100 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



simple i^article of protoplasm, unendowed with any distinctive forces, 

 then the whole of the complex phenomena of animal and vegetable 

 life are effects without causes. Protoplasm may be chemically the 

 same substance, and the germ-cell of a man and of a fish may be ap- 

 parently the same, so far as the microscope can decide ; but if certain 

 cells produce men, and others as uniformly produce a given species of 

 fish, there must be a hidden constitution determining the extremely 

 different results. If this were not so, the generation of every living 

 creature from the uniform germ would have to be regarded as a dis- 

 tinct act of arbitrary creation. 



Theologians have dreaded the establishment of the theories of 

 Darwin and Spencer, as if they thought that those theories could ex- 

 plain every thing upon the purest mechanical and material principles, 

 and exclude all notions of design. They do not see that those theo- 

 ries have opened up more questions than they have closed. The doc- 

 trine of Evolution gives a complete explanation of no single living 

 form. While showing the general princij)les which prevail in the 

 variation of living creatures, it only points out the infinite complexity 

 of the causes and circumstances w^hich have led to the present state 

 of things. Any one of Mr. Darwin's books, admirable though they 

 all are, consists but in the setting forth of a multitude of indetermi- 

 nate problems. He proves in the most beautiful manner, that each 

 flower of an orchid is adapted to some insect which frequents and fer- 

 tilizes it, and these adaptations are but a few cases of those immensely 

 numerous ones which have occurred throughout the life of plants and 

 animals. But why orchids should have been formed so differently 

 from other plants, why any thing, indeed, should be as it is, rather than 

 in some of the other infinitely numerous possible modes of existence, 

 he can never show. The origin of every thing that exists is wrapped 

 up in the past history of the universe. At some one or more points 

 in past time there must have been arbitrary determinations which led 

 to the production of things as they are. 



The following article, upon the same general subject, recently 

 appeared in Church and State : 



The last lecture in the course on " Christian Truth and Modern 

 Opinion " Avas delivered in Christ Church, N'ew York. The subject 

 was, " Evolution and a Personal Creator." Dr. Smith commenced 

 by saying that while he was very far from being an advocate for the- 

 theory of evolution, it was no part of his purpose to attempt its refuta- 

 tion. He expressed the opinion, judging from former conflicts between 

 religious and scientific theories, and the evident tendency of scientific 

 investigation and discovery, that not many years would pass away 

 before some theory of evolution would be generally accepted by edu- 



