324 THE NATURAL THEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE, [xm. 



had one common ancestor. But this is not matter of 

 natural theology. What is matter thereof, is this : 



Physical science is proving more and more the 

 immense importance of E-ace ; the importance of 

 hereditary powers, hereditary organs, hereditary 

 habits, in all organised beings, from the lowest plant 

 to the highest animal. She is proving more and more 

 the omnipresent action of the differences between 

 races ; how the more favoured race (she cannot avoid 

 using the epithet) exterminates the less favoured, or at 

 least expels it, and forces it, under penalty of death, 

 to adapt itself to new circumstances ; and, in a word, 

 that competition between every race and every indi- 

 vidual of that race, and reward according to deserts, 

 is (as far as we can see) an universal law of living 

 things. And she says for the facts of history prove 

 it that as it is among the races of plants and animals, 

 so it has been unto this day among the races of men. 



The natural theology of the future must take count 

 of these tremendous and even painful facts : and she 

 may take count of them. For Scripture has taken 

 count of them already. It talks continually it has 

 been blamed for talking so much of races, of families ; 

 of their wars, their struggles, their exterminations ; of 

 races favoured, of races rejected, of remnants being 

 saved to continue the race ; of hereditary tendencies, 

 hereditary excellences, hereditary guilt. Its sense of the 

 reality and importance of descent is so intense, that it 

 speaks of a whole tribe or a whole family by the name 

 of its common ancestor, and the whole nation of the 

 Jews is Israel, to the end. And if I be told this is 

 true of the Old Testament, but not of the New, I must 

 answer : What ! does not St. Paul hold the identity 



