XII.] THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 327 



an origin from two concurrent modes of action is congruous, 

 and might be expected a priori. At the same time as the 

 " soul " is " the form of the body," the soul might be ex- 

 pected to modify the body into a structure of harmony 

 and beauty standing alone in the organic world of nature. 

 Also that, with the full perfection and beauty of that 

 soul, attained by the concurrent action of " Nature " and 

 "Grace," a character would be formed like nothing else 

 which is visible in this world, and having a mode of action 

 different from, inasmuch as complementary to, all inferior 

 modes of action. 



Something of this is evident even to those who approach 

 the subject from the point of view of physical science 

 only. Thus Mr. Wallace observes, 1 that according to his 

 idea man is to be placed " apart, as not only the head and 

 culminating point of the grand series of organic nature, 

 but as in some degree a new and distinct order of being. 2 

 From those infinitely remote ages when the first rudiments 

 of organic life appeared upon the earth, every plant and 

 every animal has been subject to one great law of physical 

 change. As the earth has gone through its grand cycles of 

 geological, climatal, and organic progress, every form of life 

 has been subject to its irresistible action, and has been con- 

 tinually but imperceptibly moulded into such new shapes 

 as would preserve their harmony with the ever-changing 

 universe. No living thing could escape this law of its 

 being ; none (except, perhaps, the simplest and most rudi- 

 mentary organisms) could remain unchanged and live 

 amid the universal change around it." 



"At length, however, there came into existence a being 

 in whom that subtle force we term mind, became of greater 



1 "Natural Selection," p. 324. 2 The italics are not Mr. Wallace's, i 



