CHARLES DARWIIf. 129 



Each of these propositions is indisputable and complete in itself. 

 Their p;eneral result is to demonstrate how beneficial variations 

 may be perpetuated, a modified form being thus naturally selected, 

 gradually acquiring and transmitting, through many generations, 

 characters which, by a cumulative process of variation, may 

 ultimately make it specifically distinct from the original form, that 

 form dying out, so that one species gives rise to another. 



The destruction of life is immense. How few of the innumerable 

 spores of fungi ever even germinate ! What a small proportion 

 of the spawn of fishes ever attains maturity ! Of seedlings which 

 spring up, how few survive ! What a great destruction of insects 

 is wrought by birds ! Examples without end could be given of 

 great loss of life. Why is it that so many more individuals of 

 every species are generated that can possibly survive ? If each 

 species were independently created to fill the place prepared for 

 it in the world, and if no species could improve itself in its 

 straggle for existence, this waste of life would be wanton, 

 suffering and early death inexplicable. 



" Are God and Nature then at strife, 

 That Nature lends such evil dreams ? 

 So careful of the type she seems, 

 So careless of the single life. 



* So careful of the type ? ' but no. 

 From scarped cliff and quarried stone 

 She cries, ' A thousand types are gone : 

 I care for nothing, all shall go.' " 



If the views of the special creationist were correct, Tennyson 

 might well ask if God and jS^ature are at strife. Nature is careless 

 of the single life, and careless of the type, that the type may be 

 raised, for if the weakly survived equally well with the strong, 

 there could be no progress. Here at least natural causation and 

 teleology are in harmony, for, " good will be the final goal of ill" 

 because each death " subserves another's gain." 



That this ^dew of progress in the past is an earnest of progress 

 in the future has been well expressed by Dr. J. W. Powell, 

 Director of the United States Geological Survey. He says: "Had 

 philosophers discovered that the generations of living beings were 

 degenerating, they would have discovered despair. Had they dis- 

 covered that life moves by steps of generations in endless circles — 

 that what has been is, and what is shall be, and there is no 

 progress, the gift of science to man would have been worthless. 

 The revelation of science is this : Every generation in life is a step 

 in progress to a higher and fuller life ; science has discovered hope. 



