154 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



epitome and an analogue of the kindred, 

 but far slower and longer, processes 

 which have given birth to species in the 

 course of ages. It is the best of all their 

 conceptions that which most facilitates 

 the imagination in picturing a possible 

 method of creation because it rests on 

 at least a plausible analogy of Nature. 

 But, unfortunately, the mechanical school 

 of evolutionists do not seem to under- 

 stand one of the most certain character- 

 istics of the processes of ordinary genera- 

 tion. If the germs first created had all 

 the essential qualities of the procreated 

 germs, then chance, or miscellaneous 

 and unguided growths, can have had no 

 place in the development of species. 

 Nothing can be more certain that every 

 procreated germ runs its own peculiar 

 course to its own peculiar goal, with a 

 regularity that implies a directing force. 

 Mr. Spencer himself reminds us that all 



