142 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



Archangel ruling in Alcyone, and exercising an 

 almost unlimited control over the whole Galaxy, 

 we must yet regard him as controlled by Law 

 as absolutely as the meanest insect. 



Man possesses considerable power over the 

 lower animals, and over his fellow-men ; and 

 there is therefore nothing unreasonable in Wal- 

 lace's view that other beings may have power 

 over the development of man, especially when 

 we consider that it cannot be satisfactorily ac- 

 counted for by the operation of those ordinary 

 physical agencies, which are frequently spoken 

 of as " the blind forces of Nature." 



Again, had the world been the direct creation 

 of God Himself, we should expect, and reason- 

 ably so, to find it absolutely and unvaryingly 

 perfect in every particular. 



This difficulty is so great that it is tacitly im- 

 plied in the popular theology of the day, which, 

 recognising Special Creation, reconciles it with 

 existing facts by the clumsy expedient of ac- 

 cepting the old Oriental allegory of the "Fall," 

 as a narrative of literal occurrences. But in 

 the place of absolute perfection, which does 

 not exist on earth at all, we find relative per- 

 fection, corresponding to the degree of ad- 



