290 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



nator of the universe, without the employment of any pre- 

 existing means or material. This is again considered by Mr. 

 Spencer as a thoroughly illegitimate symbolic conception, 

 as much so as the atheistic one the difficulty as to a self- 

 existent Creator being in his opinion equal to that of a self- 

 existent universe. To this it may be replied that both are of 

 course equally unimaginable, but that it is not a question 

 of facility of conception not which is easiest to conceive, 

 but which best accounts for, and accords with, psycholo- 

 gical facts ; namely, with the above-mentioned intuitions. 

 It is contended that we have these primary intuitions, and 

 that with these the conception of a self-existent Creator is 

 perfectly harmonious. On the other hand, the notion of a 

 self-existent universe that there is no real distinction 

 between the finite and the infinite that the universe and 

 ourselves are one and the same things with the infinite 

 and the self-existent ; these assertions, in addition to being 

 unimaginable, contradict our primary intuitions. 



Mr. Darwin's objections to " Creation " are of quite a 

 different kind, and, before entering upon them, it will be 

 well to endeavour clearly to understand what we mean by 

 " Creation," in the various senses in which the term may 

 be used. 



In the strictest and highest sense "Creation" is the 

 absolute origination of anything by God without pre-exist- 

 ing means or material, and is a supernatural act. 1 



In the secondary and lower sense, " Creation " is the for- 

 mation of anything by God derivatively ; that is, that the 

 pre-existing matter has been created with the potentiality to 



i The author means by this, that it is directly and immediately the act 

 of God, the word " supernatural " being used in a sense convenient for the 

 purposes of this work, and not in its ordinary theological sense. 



