RETROSPECT AND FORECAST 219 



ultimately only such animals as are useful to him 

 shall exist wherever the globe is habitable by man. 



When in the remote past man was denned upon 

 the earth, he was placed on a stage which had been 

 prepared for him by aeons of geological time, to 

 ascend from an animal existence, working out in this 

 mundane sphere his own salvation, until, in his attain- 

 ment of the full growth of all the powers and faculties 

 of his being, he should reach his predestined goal, 

 when the spiritual part of his nature shall become 

 predominant and hold in subjection his purely animal 

 inheritance. 



I am not unaware what food for laughter I have 

 provided in the above sentence for the orthodox 

 Darwinians of whom Hackel has made himself the 

 exponent. I have not obscurely hinted that there is 

 such a thing as design perceivable in the universe, 

 and have spoken as one who believes in the argument 

 of Paley which, as is well known, has been long dis- 

 credited by all scientists who intelligently accept the 

 doctrine of Natural Selection : nay, it may even be 

 gathered from my words that I still retain belief in a 

 God who has foreordained all things according to the 

 counsel of His will, as an old document has it. I do 

 not deny the impeachment. I am not prepared to 

 surrender my spiritual nature, and that hope which is 

 the anchor of the soul, to the teachings of a science 

 whose fundamental propositions I wholly reject ; 

 neither do I esteem Hackel a wise man when he 

 conducts his eidolon of a Personal God to the verge 



