310 Darwin and Pangenesis. [ July, 
each particular variation was from the beginning of all time pre- 
ordained, the plasticity of organization, which leads to many injuri- 
ous deviations of structure, as well as that redundant power of 
reproduction which inevitably leads to a struggle for existence, and 
as a consequence to the natural selection or survival of the fittest, 
must appear to us superfluous laws of nature. On the other hand, 
an omnipotent and omniscient Creator ordains everythmg and 
foresees everything. ‘Thus we are brought face to face with a 
difficulty as insoluble as is that of free-will and predestination.” * 
Here we have an illustrated confession of faith (if it can be so 
called), which is well deserving of consideration. 
Truly, those who say that “ natural selection ” explains nothing, 
because the author of the theory does not attempt to “ make clear 
the precise cause of each individual difference,” are unreasonable ; 
but were we to accept the simile of the temple built of stones which 
have fallen from the heights, “natural selection” would avail 
nothing for the author of the ‘ Origin of Species.’ If, conforming 
to his wish expressed here, but certainly not elsewhere in his works, 
we simply accept the law of selection as accounting for the uses to 
which the stones have been applied in the building of the temple, 
what have we gained in knowledge of the causes or forces which 
led to the shape of the stones? In other words, “ natural selection ” 
has been in operation for the purpose of preserving the fittest 
varieties, whether new “species” arose through modified descent or 
whether they were special creations. All the author shows by his 
simile is that an intelligent mind has selected and preserved the 
most fitting varieties or types, as the builder selected the stones best 
adapted for his purpose, a proposition which, we need hardly tell 
our readers, we are quite prepared to admit. But the author is not 
satisfied with attributing to physical causes the selection and re- 
tention of fitting types; he tries to find in those causes alone the 
springs of variation. : 
And, to pass on now to the remaining portion of the paragraphs 
which we have extracted: he believes furthermore that, popularly 
and generally speaking, all those variations have been accidental, 
and not pre-ordained ; although, in conclusion, he confesses that the 
omnipotence and omniscience of the Creator “ordains everything 
and foresees everything ;” and so the author does not exactly know 
what to believe. But his grounds for not believing that variations 
were pre-ordained and pre-designed, if we may use the term, are 
the strangest we have ever read. 
“ Do you imagine,” he says, “ that God made the wild dog plastic 
* ¢ Animals and Plants under Domestication,’ vol. ii., pp. 430-2. 
+ See ‘Animals and Plants under Domestication, chap. xxii. (especially the 
Summary on “ Causes of Variability,” and the whole chapter on “ Pangenesis”’). 
