124 WHAT IS DARWINISM f 



man form divine ; ' and so it is with him mor- 

 ally and spiritually as well. We have seen 

 that he wants the instinct of immortality, the 

 love of God, the mental and spiritual power of 

 exercising dominion over the earth. The very 

 agency by which he is evolved is of itself sub- 

 versive of all these higher properties ; the 

 struggle for existence is essentially selfish, and, 

 therefore, degrading. Even in the lower ani- 

 mals, it is a false assumption that its tendency 

 is to elevate ; for animals, when driven to the 

 utmost verge of the struggle for life, become 

 depauperated and degraded. The dog which 

 spends its life in snarling contention with its 

 fellow curs for insufficient food, will not be a 

 noble specimen of its race. God does not so 

 treat his creatures. There is far more truth 

 to nature in the doctrine which represents Him 

 as listening to the young ravens when they cry 

 for food. But as applied to man, the theory 

 of the struggle for existence, and survival of 

 the fittest, though the most popular phase of 

 evolutionism at present, is nothing less than 

 the basest and most horrible of superstitions. 

 It makes man not merely carnal but devilish. 

 It takes his lowest appetites and propensities, 

 and makes them his God and Creator. His 



