THEORIES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



the idea of special exertion. But the truth is that 

 various regions exhibit variations altogether without 

 apparent end or purpose. Professor Henslow enumer- 

 ates forty-five distinct flowers or sets of plants upon 

 the surface of the earth, notwithstanding that many 

 of these would be equally suitable elsewhere. The 

 animals of different continents are equally various, few 

 species being the same in any two, though the general 

 character may conform. The inference at present 

 drawn from this fact is that there must have been, to 

 use the language of the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith, ' separate 

 and original creations, perhaps at different and respec- 

 tively distinct epochs/ It seems hardly conceivable 

 that rational men should give an adherence to such a 

 doctrine when we think of what it involves. In the 

 single fact that it necessitates a special fiat of the in- 

 conceivable Author of this sand-cloud of worlds to 

 produce the flora of St. Helena, we read its more than 

 sufficient condemnation. It surely harmonizes far bet- 

 ter with our general ideas of nature to suppose that, 

 just as all else in this far-spread science was formed 

 on the laws impressed upon it at first by its Author, so 

 also was this. An exception presented to us in such a 

 light appears admissible only when we succeed in for- 

 bidding our minds to follow out those reasoning proc- 

 esses to which, by another law of the Almighty, they 

 tend, and for which they are adapted." 4 



Such reasoning as this naturally aroused bitter 

 animadversions, and cannot have been without effect 

 in creating an undercurrent of thought in opposition to 

 the main trend of opinion of the time. But the book 



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