ADHESION OF A DIVINE. 317 



endless variety of the different animals and plants, which 

 have the appearance of being organized according to a plan 

 for a definite purpose. Meanwhile the question must have 

 already repeatedly presented itself to the reader, how did 

 the first organisms, or that one original and primaeval organ- 

 ism arise, from which we derive all the others ? 



This question Lamarck ^ answered by the hypothesis 

 of spontaneous generation, or archigony. But Darwin 

 passes over and avoids this subject, as he expressly 

 remarks that he has " nothing to do with the origin of 

 the soul, nor with that of life itself" At the conclusion 

 of his work he expresses himself more distinctly in the 

 following words : — " I imagine that probably all organic 

 beinofs which ever lived on this earth descended from 

 some primitive form, which was first called into life by 

 the Creator." Moreover, Darwin, for the consolation of 

 those who see in the Theory of Descent the destruction of 

 the whole "moral order of the universe," appeals to the 

 celebrated author and divine who wrote to him, that 

 " he has gi^adually learnt to see that it is just as noble a 

 conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few 

 original forms capable of self-development into other and 

 needful forms, as to believe that he required a fresh act 

 of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his 

 laws." 



Those to whom the belief in a supernatural creation is an 

 emotional necessity may rest satisfied with this conception. 

 They may reconcile that belief with the Theory of Descent ; 

 for in the creation of a single original organism possessing 

 the capability to develop all others out of itself by inherit- 

 ance and adaptation, they can really find much more cause 

 15 



