54 De Vi Physica 



which must by hook or crook be denied 

 altogether or explained away : for what is 

 not mechanical and mechanically intelligible^ 

 is miracle. Darwin, for example, is bold 

 enough to declare, that the only alternative 

 to his * Natural Selection ' is miracle : that 

 to believe in or recognise abrupt or sudden 

 modifications of structure is to abandon 

 science and resort to miracles p . An argu- 

 ment for miracles which can be strongly 

 recommended to the theologian : the natural 

 is the miraculous ! For nothing is more 

 absolutely certain than that such abrupt 

 origination I. has actually occurred ; as 

 Darwin has abundantly proved himself. II. 

 must necessarily occur, by reason of the 

 nature of things. For, to begin with, as we 

 have already seen, organs that mutually 

 presuppose each other could not possibly 



P Origin of Species, cap. 7, end. 



