakened soul, or with those 

 frightful presentiments which are expressed in the worship and the tra- 

 ditions of the heathen." In simpler times the resemblances between 

 the heathen and the orthodox religion would have been indignantly 

 denied, or regarded as diabolic parodies. Now, the Catholic divine is 

 as ready as the philosopher to trace out the analogy, though he puts a 

 different interpretation upon it. The philosopher, that is, regards the 

 Catholic religion as preserving the remains of older forms of thought 

 which are gradually expiring under the influence of free inquiry. The 

 divine accepts just the same facts, but he regards the old barbarous 

 superstition as a dim reflection of revealed troths, while a satisfactory 



