280 DARWINIANA. 



The length of the analysis of the first book on our 

 list precludes the notices which we intended to take 

 of the three others. They are all the production of 

 men who are both scientific and religious, one of them 

 a celebrated divine and writer unusually versed in 

 natural history. They all look upon theories of evo- 

 lution either as in the way of being established or as 

 not unlikely to prevail, and they confidently expect 

 to lose thereby no solid ground for theism or religion. 

 Mr. St. Clair, a new writer, in his " Darwinism and 

 Design ; or, Creation by Evolution," takes his ground 

 in the following succinct statement of his preface : 



" It is being assumed by our scientific guides tbat the design- 

 argument bas been driven out of tbe field by the doctrine of 

 evolution. It seems to be thought by our theological teachers 

 that the best defense of the faith is to deny evolution in toto, 

 and denounce it as anti-Biblical. My volume endeavors to 

 show that, if evolution be true, all is not lost ; but, on the con- 

 trary, something is gained: the design-argument remains un- 

 shaken, and the wisdom and beneficence of God receive new 

 illustration." 



Of his closing remark, that, so far as he knows, 

 the subject has never before been handled in the same 

 way for the same purpose, we will only say that the 

 handling strikes us as mainly sensible rather than as 

 substantially novel. He traverses the whole ground 

 of evolution, from that of the solar system to " the 

 origin of moral species." He is clearly a theistic 

 Darwinian without misgiving, and the arguments for 

 that hypothesis and for its religious aspects obtain 

 from him their most favorable presentation, while he 

 combats the dijsteleology of Hackel, Buckner, etc., 

 not, however, with any remarkable strength. 



