THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 55 



that the actual results in mode and measure, and none 

 other, must have taken place. On the other hand, the 

 theory of gravitation and its extension in the nebular 

 hypothesis assume a universal and ultimate physical 

 cause, from which the effects in Nature must necessa- 

 rily have resulted. Now, it is not thought, at least at 

 the present day, that the establishment of the New- 

 tonian theory was a step toward atheism or pantheism. 

 Yet the great achievement of Newton consisted in 

 proving that certain forces (blind forces, so far as the 

 theory is concerned), acting upon matter in certain 

 directions, must necessarily produce planetary orbits 

 of the exact measure and form in which observation 

 shows them to exist — a view which is just as consistent 

 with eternal necessity, either in the atheistic or the 

 pantheistic form, as it is with theism. 



Nor is the theory of derivation particularly exposed 

 to the charge of the atheism of fortuity ; since it un- 

 dertakes to assign real causes for harmonious and sys- 

 tematic results. But, of this, a word at the close. 



The value of such objections to the theory of deri- 

 vation may be tested by one or two analogous cases. 

 The common scientific as well as popular belief is that 

 of the original, independent creation of oxygen and 

 hydrogen, iron, gold, and the like. Is the speculative 

 opinion now increasingly held, that some or all of the 

 supposed elementary bodies are derivative or com- 

 pound, developed from some preceding forms of mat- 

 ter, irreligious ? Were the old alchemists atheists as 

 well as dreamers in their attempts to transmute earth 

 into gold ? Or, to take an instance from force (power) 

 — which stands one step nearer to efficient cause than 



