8 Prof. Parsons on the Origin of Species. 
phrase, that each new creature has come into being by the fiat 
of the Almighty? What I do with it, is to accept it readily 
and entirely. Por when the voice of God issues the fiat and 
says let this thing be, is it not as perfectly obeyed although that 
thing comes into being by generative development, as if it sprang 
forth from nothing or from the dust? 
And again what shall we do with the principle of Agassiz, 
that in all these new creatures there is no chance and nothing ar- 
bitrary, but a coherence and coérdination of parts, and a unity of 
purpose and of place, which prove the whole to be the work of 
one directing mind and one causative power. Again I answer, 
admit this also freely and gladly; thankful for every argument 
and illustration whieh: enforce it. For what is there in the sup- 
position that God has his own laws of divine order, and operates 
through these laws, and by the means which He has provided, 
(no matter how universal these laws or how far back the chain 
of influences or causes extends,) to prevent our recognition of 
Him and of his wisdom in his works. 
But what shall we do on the other hand with Darwin’s “ strug- 
gle for life,” and consequent “ natural selection,” which plays so 
great a part in his theory? Again I say, if farther investigation 
renders it probable, as I think it will, admit this also with perfect 
readiness to play whatever part sufficient evidence may assign 
to it, be that more or less. the fact to some extent is obvious and 
certain. And may not God act as well through this “struggle 
for life” as through any other of his laws? Must it be regarded 
as a blot, an imperfection, which he could not help, and bears 
with as he may? If we regard it as an instrument, by means 
of which he works out universal, inevitable, and never ending 
improvement, incorporating this law with the nature and essence 
of every thing that lives, or can live, may we not see in this 
also, at once his infinite love and his infinite wisdom 
hen as to hybridism. Darwin admits the vast preponderance 
of authority against the continued fertility of hybrids, but still 
thinks that there are some qualifications. Even since his boo 
was published, Isidore St. Hilaire, who has made hybridism a 
special study, has published a work in which he asserts, and 
goes far to prove, that hybrids are sometimes at least just as fer- 
tile as their parents. Out of this uncertainty, let us draw one 
certainty; and it is that nothing is certainly known about it. 
And also one probability—that offspring may differ from their 
parents and brethren so very much that there can be no sexual 
intercourse between them. They may differ less and then there 
pa A be intercourse but it will not be productive. They may 
differ still less, and it may be productive, but the offspring will 
not reproduce, Still less and they will reproduce, but only for 
a few steps. Still less, and they will be as fertile as their parents 
or brethren. Scientific men may give to these degrees of differ- 
