OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF DESCENT. 345 



cient Creator must have foreseen every consequence which 

 results from the laws imposed by him. But can it be 

 reasonably maintained that the Creator intentionally or- 

 dered, if we use the words in any ordinary sense, that 

 certain fragments of rock should assume certain shapes 

 so that the builder might erect his edifice ? If the vari- 

 ous laws which have determined the shape of each frag- 

 ment were not predetermined for the builder's sake, can 

 it be maintained with any greater probability that he 

 specially ordained for the sake of the breeder each of the 

 innumerable variations in our domestic animals and 

 plants — many of these variations being of no service to 

 man, and not beneficial, far more often injurious, to the 

 creatures themselves ? Did he ordain that the crop and 

 tail-feathers of the pigeon should vary in order that the 

 fancier might make his grotesque pouter and fan tail 

 breeds ? Did he cause the frame and mental qualities 

 of the dog to vary in order that a breed might be formed 

 of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin down the 

 bull for man's brutal sport ? But if we give up the 

 principle in one case — if we do not admit that the varia- 

 tions of the primeval dog were intentionally guided in 

 order that the greyhound, for instance, that perfect image 

 of symmetry and vigor, might be formed — no shadow of 

 reason can be assigned for the belief that variations, alike 

 in nature and the result of the same general laws, which 

 have been the groundwork through natural selection of 

 the formation of the most perfectly adapted animals in 

 the world, man included, were intentionally and specially 

 guided. However much we may wish it, we can hardly 

 follow Professor Asa Gray in his belief " that variation 

 has been led along certain beneficial lines," like a stream 

 " along definite and useful lines of irrigation." If we 



assume that each particular variation was from the be- 

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