XII.] THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 317 



scientific writers worthy of mention) between " evolution " 

 and the co-operation of the Divine will; while the same 

 " evolution " has been shown to be thoroughly acceptable 

 to the most orthodox theologians who repudiate the intru- 

 sion of the supernatural into the domain of nature. A 

 more complete harmony could scarcely be desired. 



But if we may never hope to find in physical nature 

 evidence of supernatural action, what sort of action might 

 we expect to find there, looking at it from a theistic point 

 of view ? Surely an action the results of which harmonize 

 with man's reason, 1 which is orderly, which disaccords 

 with the action of blind chance and with the " fortuitous 

 concourse of atoms " of Democritus ; but at the same time 

 an action which ever, in parts and in ultimate analysis, 

 eludes our grasp, and the modes of which are different 

 from those by which we should have attempted to accom- 

 plish such ends. 



Now, this is just what we do find. The harmony, the 

 beauty, and the order of the physical universe are the 

 themes of continual panegyrics on the part of naturalists, 

 and Mr. Darwin (as the Duke of Argyll remarks 2 ) " ex- 

 hausts every form of words and of illustration by which 

 intention or mental purpose can be described," 3 when 

 speaking of the wonderfully complex adjustments to secure 

 the fertilization of orchids. Also, we find co-existing with 



1 "All science is but the partial reflexion in the reason of man, of the 

 great all -pervading reason of the universe. And the unity of science is the 

 reflexion of the unity of nature and of the unity of that supreme reason and 

 intelligence which pervades and rules over nature, and from whence all 

 reason and all science is derived." EEV. BADEN POWELL, Unity of the 

 Sciences, Essay i. ii. p. 81. 



2 " The Reign of Law," p. 40. 



3 Though Mr. Darwin's epithets denoting design are metaphorical, his 

 admiration of the result is unequivocal, nay, enthusiastic. 



