OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF DESCENT. 311 



the results consequent on this unknown element of at- 

 traction ; notwithstanding that Leibnitz formerly accused 

 Newton of introducing "occult qualities and miracles 

 into philosophy." 



I see no good reason why the views given ia this 

 volume should shock the religious feelings of any one. It 

 is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impressions 

 are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made 

 by man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was 

 also attacked by Leibnitz, " as subversive of natural, and 

 inferentiaUy of revealed, religion." A celebrated author 

 and divine has written to me that "he has gradually 

 learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the 

 Deity to believe that he created a few original forms 

 capable of self-development into other and needful forms, 

 as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to 

 supply the voids caused by the action of his laws." 



LAPSE OF TIME AKD EXTENT OF ABBA. 



Origin of The mere lapse of time by itself does 



Species, nothing, either for or against natural selection. 

 ^*^* ■ I state this because it has been erroneously 

 asserted that the element of time has been assumed by 

 me to play an all-important part in modifying species, as 

 if all the forms of life were necessarily undergoing change 

 through some innate law. Lapse of time is only so far 

 important, and its importance in this respect is great, 

 that it gives a better chance of beneficial variations aris- 

 ing, and of their being selected, accumulated, and fixed. 

 It likewise tends to increase the direct action of the phys- 

 ical conditions of life, in relation to the constitution of 

 each organism. 



If we turn to nature to test the truth of these re- 



