194 Original Articles. [April, 



We may observe in passing, that this power on the part of man to 

 bring about changes in species such as those referred to by Mr. Darwin 

 constitutes, as it appears to us, an irrefragable proof that the larger 

 changes produced in nature were executed by and under the direction 

 of a wise and mighty Being, who adapted fresh forms to new conditions 

 of existence. 



And so it must have appeared to the modest and reverential author 

 of the work, for he told his readers that the slow and unerring change 

 which occurred in the various species of living beings adapting them to 

 the altered condition of the globe, not only appeared to him to be a 

 more rational and scientific view of the case than the modern inter- 

 pretations of the traditional account, but that it conveyed to him a 

 nobler conception of the Majesty of that Being who from a few 

 simple typical forms had, in the course of long ages, evolved the beau- 

 tiful and varied Creation of the present day. Mr. Darwin has never, 

 that we are aware, advanced his hypothesis as an undoubted truth, 

 but as an unproved theory, and has invited young and rising natu- 

 ralists to test its accuracy, promising to furnish the scientific world 

 with a large amount of additional evidence at a future time. With 

 some unimportant exceptions this promise has not been fulfilled, 

 owing, we regret to say, to the ill-health of the author. 



Those persons who have read Mr. Darwin's book unbiassed by 

 theological prejudice on the one hand and by scientific dogmatism on 

 the other (for not all his followers have been so cautious and tem- 

 perate as he, and there is such a thing as scientific as well as political 

 or religious terrorism), and who have carefully considered the pub- 

 lished opinions of other eminent observers in Zoology, Botany, and 

 Palaeontology, cannot fail to be convinced that his researches and 

 generalizations have brought us at least one step nearer to a clear 

 comprehension of the laws of animal and plant life, besides giving 

 such a stimulus to natural history studies as no preceding age has 

 witnessed. Neither can our readers fail to observe that those slow 

 and gradual changes which Mr. Darwin attributes to the animal and 

 vegetable kingdom, are in perfect accordance with a similar theory 

 formerly contested with great bitterness, but now universally accepted, 

 in regard to the Geological formations ; and that the growing convic- 

 tion with respect to the great antiquity of man also points in the 

 same direction. Beyond this we feel that we have no right to go ; 

 but others think differently. 



For some time after the publication of his work, Mr. Darwin's 

 theory gained ground very rapidly, and although a little reaction 

 has set in in certain quarters, there is at present a considerable 

 number of scientific men of undoubted sincerity and accuracy, who 

 are implicit believers in its correctness, regarding it as the only 

 scientific mode of solving the problem of " species," and who, without 

 hesitation, refer to it all past and existing biological phenomena. 

 Now it appears to us that until a scientific theory of this nature is 

 almost universally accepted (and not even its most zealous champions 

 will advance such a claim for the doctrine of " natural selection"), it 

 should be the aim of its advocates to pour into the scale every particle 



