198 WALTER KIDD^ M.D., F.Z.S., ON 



than a species, no more final than the theory which it dis- 

 placed."* The reference here to species is singular, for if 

 the progress of knowledge as to species has taught one thing 

 more than another it is the truth of specific s(abiliti/. Modifi- 

 cation of species in remarkable degrees, especially by 

 artificial selection, has done wonders. What it has not 

 done, in the production of a new "physiological species," is 

 equally wonderful. But, leaving such debatable ground, Ave 

 may be thankful to Drummond for his reference to " the 

 theory which it displaced." He utterly mistakes the theory 

 which for the time science by the fiats of her leaders has 

 agreed to ban, that theory under which the very best of his 

 spiritual knowledge was nurtured. The essence of the 

 " theory " that reigned till Darwin, and that may ere long 

 emerge from the present upheaval of thought, thereby much 

 purified from dross — that of creation — is its finality. Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer calls it " special creation," but unless the 

 adjective be meaningless it is not warranted by Revelation 

 as rightly expounded. 



5 Turn from the vast S3\stem of hypotheses piled upon 

 innumerable facts in nature, and loose analogies without end, 

 to the simple view Avhich is the essence of creation, and say 

 Avhich of the two rival theories better meets the mental 

 needs of human beings. Say that '• in the beginning God 

 created the heaven and the earth," and in their place and 

 time every new form of life as the changing conditions were 

 fitted for it, that this great drama of creative action pro- 

 ceeded through all the geological ages and in all parts of 

 the globe as it seemed best to One of infinite wisdom, that 

 the production of fresh forms ceased with that of Man, 

 the head of the sentient world, that marvellous laws for 

 the working of this complex system of being were laid 

 doAvn, and that Struggle, Heredity, Variability, ^vere its Avork- 

 ing principles, and that Avithin these immense boundaries the 

 improvement of fauna and of flora, Avith extinction of 

 obsolete forms, Avas carried on, and at least you haA^e left 

 your disciple an universe, Avhich does not shock his very 

 elements of knowledge. You have not forced him in " the 

 CA-il days" and after death to a bland Nirvana, Avhere Nature, 

 and DeA'elopment, rather than God, '' shall be all in all." You 

 have not offered him a cup of o])timism, Avhicli personally he 

 Avill never taste, in the one hand, and of despair for his shat- 



* Assent of Man, 1894, p. 9. 



