192 EVOLUTION [Chap. Ill 



Letter 130 Natural Selection in the struggle for life, and under changing 

 conditions. I do not wish to say that God did not foresee 

 everything which would ensue ; but here comes very nearly 

 the same sort of wretched imbroglio as between freewill and 

 preordained necessity. I doubt whether 1 have made what 

 I think-clear ; but certainly A. Gray's notion of the courses 

 of variation having been led like a stream of water by 

 gravity, seems to me to smash the whole affair. It reminds 

 me of a Spaniard whom I told I was trying to make out 

 how the Cordillera was formed ; and he answered me that it 

 was useless, for " God made them." It may be said that God 

 foresaw how they would be made. I wonder whether 

 Ilerschel would say that you ought always to give tin- 

 higher providential law, and declare that God had ordered 

 all certain changes of level, that certain mountains should 

 arise. I must think that such views of Asa Gray and 

 Herschel merely show that the subject in their minds is in 

 Comte's theological stage of science. . . . 



Of course I do not want any answer to my quasi- 

 theological discussion, but only for you to think of my 

 notions, if you understand them. 



I hope to Heaven your long and great labours on your 

 new edition are drawing to a close. 



Letter 131 To C. Lyell. 



Torquay, [August 13th, 1861]. 



Very many thanks for the orchids, which have proved 

 extremely useful to me in two ways I did not anticipate, but 

 were too monstrous (yet of some use) for my special purpose. 



When you come to " Deification," ' ask yourself honestly 

 whether what you are thinking applies to the endless 

 variations of domestic productions, which man accumulates 

 for his mere fancy or use. No doubt these are all caused 

 by some unknown law, but I cannot believe they were 

 ordained for any purpose, and if not so ordained under 

 domesticity, I can see no reason to believe that they were 

 ordained in a state of nature. Of course it may be said, 

 when you kick a stone, or a leaf falls from a tree, that it 

 was ordained, before the foundations of the world were laid, 



1 See Letter 105, note I. 



