ON THE CREATION AND GOD. ' 25 



a struggle between species and species, where the weak 

 is ever the prey of the strong ; and a still more deadly 

 and concentrated struggle carried on within the limits 

 of each species, amongst the component individuals, 

 compelled to compete with each other for the same pre- 

 carious supply of food which, however cruelly procured, 

 is always less than the demand for it ; a conflict where, 

 unless in the few social species, it is to "the near in 

 blood the nearer bloody." Indeed, the revelations of 

 the Darwinian story are in many cases by no means 

 agreeable to dwell upon, although as our own species 

 the crown and finished masterpiece of Nature's work- 

 manship has emerged supreme victor from the universal 

 trial by combat, and upon the whole has come well out 

 of the long chapter of most disastrous chances for other 

 species living and extinct, it seems, according to Darwin 

 and Spencer, that, all things considered, we ought to 

 congratulate ourselves on our good fortune. At least, 

 there has been no fall of man ; on the contrary, there has 

 been a wonderful rise, that could scarce in reason have 

 been expected at first. There has been no degradation, 

 but a constant and still-continuing development, which 

 opens out great vistas of promise for our future and 

 still more selected successors. 



5. Nevertheless, what strikes us most in reading 

 this marvellous story of the origin and process of manu- 

 facture of Nature's living forms, is the seemingly chance 

 affair it all was. We are not permitted, on Darwinian 

 principles, to suppose that there was any prevision or 

 forecast of what was to come resident in Nature's blind 

 bosom. There was no conception, not even the vaguest 

 dream, on the part of Nature, at the commencement of 

 the cosmic process, of the forms of life that should 

 emerge in the sequel. Nature did not know what she 



