276 DARWINIANA. 



tended should produce such results as these contriv- 

 ances in Nature, lie is told (pages 44-46) that this 

 banishes God from the world, and is inconsistent with 

 obvious facts. And that because of its implying that 

 " He never interferes to guide the operation of physi- 

 cal causes." We italicize the word, for interference 

 proves to be the keynote of Dr. Hodge's system. In- 

 terference with a divinely ordained physical Nature for 

 the accomplishment of natural results ! An unortho- 

 dox friend has just imparted to us, with much mis- 

 giving and solicitude lest he should be thought ir- 

 reverent, his tentative hypothesis, which is, that even 

 the Creator may be conceived to have improved with 

 time and experience 1 Never before was this theory 

 so plainly and barely put before us. We were obliged 

 to say that, in principle and by implication, it was not 

 wholly original. 



But in such matters, which are far too high for us, 

 no one is justly to be held responsible for the conclu- 

 sions which another may draw from his principles or 

 assumptions. Dr. Hodge's particular view should be 

 gathered from his own statement of it : 



"In the external world tbere is always and everywhere in- 

 disputable evidence of the activity of two kinds of force, the 

 one physical, the other mental. The physical belongs to matter, 

 and is due to the properties with which it has been endowed ; 

 the other is the everywhere present and ever-acting mind of 

 God. To the latter are to be referred all the manifestations of 

 design in Nature, and the ordering of events in Providence. 

 This doctrine does not ignore the efficiency of second causes ; 

 it simply asserts that God overrules and controls them. Thns 

 the Psalmist says : ' I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My 

 substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, 



