146 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



because with narrow views they often see their small points 

 with great exactness. The man of genius goes further, but 

 we must not blame the less lofty scientific men ; we cannot 

 all be men of genius, seeing cosmos in the smallest acts of 

 nature. 



But taking the subject from another side, who cannot 

 see its beauty and correctness ! There are gradations of 

 man, of all animals, and of all plants, and it is clear that 

 if they did not arise as such in the mind of the Creator 

 they exist in creation distinctly before us as such. Yes, 

 there was evolution in the thoughts of God, because one 

 fact clearly leads the mind on to another, and if the con- 

 nection is intellectual and moral, what objection can we 

 make to having it material also ? Let no one suppose 

 that by speaking thus we try to rob the Creator of fore- 

 sight. Growth is quite compatible with a knowledge of 

 results, and if we sow a seed with full knowledge what kind 

 of tree it will turn up, we may readily suppose that worlds 

 sown broadcast cannot have developed without abundant 

 foresight as to results. The means are very sure for the 

 end, and of creation in its largest works we may say as 

 of the smallest plants : things grow. 



Darwin has not brought us to this general law, but we 

 have been glad to learn from him how things grew in 

 certain departments of nature's activity. 



There is a kind of insanity spreading among scientific 

 specialists, strongly developed among Darwinians so-called, 

 but the larger mind of Darwin has never sanctioned it. 

 They speak of natural selection as a power when it is only 

 a method by which a power operates. In the same way 

 differentiation is treated as a power, and people actually 

 think they explain when they tell us of this occurrence in 



