154 DARWINISM. 



men of perfect knowledge in every subject that may be 

 even incidentally referred to in its pages. For not only 

 is man an imperfect being, but his language is an im- 

 perfect instrument of his imperfect thoughts. His con- 

 science is fallible ; his understanding is fallible ; let the 

 Book which guides him be as infallible as you please, he 

 will still bring it back to the inherent imperfection of 

 things human by misreading and misconceiving it. That 

 the law of God is perfect, follows from the very thought 

 of God ; that any particular exposition of that law to 

 finite minds either is or can be perfect, is almost, or 

 altogether, a contradiction in terms. Far from knowing 

 all about modern systems of Botany, Moses did not even 

 know all about religion as the later prophets knew ; nor 

 did they know as we know. Their mission would prob- 

 ably have been hidden rather than forwarded, had they 

 been able to ( enunciate ' scientific truths in advance of 

 their age. Their new views in religion were often 

 roundly abused; their new views in science would hardly 

 have escaped denouncing. 



As a caution to the unwary, it should be remarked 

 that the opposition supposed to exist between Mr. 

 Darwin's phrase ' Natural Selection/ and Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer's ' Survival of the Fittest/ is purely imaginary. 

 The latter, no doubt, is the more philosophically 

 accurate, the former is a convenient, popular, and telling 

 metaphor. They both express the same conception of 

 a large and wonderful group of facts. Perhaps it will 

 be scarcely necessary to caution the unwary against 

 taking for granted that ' vestigiform structures are 



