WHAT IS DARWINISM? 27 



causes, showing no disposition to resolve them 

 into mind-force, or into the efficiency of the 

 First Cause. 



3. He assumes also the existence of life in 

 the form of one or more primordial germs. He 

 does not adopt the theory of spontaneous gen- 

 eration. What life is he does not attempt to 

 explain, further than to quote (p. 326), with 

 approbation, the definition of Herbert Spen- 

 cer, who says, " Life depends on, or consists 

 in, the incessant action and reaction of vari- 

 ous forces," — which conveys no very definite 

 idea. 



4. To account for the existence of matter 

 and life, Mr. Darwin admits a Creator. This 

 is done explicitly a,nd repeatedly. Nothing, 

 however, is said of the nature of the Creator 

 and of his relation to the world, further than is 

 implied in the meaning of the word. 



5. From the primordial germ or germs (Mr. 

 Darwin seems to have settled down to the 

 assumption of only one primordial germ), all 

 living organisms, vegetable and animal, includ- 

 ing man, on our globe, through all the stages 

 of its history, have descended. 



6. As growth, organization, and reproduction 

 are the functions of physical life, as soon as 



