292 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed/ &c., ' let the earth 

 bring forth the living creature after his kind ' seems even 

 to imply them," and leads to the conclusion that the 

 various kinds were produced through natural agencies. 



Now, much confusion has arisen from not keeping 

 clearly in view this distinction between absolute creation 

 and derivative creation. With the first, physical science has 

 plainly nothing whatever to do, and is impotent to prove 

 or to refute it. The second is also safe from any attack 

 on the part of physical science, for it is primarily derived 

 from psychical not physical phenomena. The greater part 

 of the apparent force possessed by objectors to creation, like 

 Mr. Darwin, lies in their treating the assertion of deriva- 

 tive creation as if it was an assertion of absolute creation, 

 or at least of supernatural action. Thus, he asks whether 

 some of the opponents believe "that, at innumerable periods 

 in the earth's history, certain elemental atoms have been 

 commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues." 1 Certain 

 of Mr. Darwin's objections, however, are not physical, but 

 metaphysical, and really attack the dogma of secondary or 

 derivative creation, though to some perhaps they may 

 appear to be directed against absolute creation only. 



Thus he uses, as an illustration, the conception of a man 

 who builds an edifice from fragments of rock at the base 

 of a precipice, by selecting for the construction of the 

 various parts of the building the pieces which are the most 

 suitable owing to the shape they happen to have broken 

 into. Afterwards, adverting to this illustration, he says, 2 

 " The shape of the fragments of stone at the base of our 

 precipice may be called accidental, but this is not 



1 ''Origin of Species," 5th edit. p. 571. 



- " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 431. 



