DARWIN AND HIS CRITICS. 59 



far-reaching design beyond all that has ever 

 been imagined by man exists throughout Nature ; 

 and Natural Selection shows us how some at 

 least of these effects have originated by the 

 action of laws within our comprehension ; but 

 this does not prove that they were not fore- 

 seen and fore-ordained by the Creator, who if 

 omniscient, must have been aware of the 

 entire results of his work, whether performed 

 by Special Creation or Evolution. 



A series of objections to Natural Selection 

 have been stated by Mivart,* which it will be 

 well to discuss here at some length, as they 

 are of considerable importance : 



I. " Natural Selection is incompetent to 

 account for the incipient stages of useful 

 structures." 



Murphy's argument that the eye could not 

 have been developed by Natural Selection is one 

 illustration selected. But animals are believed 

 to have arisen from those very low forms of life 

 which are all skin, all stomach, all limbs, etc., 

 as occasion requires ; and it is probable that 



* " Genesis of Species," p. 21. These arguments are fully considered 

 and replied to by Darwin, " Origin of Species," 6th ed. ch. vii. 



