CREATION BY LAW. 229 



that the theory of Mr Darwin does not address 

 itself to the same question, and does not even 

 profess to trace the Origin of new Forms to any 

 definite law. His theory gives an explanation, 

 not of the processes by which new Forms first 

 appear, but only of the processes by which, when 

 they have appeared, they acquire a preference over 

 others, and thus become established in the world. 

 A new Species is, indeed, according to his theory, 

 as well as with the older theories of Development, 

 simply an unusual birth. The bond of connexion 

 between allied specific and generic Forms, is in his 

 view simply the bond of Inheritance. But Mr 

 Darwin does not pretend to have discovered any 

 law or rule according to which new Forms have 

 been born from old Forms. He does not hold that 

 outward conditions, however changed, are suffi- 

 cient to account for them. Still less does he con- 

 nect them with the effort or aspirations of any 

 Organism after new faculties and powers. He 

 frankly confesses that " our ignorance of the laws 

 of variation is profound;" and says, that in speak- 

 ing of them as due to chance, he means only 

 " to acknowledge plainly our ignorance of the 



