264 
VII. 
CREATION BY LAW. 
Amone the various criticisms that have appeared on 
Mr. Darwin’s celebrated “‘ Origin of Species,” there 
is, perhaps, none that will appeal to so large a number 
of well educated and intelligent persons, as that con- 
tained in the Duke of Argyll’s “ Reign of Law.” The 
noble author represents the feelings and expresses the 
ideas of that large class, who take a keen interest in 
the progress of Science in general, and especially that 
of Natural History, but have never themselves studied 
nature in detail, or acquired that personal knowledge 
of the structure of closely allied forms,—the wonder- 
ful gradations from species to species and from group 
to group, and the infinite variety of the phenomena 
of “variation ” in organic beings,—which are abso- 
lutely necessary for a full appreciation of the facts and 
reasonings contained in Mr. Darwin’s great work. 
Nearly half of the Duke’s book is devoted to an 
exposition of his idea of “ Creation by Law,” and he 
expresses so clearly what are his difficulties and ob- 
jections as regards the theory of ‘“ Natural Selection,” 
that I think it advisable that they should be fairly 
answered, and that his own views should be shown to 
lead to conclusions, as hard to accept as any which he 
imputes to Mr. Darwin. 
