492 



OEIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OP MAN. 



[Ch. XLIII. 



discussed by us in the last ten chapters. It is not whether we 

 can explain the creation of species, but whether species have 

 been introduced into the world one after the other, in the form 

 of new varieties of antecedent organisms and in the way of 

 ordinary generation, or have been called into being by some 

 other agency, such as the direct intervention of the First 

 Cause. Was Lamarck right, assuming progressive develo-n- 

 ment to be true, in supposing that the changes of the oi - ^,,,^ 

 world may have been effected by the gradual and insensible 

 modification of older pre-existing forms ? Mr. Darwin, with- 

 out absolutely proving this, has made it appear in the highest 

 degree probable, by an appeal to many distinct and indepen- 

 dent classes of phenomena in natural history and geology, 



manner 



of new and competing varieties are always made to survive 



in tlie 



struggle 



for life. The tenor 



of Ixis reasoning is 



not to be gainsaid by affirming that the canses or processes, 



which 



bring 



im 



or differentiation of 



organs, and the general advance of the organic world from 



the simpler to the more complex, remain as inscrntable to us 

 as ever. 



■ 



When first the doctrine of the origin of species by trans- 

 mutation was proposed, it was objected that such a theory 

 substituted a material self-adjusting machinery for a Supreme 

 Creative Intelligence. But the more the idea of a sIoav and 

 msensible change from lower to higher organisms, brought 



generations according* to 



a preconceived plan, has become fa 

 more conscious they have become that the amount of power, 

 wisdom, design, or forethought, required for such a gradual 

 evolution of life, is as great as that which is implied by a 



multitude of separate, special, and miraculous acts of crea- 

 tion. 



A more serious cause of disquiet and alarm arises out of 

 the supposed bearing of this same doctrine on the origin of 



1 nature. It is clearly seen that there 



man 



affinity 



in our corporeal structure and in many of our instincts 

 and passions, with those of the lower animals — that man is so 



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