8 THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES OF 



wrote to me that although he had read the 

 Origin of Species with care, he could see in it no 

 evidence of natural selection which might not 

 equally well be adduced in favour of intelligent 

 design. But here we meet with a radical mis- 

 conception of the whole logical attitude of 

 science. For, be it observed, the exception in 

 limine to the evidence which we are about to 

 consider, does not question that natural selec- 

 tion may not be able to do all that Mr. Darwin 

 ascribes to it : it merely objects to his interpre- 

 tation of the facts, because it maintains that 

 these facts might equally well be ascribed to 

 intelligent design. And so undoubtedly they 

 might, if we were all childish enough to rush 

 into a supernatural explanation whenever a 

 natural explanation is found sufficient to account 

 for the facts. Once admit the glaringly illogical 

 principle that we may assume the operation of 

 higher causes where the operation of lower ones 



