4 DARWINISM VERIFIED. [i. 



discoverer has within his own lifetime obtained so 

 magnificent a triumph as Mr. Darwin. 



The comparison of the doctrine of natural selection 

 with the Newtonian theory is made advisedly, as I 

 wish to call attention to some differences in the aspect 

 of the proofs by which two such different hypotheses 

 are established. First, however, as the point will not 

 hereafter come up for consideration in this paper, it 

 may be well to notice the theological objection which 

 has been urged against Mr. Darwin, as it was once 

 urged against Newton, and to show briefly why, as 

 above hinted, it cannot be regarded as properly rele- 

 vant to the discussion of the scientific hypothesis. 

 The theological objection to natural selection, which 

 has weight with many minds, is precisely the same 

 objection that Leibnitz made to gravitation, that 

 the action of physical forces appears to be substituted 

 for the direct action of the Deity. This has, indeed, 

 been a very common objection to theories which 

 enlarge and define what is called the action of 

 secondary causes, but it has been peculiarly unfortu- 

 nate in this respect, that with the progress of inquiry 

 it has invariably been overruled without practical 

 detriment to theism. It regularly happens that the 

 so-called atheistical theory becomes accepted as part 

 and parcel of science, and yet men remain as firm 



