The Metaphysics of Darwinism. 95 



Has not the mystery that shrouded the origin of 

 species been removed simply by the introduc 

 tion of a new mystery the wonder of an organ 

 ism so constituted that it throws off progressive 

 modifications as materials for new species ? That 

 science may ultimately show such variability to 

 be a characteristic of organisms I do not as 

 sert or deny. My only contention is that that 

 aspect of the problem of the origin of species 

 which led men to refer them to a hyperphys- 

 ical agency would not thereby be removed ; 

 it would still reappear in the question, Whence 

 those germinal organisms with their wonderful 

 capabilities of differentiating into species ? And 

 to this question there is no satisfactory answer 

 within the province of natural or physical causa 

 tion. So that ultimately it comes to this the 

 gradual development of species is one mode of 

 conceiving the action of supernatural causality, 

 the sudden formation of them is another. Dar 

 winism is an assertion that the former mode has 

 actually been followed, not a denial of the super- 

 natural ground which both processes presuppose. 

 If the &quot; Origin of Species &quot; opens with the thesis 

 that species are not independent and immutable 

 creations, but variable descendants of common 

 ancestral forms, it closes with the credo that it 



