DARWIN AND HIS REVIEWERS. H3 



causes/' and " all indication of design or purpose in the 

 organic world. ... is neither more nor less than a 

 formal denial of any agency beyond that of a blind 

 chance in the developing or perfecting of the organs or 

 instincts of created beings. ... It is in vain that the 

 apologists of this hypothesis might say that it merely 

 attributes a different mode and time to the Divine 

 agency — that all the qualities subsequently appearing 

 in their descendants must have been implanted, and 

 have remained latent in the original pair." Such 

 a view, the Examiner declares, " is nowhere stated 

 in this book, and would be, we are sure, disclaimed 

 by the author." 



We should like to be informed of the grounds of 

 this sureness. The marked rejection of spontaneous 

 generation — the statement of a belief that all animals 

 have descended from four or five progenitors, and plants 

 from an equal or lesser number, or, perhaps, if con- 

 strained to it by analogy, " from some one primordial 

 form into which life was first breathed " — coupled with 

 the expression, " To my mind it accords better with 

 what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the 

 Creator, that the production and extinction of the past 

 and present inhabitants of the world should have been 

 due to secondary causes," than " that each species has 

 been independently created " — these and similar ex- 

 pressions lead us to suppose that the author probably 

 does accept the kind of view which the Examiner 

 is sure he would disclaim. At least, we charitably 

 see nothing in his scientific theory to hinder his adop- 

 tion of Lord Bacon's " Confession of Faith " in this 

 regard — 



