UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



the action of natural selection, working upon chance 

 variation, gave rise to all the infinite diversity of 

 forms that now people the earth. Darwin's scientific 

 faith was strong where that of Wallace was weak, 

 inasmuch as he had no more difficulty in accounting 

 for the mind of man by the theory of descent, than 

 he had in accounting for the body of man. Both 

 were an evolution of lower forms. His was a type 

 of mind much more steady and consistent than was 

 the mind of Wallace. Darwin's mind was of the 

 planetary order, while Wallace's was more cometary. 

 The later works of Wallace are a curious mixture of 

 scientific data and theological moonshine. 



Darwin's conviction of the origin of species 

 through descent was so deep and whole-hearted 

 that one wonders why it did not carry him back into 

 the problem of the very beginning of life upon the 

 globe. If natural law is adequate to account for the 

 wonderful diversity of vegetable and animal forms, 

 including the body and the soul of man, why should 

 it not be adequate to account for the origin of the 

 first primordial forms? If we are to believe that the 

 mentality and spirituality of man as we know him 

 to-day could arise from the blind, unreasoning lower 

 orders, should we have any trouble in believing that 

 living matter could arise or be evolved from the non- 

 living? The change is no greater in the latter case 

 than in the former. 



Are we to look upon the universe as half natural 

 164 



