XII.] THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 3Q5 



The action of living organisms depends upon and subsumes 

 the laws of inorganic matter. Similarly the actions of ani- 

 mal life depend upon and subsume the laws of organic mat- 

 ter. In the same way the actions of a self-conscious moral 

 agent, such as man, depend upon and subsume the laws of 

 animal life. When a part or the whole series of these natu- 

 ral actions is alcered or suspended by the intervention of 

 action of a still higher order, we have then a " miracle." 



In this way we find a perfect harmony in the double na- 

 ture of man, his rationality making use of and subsuming 

 his animality ; his soul arising from direct and immediate 

 creation, and his body being formed at first (as now in each 

 separate individual) by derivative or secondary creation, 

 through natural laws. By such secondary creation, i. e., by 

 natural laws, for the most part as yet unknown but con- 

 trolled by " Natural Selection," all the various kinds of ani- 

 mals and plants have been manifested on this planet. That 

 Divine action has concurred and concurs in these laws we 

 know by deductions from our primary intuitions ; and phys- 

 ical science, if unable to demonstrate such action, is at least 

 as impotent to disprove it. Disjoined from these deduc- 

 tions, the phenomena of the universe present an aspect de- 

 void of all that appeals to the loftiest aspirations of man, 

 that which stimulates his efforts after goodness, and pre- 

 sents consolations for unavoidable shortcomings. Conjoined 

 with these same deductions, all the harmony of physical Na- 

 ture and the constancy of its laws are preserved unimpaired, 

 while the reason, the conscience, and the aesthetic instincts, 

 are alike gratified. We have thus a true reconciliation of 

 science and religion, in which each gains and neither loses, 

 one being complementary to the other. 



Some apology is due to the reader for certain observa- 

 tions and arguments which have been here advanced, and 



the higher law of morals and religion coming to some different conclu- 

 sion." 



