WHAT IS DARWINISM? 77 



Ought not this to settle the matter? Are we 

 to give up the Bible and all our hopes for the 

 sake of an hypothesis that all living things, 

 including man, on the face of the earth, are 

 descended from a primordial animalcule, by 

 natural selection, when such a man as Huxley, 

 who (as Voltaire said of the prophet Hab- 

 bakuk) is capable de tout, says that it has not 

 been proved that any one species has thus 

 originated ? 



But on the other hand, while he honestly 

 admits that Darwin's doctrine is a mere hy- 

 pothesis and not a theory, he has nevertheless 

 written at least three essays or reviews in its 

 exposition and vindication. He is freely re- 

 ferred to on the continent of Europe, at least, 

 as an ardent advocate of the doctrine ; and he 

 quotes without protest such designations of 

 himself. At any rate, as he assures his readers 

 that he has no bias against Mr. Darwin's views, 

 as he has devoted much time and attention to 

 the subject, and as he is one of the most prom- 

 position with honesty, inasmuch as it is, and always has been, a 

 favorite tenet, that Atheism is as absurd, logically speaking, as 

 Polytheism." In the same paper he says, " The denying the 

 possibility of miracles seems to me quite as unjustifiable as spec- 

 ulative Atheism.'' How this can be reconciled with the pas- 

 sages quoted above, we are unable to see. 



