300 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAr. 



there that intellectual recollection of past moments and 

 that anticipation of future ones which constitute in great 

 part the bitterness of suffering.^ The mouientary pang, the 

 present pain, which beasts endure, thougli real enough, is 

 yet, duubtless, not to be compared as to its intensity with 

 the suilering which is produced in man through his high 

 prerogative of self-consciousness.^ 



As to the " beneficial lines " (of Dr. Asa Gray, l)efore 

 referred to), some of the facts noticed in the preceding chap- 

 ters seem to point very decidedly in that direction, but all 

 must admit that the actual existing outcome is far more 

 "beneticial" than the reverse. The natural universe has 

 resulted in the development of an unmistakable harmony 

 and beauty, and in a decided preponderance of good and of 

 happiness over their opposites. 



Even if " laws of nature " did appear, on the theistic 

 hypothesis, to be " superfluous " (which it is by no means 

 intended here to admit), it would surely be puerile to 

 prefer rejecting the hypothesis to conceiving that the 

 appearance of superfluity was due to human ignorance ; 

 and this especially might be expected from naturalists to 

 whom the interdependence of nature and the harmony 

 and utility of obscure phenomena are becoming con- 

 tinually more apparent, as, e.g., the structure of orchids 

 to their illustrious expositor. 



Having now somewhat cleared the ground, we may turn 

 to the question as to the bearing of Christian dogma upon 



^ See the exceedingly good jtassjige ou tliis subject by tlie Rev. Dr. 

 Newman, in liis "Discourses for Mixed C'ougivgations," 1850, \\ 345. 



2 See Mr. G. H. Lewes's "Sea-Side Studies," for some excellent remarks, 

 beginning at p. 329, as to the small susceptibility of certain animals to 

 pain. 



