ARGUMENT OF DESIGN loi 



unttV a better one is produced, and then the old ones to be 

 all destroyed. In living bodies, variation will cause the 

 slight alterations, generation will multiply them almost 

 infinitely [why so, if they only appear in a few favoured 

 offspring ?], and Natural Selection will pick out with un- 

 erring skill each improvement. Let this process go on 

 for millions of years ; and during each year on millions of 

 individuals of many kinds ; and may we not believe 

 that a living optical instrument might thus be formed 

 as superior to one of glass as the works of the Creator 

 are to those of man ? " ^ 



It did not seem to occur to Darwin, that if the eye 

 is a work of the Creator, as the reader infers such to be 

 Darwin's belief from the last sentence, why should He 

 proceed in this roundabout process of making innumer- 

 able variations in which some twenty suppositions are 

 included, and so necessitating a " power " to pick out the 

 best ones. Why cannot the Creator make only the best 

 quality at once ? Why not let all the individuals enjoy 

 the best variations, instead of a few only, without ruth- 

 lessly destroying millions of living beings unblessed with 

 favourable variations ? ^ 



^ Origin of Species, p. 146. I have indicated by italics seventeen 

 suppositions. The above paragraph is reproduced from my address in 

 Christian Apologetics (J. Murray). 



"When I first read the Origin of Species, etc., in i860, I had 

 misgivings long before I came to this passage ; but this hypothetical 

 argument was sufficient to clinch the matter in my mind. I have never 

 accepted Darwinism at all. I was fortunate in gaining one of the two 

 " Actonian Prizes," for an essay on the subject — " The Theory of Evolu- 

 tion of Living Things," offered by the Royal Institution in 1872. 1 chose 

 Palseontology as the subject for illustrating Evolution ; but never referred 

 to Natural Selection at all as an instrument in the process. 



The other successful essayist was Mr. B. T. Lowne (as there were 

 two prizes of a hundred guineas each given in that year). The authorities 

 showed their impartiality, for his essay was based entirely on Darwinism. 



