THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



OCTOBEE, 1867. 



I. CBEATION BY LAW. 

 i 



By Alfeed E. Wallace, F.Z.S., E.E.G.S., &c. 



Among the various criticisms that have appeared on Mr. Darwin's 

 celebrated "Origin of Species," there is, perhaps, none that will 

 appeal to so large a number of well educated and intelligent persons 

 as that contained in the Duke of Argyll's " Eeign of Law." The 

 noble author represents the feelings and expresses the ideas of that 

 large class who take a keen interest in the progress of Science in 

 general, and especially that of Natural History, but have never 

 themselves studied nature in detail, or acquired that personal know- 

 ledge of the structure of closely allied forms, — the wonderful gra- 

 dations from species to species and from group to group, and the 

 infinite variety of the phenomena of " variation " in organic beings, — 

 which are absolutely necessary for a full appreciation of the facts 

 and reasonings contained in Mr. Darwin's great work. 



Nearly half of the Duke's book is devoted to an exposition of 

 his idea of ' Creation by Law' and he expresses so clearly what are 

 his difficulties and objections as regards the theory of " Natural 

 Selection," that I think it advisable that they should be fairly 

 answered, and that his own views should be shown to lead to con- 

 clusions as hard to accept as any which he imputes to Mr. Darwin. 



The point on which the Duke of Argyll lays most stress is, 

 that proofs of Mind everywhere meet us in Nature, and are more 

 especially manifest wherever we find " contrivance " or "beauty." 

 He maintains that this indicates the constant supervision and direct 

 interference of the Creator, and cannot possibly be explained by the 

 unassisted action of any combination of laws. Now Mr. Darwin's 

 work has for its main object to show, that all the phenomena of 

 living things, — all their wonderful organs and complicated struc- 

 tures, their infinite variety of form, size, and colour, their intricate 

 and involved relations to each other, — may have been produced by 



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