UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
the action of natural selection, working upon chance 
variation, gave rise to all the infinite diversity of 
forms that now people the earth. Darwin's scientific 
faith was strong where that of Wallace was weak, 
inasmuch as he had no more difficulty in accounting 
for the mind of man by the theory of descent, than 
he had in accounting for the body of man. Both 
were an evolution of lower forms. His was a type 
of mind much more steady and consistent than was 
the mind of Wallace. Darwin’s mind was of the 
planetary order, while Wallace’s was more cometary. 
The later works of Wallace are a curious mixture of 
scientific data and theological moonshine. 
Darwin’s conviction of the origin of species 
through descent was so deep and whole-hearted 
that one wonders why it did not carry him back into 
the problem of the very beginning of life upon the 
globe. If natural law is adequate to account for the 
wonderful diversity of vegetable and animal forms, 
including the body and the soul of man, why should 
it not be adequate to account for the origin of the 
first primordial forms? If we are to believe that the 
mentality and spirituality of man as we know him 
to-day could arise from the blind, unreasoning lower 
orders, should we have any trouble in believing that 
living matter could arise or be evolved from the non- 
living? The change is no greater in the latter case 
than in the former. 
Are we to look upon the universe as half natural 
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