I.] INTRODUCTORY. 29 



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 previously 

 assumed by others. Nothing could be further from Mr. 

 Darwin's mind than any, however small, intentional misrep- 

 resentation ; and it is therefore the more unfortunate that 

 he should not have shown any appreciation of a position op- 

 posed to his own other than that gross and crude one which 

 he combats so superfluously that he should appear, for a 

 moment, to be one of those, of whom there are far too many, 

 who first misrepresent their adversary's view and then elab- 

 orately refute it ; who, in fact, erect a doll utterly incapable 

 of self-defence, and then, with a flourish of trumpets and 

 many vigorous strokes, overthrow the helpless dummy they 

 had previously raised. 



This is what many do who more or less distinctly oppose 

 theism in the interests, as they believe, of physical science ; 

 and they often represent, among other things, a gross and 

 narrow anthropomorphism as the necessary consequence 

 of views opposed to those which they themselves advocate. 

 Mr. Darwin and others may perhaps be excused if they 

 have not devoted much time to the study of Christian phi- 

 losophy ; but they have no right to assume or accept with- 

 out careful examination, as an unquestioned fact, that in 

 that philosophy there is a necessary antagonism between 

 the two ideas, " creation " and " evolution," as applied to 

 organic forms. 



It is notorious and patent to all who choose to seek, 

 that many distinguished Christian thinkers have accepted 

 and do accept both ideas, i. e., both " creation " and " evo- 

 lution." 



As much as ten years ago, an eminently Christian writer 

 observed : " The creationist theory does not necessitate the 



