96 Darwin s View of Creation. 



was &quot;by the Creator&quot; that life with all its 

 potencies was &quot; originally breathed &quot; into these 

 ultimate types. Between this closing and that 

 opening declaration stands the principle of natu 

 ral selection, which implies that, of all the varie 

 ties produced by the spontaneous evolutions of the 

 descendants of those divinely created types, only 

 the fittest or most favored survive. But even 

 this sifting process has, ultimately regarded, a 

 supernatural ground. It depends upon the exist 

 ence of germinal organisms, their growth with 

 reproduction, inheritance, variability, and capa 

 city for increase beyond the means of subsist 

 ence all of which must ultimately be attributed 

 to the Creator,&quot; who, according to Darwin, 

 breathed &quot; life with its several powers &quot; into the 

 primitive forms. 



To evolutionary science as thus unfolded by 

 Darwin, or to evolutionary science pure and sim 

 ple without any such theistic reference, it is not 

 competent to philosophy to offer any objection. 

 Biology is clearly within its own province when 

 it follows the history of organisms and delineates 

 the processes or steps by which life has been 

 evolved. To this scientific investigation Darwin 

 ism makes a twofold contribution. It established, 

 from actual experiments with animals under do- 



