484 Darwinism and Religious Thought 
Under the head of the directly and purely Darwinian elements 
I should class as preeminent the work of Wallace and of Bates ; for 
no two sets of facts have done more to fix in ordinary intelligent 
minds a belief in organic evolution and in natural selection as its 
guiding factor than the facts of geographical distribution and of 
protective colour and mimicry. The facts of geology were difficult 
to grasp and the public and theologians heard more often of the 
imperfection than of the extent of the geological record. The 
witness of embryology, depending to a great extent upon microscopic 
work, was and is beyond the appreciation of persons occupied in 
fields of work other than biology. 
Tl. 
From the influence in religion of scientific modes of thought we 
pass to the influence of particular biological conceptions. The former 
effect comes by way of analogy, example, encouragement and 
challenge; inspiring or provoking kindred or similar modes of 
thought in the field of theology ; the latter by a collision of opinions 
upon matters of fact or conjecture which seem to concern both 
science and religion. 
In the case of Darwinism the story of this collision is familiar, 
and falls under the heads of evolution and natural selection, the 
doctrine of descent with modification, and the doctrine of its guidance 
or determination by the struggle for existence between related 
varieties. These doctrines, though associated and interdependent, 
and in popular thought not only combined but confused, must be 
considered separately. It is true that the ancient doctrine of 
Evolution, in spite of the ingenuity and ardour of Lamarck, remained 
a dream tantalising the intellectual ambition of naturalists, until the 
day when Darwin made it conceivable by suggesting the machinery 
of its guidance. And, further, the idea of natural selection has so 
effectively opened the door of research and stimulated observation 
in a score of principal directions that, even if the Darwinian ex- 
planation became one day much less convincing than, in spite of 
recent criticism, it now is, yet its passing, supposing it to pass, would 
leave the doctrine of Evolution immeasurably and permanently 
strengthened. For in the interests of the theory of selection, “Fiir 
Darwin,” as Miiller wrote, facts have been collected which remain in 
any case evidence of the reality of descent with modification. 
But still, though thus united in the modern history of convictions, 
though united and confused in the collision of biological and tra- 
ditional opinion, yet evolution and natural selection must be separated 
in theological no less than in biological estimation. Evolution seemed 
