3 S Darwinism and Deity. 



from arriving at maturity. Further it is said, that parts 

 that are serviceable in the lower orders of animals are 

 found in a rudimentary state in the higher, as if they 

 had gradually disappeared by disuse. For instance, the 

 os coccyx in man is a rudimentary tail. And the punc- 

 ture in the lower part of the os humerus, which is the 

 passage for a nerve in monkeys, is of no use in the 

 human frame. Yet it is found in one per cent, of human 

 skeletons of the present day, and in a larger per cent, of 

 human skeletons three or four thousand years old, in 

 some parts of France. 



So far I have offered, not a sketch, but only a 

 rude indication of the general drift of the theory of spe- 

 cific creation and of Darwin's theory of the laws of 

 selection. As to the respective merits and probabilities 

 of these theories, I do not pretend to offer an opinion. 

 Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites. Men who 

 devote their lives to scientific investigations will toil to 

 a determination, and the world will accept the result. 



But there are some suggestions that any of us may 

 make about Darwin's theory. He does not pretend to 

 solve the question, as to the origin of life, or the essence 

 of life, or the power that produces the initial variations 

 in the forms of life which give opportunity for selection. 

 Accepting these, his aim is to ascertain and determine 

 a law by which they produce the permanent forms of 

 life, which we call species. 



His theory as to the existence of this law, is gaining 

 ground daily among men devoted to natural science. 



But his theory can hardly yet be called "the law" of 

 the development of species. For a true law of nature 

 explaining the phenomena of a certain class, must ex- 



