CHAPTER VII. 



TELEOLOGY, OLD AND NEW. 

 The Doctrine of Final Causes. 



FROM what precedes it is evident, that the most 

 that Evolution can do is to substitute deriva- 

 tive for special creation, a substitution which, as 

 we have learned, can be admitted without any dero- 

 gation whatever to either faith or Dogma. But 

 there is yet another objection against Evolution, 

 which, by some minds, is regarded as more serious 

 than any of the difficulties, heretofore considered, 

 of either philosophy or theology. This objection, 

 briefly stated, is that Evolution destroys entirely 

 the argument from design in nature, and abolishes 

 teleology, or the doctrine of final causes. In the 

 case of Darwin, for instance, as we learn from his 

 " Life and Letters," he had no difficulty in accept- 

 ing derivative in lieu of special creation, but when 

 it came to reconciling natural selection and Evolu- 

 tion with teleology, as taught by Paley, he felt that 

 his chief argument for believing in God had been 

 wrested from him entirely. 



So persuaded, indeed, have many naturalists and 

 philosophers been, if we are to believe their own 

 words, that Darwinism and Evolution have given 

 the deathblow to teleology, that they forthwith 



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