vii CREATION BY LAW 143 



the whole organism, but in every part of each organism. 

 Every organ, every character, every feeling, is individual; 

 that is to say, varies from the same organ, character, or feeling 

 in every other individual. 



5. The Law of unceasing Change of Physical Conditions upon 

 the Surface of the Earth. Geology shows us that this change 

 has always gone on in times past, and we also know that it 

 is now everywhere going on. 



6. The Equilibrium or Harmony of Nature. When a species 

 is well adapted to the conditions which environ it, it nourishes; 

 when imperfectly adapted it decays; when ill-adapted it 

 becomes extinct. If all the conditions which determine an 

 organism's wellbeing are taken into consideration, this state- 

 ment can hardly be disputed. 



This series of facts or laws are mere statements of what 

 is the condition of nature. They are facts or inferences which 

 are generally known, generally admitted but, in discussing 

 the subject of the "Origin of Species," as generally for- 

 gotten. It is from these universally admitted facts that the 

 origin of all the varied forms of nature may be deduced by 

 a logical chain of reasoning, which, however, is at every step 

 verified and shown to be in strict accord with facts ; and, at 

 the same time, many curious phenomena which can by no 

 other means be understood are explained and accounted for. 

 It is probable that these primary facts or laws are but results 

 of the very nature of life, and of the essential properties of 

 organised and unorganised matter. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in 

 his First Principles and his Biology, has, I think, made us able 

 to understand how this may be; but at present we may 

 accept these simple laws without going further back, and the 

 question then is whether the variety, the harmony, the 

 contrivance, and the beauty we perceive in organic beings 

 can have been produced by the action of these laws alone, or 

 whether we are required to believe in the incessant interfer- 

 ence and direct action of the mind and will of the Creator. 

 It is simply a question of how the Creator has worked. The 

 Duke (and I quote him as having well expressed the views 

 of the more intelligent of Mr. Darwin's opponents) maintains 

 that He has personally applied general laws to produce effects 



