SPEECH OP SIR WILLIAM ARMSTRONG. 385 



tion shows how much good may be affected by associations for the 

 promotion of scientific objects. 



darwin's and sir c. lyell's works. 

 The science of organic life has of late years been making great 

 and rapid strides, and it is gratifying to observe that researches 

 both in zoology and botany are characterized in the present day by 

 great accuracy and elaboration. Investigations patiently con- 

 ducted upon true inductive principles cannot fail eventually to 

 elicit the hidden laws which govern the animated world. Neither 

 is there any lack of bold speculation contemporaneously with this 

 painstaking spirit of inquiry. The remarkable work of Mr. Dar- 

 win, promulgating the doctrine of natural selection, has produced 

 a profound sensation. The novelty of this ingenious theory, the 

 eminence of its author, and his masterly treatment of the subject, 

 have, perhaps, combined to excite more enthusiasm in its favor 

 than is consistent with that dispassionate spirit which it is so- 

 necessary to preserve in the pursuit of truth. Mr. Darwin's 

 views have not passed unchallenged, and the arguments both for 

 and against have been urged with great vigour by the supporters 

 and oponents of the theory. Where good reasons can be shown 

 on both sides of a question the truth is generally to be found be- 

 tween the two extremes. In the present instance we may without 

 difficulty suppose it to have been part of the great scheme of 

 creation that natural selection should be permitted to determine 

 variations amounting even to specific differences where those differ- 

 ences were matters of degree ; but when natural selection is ad- 

 duced as a cause adequate to explain the production of a new 

 organ not provided for in original creation, the hypothesis must 

 appear to common apprehensions to be pushed beyond the limits 

 of reasonable conjecture. The Darwinian theory, when fully 

 enunciated, founds the pedigree of living nature upon the most 

 elementary form of vitalized matter. One step further would carry 

 us back without greater violence to probability, to inorganic rudi- 

 ments, and then we should be called upon to recognize in our- 

 selves, and in the exquisite elaborations of the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms, the ultimate results of mere material forces left 

 free to follow their own unguided tendencies. Surely our minds 

 would in that case be more oppressed with a sense of the miracu- 

 lous than they now are in attributing the wondrous things around 

 us to 1 the creative hand of a great presiding Intelligence. Th& 



