28 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



Thus, by a striking inversion of ordinary probabilities, 

 inanimate nature was made to rule, determine, and 

 elevate that which lives and wills. Singular though it 

 may appear, this apparent paradox is one of the great 

 charms of the doctrine to the general mind, which 

 is excited by the strange and marvellous, especially 

 when this is supposed to be countenanced by science. 

 This leading idea Darwin supported by several 

 collateral considerations, such as the ascertained suc 

 cession of animal and vegetable life in geological 

 time, the analogy with this of the stages of the embryo 

 in its development in the higher animals, the supposed 

 power of sexual selection and the influence of geo 

 graphical distribution. All these influences, including 

 natural selection, were supposed to operate in a very 

 slow and gradual manner, so much so that the obser 

 vation of the apparent permanence of species within 

 the human period should not be regarded as an ob 

 jection. 



fc The Darwinian system thus embraced a modal 

 evolution or development of living beings, with certain 

 alleged causes keeping up the movement and giving 

 it direction ; and all this with or without a superin 

 tending will and creative power behind it. Presented 

 in an attractive and popular manner, and with a great 

 mass of facts supposed to sustain it, and concurring 

 with the popular evolutionary philosophy of Herbert 

 Spencer, it was at once accepted by a great number 

 of scientific and literary men^Vand applied in varied 



