7610 Notices of Nov Books. 



is genealogically allied to brute life, he escapes the responsibility of 

 clashing with Revelation by expressing his views in broad intangible 

 generalizations, and makes a kind of sentimental theology do duty for 

 Revelation, which his theory so unequivocally opposes. Does Mr. 

 Darwin consider his theory of the origin of species consistent with 

 the Scriptures ? or is the question of its consistency a matter of 

 indifference to him ? 



Dr. Asa Gray says that natural selection is compatible with natural 

 theology; this is merely a truism, for who doubts that a religion 

 built up of natural evidences is compatible with natural evidences ? 

 and if natural selection is a fact in Dr. Gray's estimation, his natural 

 theology will of course be based upon it. We want, however, to know 

 whether Dr. Gray and his followers are satisfied with " Natural 

 Theology " as a substitute for the revealed will of God, and whether 

 he considers that the weight of Revelation, which has been submitted 

 to us simply for the acceptance of our faith, is to be valued according 

 to its correspondence with the ever-fluctuating and conflicting views 

 and experience of men of science? 



Revelation must either be accepted or rejected by us in toto : there 

 is no middle course. It is not to be pruned and docked according to 

 our fancy and supposed experience, and then its mutilated remains 

 honoured out of a conventional sense of propriety. If it cannot be 

 accepted with every detail as it has been delivered to us it must be 

 openly ignored altogether, and its honest denial is better than its 

 qualified acceptance by those who ape it by "Natural Theology." 



With regard to the theory of the progressive mental advancement 

 of the human race, hinted at in Chapter XIV., history affords little 

 evidence to en courage it ; a high intellectual condition is peculiarly 

 the property of individuals, and, beyond a certain point, affords little 

 advantage in the human struggle for existence and power of do- 

 minion. An unusual degree of intellectual endowmfent pervading a 

 large proportion of a nation has, unaccountable as it may appear, 

 invariably been the prelude to the nation's downfall. Rome and 

 Greece gradually attained to this "acquirement of mental power" in 

 an eminent degree, but beyond a certain point it was not a quality 

 which profited the possessors in the power of dominion, for, as we 

 know, they had to give way to their more barbarous conquerors, and 

 their intellectual perfection was thus lost as a hereditary quality. 



Nations and races may differ in their intellectual qualities,?but we 

 never see intellectual advancement go on in an uninterrupted career. 

 The different nations and races of the world are continually fluctuating 



