94 The Natural and the Supernatural. 



process, but the result of a process namely, of 

 that sifting of forms effected through the all-test 

 ing combat for life. 



If this analysis of the fundamental conceptions 

 of the Darwinian theory be correct, much less is 

 really explained by that theory than its advocates 

 have been in the habit of supposing. In spite 

 of its prolific application to so many fields of in 

 quiry, one may still question whether in its na- 

 t tive province of biology the account given of the 

 ! origin of species is not ultimately as supernatural 

 as the dogma which it displaced. It was rightly 

 urged against the latter that creation was not a 

 scientific conception, that explanation consisted in 

 correlating a phenomenon with other phenomena 

 and assigning it a place in the tissue of our ex 

 perience, and therefore that the reference of 

 species to a Creator was a mode of accounting for 

 them with which science could not be content. 

 But does the Darwinian theory enable us to rest 

 in purely natural causation ? It tells vis that 

 species are the strongly marked varieties that sur 

 vive in the struggle for life, and that these va 

 rieties are formed by the consolidation of modi 

 fications that spontaneously arise in organisms. 

 Here everything is assumed with the primitive 

 organisms and their innate tendency to vary. 



