NATURAL THEOLOGY NO SCIENCE. 273 



in the inorganic and organic worlds, and not by any 

 intermediate agencies specially appointed for the par- 

 ticular end. 



By the absolute distinction of the soul from the 

 mere life and mind of man, those trained in the school 

 of Fletcher have been able to follow with equanimity 

 the complete change that has taken place of late, 

 especially in this country, in the abandonment of tele- 

 ological views even in biology. The difficulty of 

 accounting for the origin of species and the millionfold 

 examples of exquisite adaptation of structure and func- 

 tion to the apparently designed purpose displayed in the 

 organic kingdoms, had long been the stronghold of the 

 argument from design, but since the theory of Darwin 

 the whole doctrine has received so rude a shock that 

 it may be said the time is come when so-called natural 

 theology must be banished from the sciences. Darwin's 

 theory is a theory properly so called, and not an hypo- 

 thesis. It does not rest on any new postulate as to 

 the powers of organized matter not already known to 

 us by sensation and experience. On the contrary, it is 

 founded on facts already established, viz., heredity 

 and adaptation. It is, therefore, not wonderful that 

 it should have been so rapidly accepted by all philoso- 

 phers as the efficient cause of the origin of species and 

 the building up of persons, or individualities of the 

 higher orders, from independent vital units or plastids 

 of lower orders of individuality.* No doubt there are 



* That the unity and personality of the animal body is due to a 

 spirit, or anima, proper to each individual will hardly be maintained by 

 any one now. It will not be said that an anima proper to each consti- 

 tutes its personality, and that this anima secretes its bile through its 

 liver, or circulates its blood by means of its heart. On the contrary, it 



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