10 THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS I 
A large number of persons practically assume 
the former position to be correct. They believe 
that the writer of the Pentateuch was empowered 
and commissioned to teach us scientific as well as 
other truth, that the account we find there of the 
creation of living things is simply and literally 
correct, and that anything which seems to con- 
. tradict it is, by the nature of the case, false. All 
the phenomena which have been detailed are, on 
this view, the immediate product of a creative 
fiat and, consequently, are out of the domain of 
science altogether. 
Whether this view prove ultimately to be true 
or false, it is, at any rate, not at present sup- 
ported by what is commonly regarded as logical 
proof, even if it be capable of discussion by 
reason ; and hence we consider ourselves at liberty 
to pass it by, and to turn to those views which 
profess to rest on a scientific basis only, and there- 
fore admit of being argued to their consequences. 
And we do this with the less hesitation as it so 
happens that those persons who are practically 
conversant with the facts of the case (plainly a 
considerable advantage) have always thought fit 
to range themselves under the latter category. 
The majority of these competent persons have 
up to the present time maintained two positions— 
the first, that every species is, within certain de- 
fined limits, fixed and incapable of modification ; 
the second, that every species was originally pro- 
