292 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



Mr. Wallace 47 declares that the opponents of evolution 

 present a less elevated view of the Almighty. He says : 

 " Why should we suppose the machine too complicated to 

 have been designed by the Creator so complete that it 

 would necessarily work out harmonious results ? The 

 theory of ' continual interference ' is a limitation of the Cre- 

 ator's power. It assumes that He could not work by pure 

 law in the organic, as He has done in the inorganic world." 

 Thus, then, there is not only no necessary antagonism be- 

 tween the general theory of " evolution " and a Divine ac- 

 tion, but the compatibility between the two is recognized 

 by naturalists who cannot be suspected of any strong theo- 

 logical bias. 



The very same may be said as to the special Darwinian 

 form of the theory of evolution. 



It is true Mr. Darwin writes sometimes as if he thought 

 that his theory militated against even derivative creation.* 9 

 This, however, there is no doubt, was not really meant ; and 

 indeed, in the passage before quoted and criticised, the 

 possibility of the Divine ordination of each variation is 

 spoken of as a tenable view. He says (" Origin of Species," 

 p. 569) : " I see no good reason why the views given in this 

 volume should shock the religious feelings of any one ; " and 

 he speaks of life " having been originally breathed by the 

 Creator into a few forms or into one," which is more than 

 the dogma of creation actually requires. We find, then, that 

 no ^^compatibility is asserted (by any scientific writers wor- 



47 " Natural Selection," p. 280. 



48 Dr. Asa Gray, e. g., has thus understood Mr. Darwin. The doctor 

 says in his pamphlet, p. 38 : " Mr. Darwin uses expressions which imply 

 that the natural forms which surround us, because they have a history 

 or natural sequence, could have been only generally, but not particularly 

 designed a view at once superficial and contradictory ; whereas his 

 true line should be, that his hypothesis concerns the order and not the 

 cause, the how and not the why of the phenomena, and so leaves the 

 question of design just where it was before." 



