48 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



suspected of being a Jesuit. Charles Darwin had 

 not that morbid fear of a creator which seems to 

 dominate many of his followers. 1 



At the end of his great work on the Origin of 

 Species occurs the following beautiful passage, 

 which stands unchanged in the seventh German 

 edition published after his death : 



'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its 

 several powers, having been originally breathed by the 

 Creator into a few forms or into one ; and that, whilst 

 this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed 

 law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless 

 forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, have been 

 and are being evolved.' 2 



I think that after these words I myself, as a 

 scientist, need not apologise for being an advocate 

 of the theistic theory of life. 3 



1 It is well known that in his later years Darwin inclined to Agnosti- 

 cism. The fact, however, that in the subsequent editions of his Origin of 

 Species he did not alter the words quoted here, shows plainly that he was 

 in no way ashamed of his earlier theistic opinions. 



2 Origin of Species, 6th ed., 1888, vol. ii. p. 305. 



3 Cf. also the lecture delivered by Professor Eeinke of Kiel on Natural 

 Science and Keligion, printed in the Propylden of March 13, 1907, No. 24. 



