18 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



Still, in so important a matter, it is to be regretted that 

 he did not take the trouble to distinguish between such 

 merely popular notions and those which repose upon some 

 more venerable authority. Mr. John Stuart Mill has replied 

 to similar critics, by endeavouring to show that there is no 

 foundation for the assertion that his philosophy is irre- 

 concilable with theism ; and it would have been better if 

 Mr. Darwin had dealt in the same manner with some of 

 his assailants, and shown the futility of certain of their 

 objections when viewed from a more elevated religious 

 standpoint. Instead of so doing, he seems to adopt the 

 narrowest notions of his opponents, and, far from endea- 

 vouring to expand them, appears to wish to endorse them 

 and to lend to them the weight of his authority. It is 

 thus that Mr. Darwin seems to admit and assume that the 

 idea of " creation " necessitates a belief in an interference 

 with, or dispensation of, natural laws, and that " creation " 

 must be accompanied by arbitrary and unorderly pheno- 

 mena. None but the crudest conceptions are placed by 

 him to the credit of supporters of the dogma of creation, 

 and it is constantly asserted that they, to be consistent, 

 must offer "creative fiats" as explanations of physical 

 phenomena, and be guilty of numerous other such absur- 

 dities. It is impossible, therefore, to acquit Mr. Darwin of 

 at least a certain carelessness in this matter ; and the -result 

 is, he has the appearance of opposing ideas which he gives 

 no clear evidence of having ever fully appreciated. He is 

 far from being alone in this, and perhaps merely takes up 

 and reiterates, without much consideration, assertions pre- 

 viously put forth by others. Nothing could be further 

 from Mr. Darwin's mind than any, however small, inten- 

 tional misrepresentation; and it is therefore the more 



