47 



origin in nn infinitely varied creative power, showing by its 

 strange and complex variety that evidently no conditions 

 organisations, nor conihinations were an impossibility. 

 Sciciititic observations as they arc extended seem to show 

 rather the absence of law than the existence of if, or rathei*, as 

 I should phrase it, an infinitely creative power and inex- 

 haustible mind.* 



If I were to pursue the argument further I should reason 

 thus : In the theory of natural selection we ought to perceive 

 a certain congruity between organisations and the circum- 

 stances of their existence. This is no more than what was 

 formerly used as an argument of design. Thus in the case of 

 limpets with conical shells of simple structure, breathing by 

 gills, and living sometimes in and sometimes out of salt 

 water, digesting sea weed by means of a certain pattern of 

 odontophore, we see conditions of life well ba anced, as we 

 interpret them, to meet their requirements. lu the land and 

 freshwater mollusca we meet with more complex shells, 

 breathing by lungs, and odontophore adapted to the food and 

 th^^ other conditions, and in this case also we may find very 

 close relations between the conditions of life and the organis- 

 ation. But all our infei'ences are set at naught, upon meeting 

 a limpet with every habit and condition of life that is shared 

 by its marine relations, but with lungs and an organisation 

 exactly like land and fresh water mollusca. It will be urged 

 that such instances are destructive equally of the argument of 

 design. But this I i*eadily admit, and I must say that one 

 service which the theory of natural selection has rendered is in 

 destroying this argument by showing that it can be read back- 

 wards. It is a conti'adiction of infiuite power to suppose it to 

 be tied to certain means to attain an end. The truth lies the 

 other way, as such instances as the anomalous Siphonaria (the 

 pulmoniferous marine mollusca referred to) show us. What 

 makes the anomaly still moi'e striking is that the genus is 

 confined to the eastern hemisphere. Three species supposed 

 to be of that genus are found in the Miocene of Europe, 



* The following very apposite passage from Butler's Analogy is worth 

 recalling : — " The thing objected against this scheme " (he is speaking 

 of the Gospel) "is that it seems to suppose God was reduced to the 

 necessity of a long series of intricate means in order to accomplish His 



ends As men, for want of understanding, or power, not 



l>eing able to come at their ends, directly, are forced to go roundabout ways, 

 and make use of many perplexed contrivances to arrive at them. Now 



everj-thing which we see shows the folly of this For, according 



to our manner of concei^tion, God makes use of a variety of means. . . 

 for the accomphshment of His ends. Indeed, it is certain, there is some- 

 what in this matter quite beyond our comprehension, but the mysttrij is as 

 yrmt in nature as, in Christianity." — Butler's Analogy, part 2, chap. 4. The 

 italics are my own. 



