292 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CnAr. 



bring lorlli grass, tlie lierb yielding seed,' &c., ' let the earth 

 bring forth the living creatnre after his kind' — seems even 

 to imply them," and leads to the conclusion that the 

 various kinds were produced through natural agencies. 



Now, much confusion lias arisen from not keeping 

 clearly in view this distinction between ahsolide creation 

 and (Icrivative erection. Witli the fii'st, physical science has 

 plainly nothing whatever to do, and is impotent to prove 

 or to refute it. The second is also safe irom any attack 

 on the part of physical science, for it is primarily derived 

 from psychical not physical phenomena. The greater part 

 of the apparent force possessed by objectors to creation, like 

 ^Ir. Darwin, lies in their treating the assertion of deriva- 

 tive creation as if it was an assertion of absolute creation, 

 or at least of supernatural action. Tlius, he asks whether 

 some of the opponents believe "that, at innumerable periods 

 in the earth's historv, certain elemental atoms have been 

 commanded suddenlv to flash into livinf]^ tissues." ^ Certain 

 of ^Ir. Darwin's objections, however, are not physical, but 

 mc/aphysical, and really attack the dogma of secondary or 

 derivative creation, though to some perhaps they may 

 appear to be directed against absolute creation only. 



Thus he uses, as an illustration, the conception of a man 

 who builds an edifico from fragments of rock at the base 

 of a precipice, by selecting for the construction of the 

 various parts of the buihling the pieces which are the most 

 suitable owing to the shape they ha])pen to have lu-oken 

 into. Afterwards, adverting to this illustration, he says,- 

 " Tlie shape of the fragments of stone at the base of our 

 precipice may be called accidental, but this is not 



^ "Ori^Hii of Species," 5th edit. p. .571. 



- " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 431. 



