Evolution and its Consequences 87 



greatest merits in my eyes." ' A similar, though less striking, 

 theological prejudice is also exhibited by Mr. Darwin himself. 

 He tells us, in his Descent of Man, with characteristic 

 candour, that in his Origin of Species his first object was 'to 

 show that species had not been separately created,' and he 

 consoles himself for admitted error by the reflection that ' I 

 have at least, as I hope, done good service in aiding to over- 

 throw the dogma of separate creations.' ^ 



I have already refused to allow that I contend for less 

 than the intellectual and religious interests of all Christians. 

 But, in fact, I may claim a yet wider sympathy ; for in my 

 book I have supported the dogma of Creation as against all 

 those who decline to assert the existence of a God, on the one 

 hand, or those who identify Him with the Creation on the 

 other; and I have endeavoured to uphold the Theistic 

 conception as opposed to Antitheism '-^ and Pantheism re- 

 spectively. 



Professor Huxley tells us that the necessity of a belief in 

 a personal God, in order to a religion worthy of the name, ' is 

 a matter of opinion ' ! Of course the word may be employed 

 in some unusual sense. I recollect reading of a certain 

 Emersonian who, having accompanied his wife to see Fanny 

 Elssler dance, and being charmed, remarked to her during the 

 performance — ' Margaret, this is poetry.' To which his wife 

 replied — 'No, Paul, it is religion V Of such religion I 

 willingly make a present to Professor Huxley. But, apart 

 from such bizarre employments of the word, I firmly adhere 

 to my proposition. I know that Buddhism is sometimes 

 asserted to be atheistic, but the conception of a power or 



^ I am indebted to Mr. Chauncey Wright for calling my attention to 

 this remark, which had escaped my notice. 



^ By Antitheism I mean that opinion which is opposed to theism, without 

 dogmatically denying the existence of God. Antitheists deny that we can 

 make any assertion whatever about that which underlies phenomena, and 

 which they term the ' unknowable. ' 



