1867.] Creation by Law. 485 



" selection " natural or artificial, — is the simple basis for the indefinite 

 modification of the forms of life ; — partial, unbalanced, and con- 

 sequently unstable modifications being produced by man, while 

 those developed under the unrestrained action of natural laws, are 

 at every step self-adjusted to external conditions by the dying out 

 of all unadjusted forms, and are therefore stable and comparatively 

 permanent. To be consistent in his views the Duke of Argyll must 

 maintain that every one of the variations that have rendered 

 possible the changes produced by man, have been determined at the 

 right time and place by the will of the Creator. Every race 

 prcduced by the florist or the breeder, the dog or the pigeon fancier, 

 the ratcatcher, the sporting man, or the slave-hunter, must have 

 been provided for by varieties occurring when wanted, and as these 

 variations were never withheld it would appear as if the sanction of 

 an allwise and all-powerful Being had been given to that which the 

 highest human minds consider to be trivial, mean, or debasing. 



This aj^pears to be a complete answer to the theory, that varia- 

 tion sufficient in amount to be accumulated in a given direction 

 must be the direct act of the creative mind, but it is also sufficiently 

 condemned by being so entirely unnecessary. The facility with 

 which man obtains new races, depends chiefly upon the number of 

 individuals he can procure to select from. When hundreds of florists 

 or breeders are all aiming at the same object the work of change goes 

 on rapidly. But a common species in nature contains a thousand- 

 fold more individuals than any domestic race, and survival of the 

 fittest must unerringly preserve all that vary in the right direction 

 not only in obvious characters but in minute details, not only in 

 external but in internal organs ; so that if the materials are 

 sufficient for the needs of man, there can be no want of them to 

 fulfil the grand purpose of keeping up a supply of modified 

 organisms exactly adapted to the changed conditions that are 

 always occurring in the inorganic world. 



Having now, I believe, fairly answered the chief objections of the 

 Duke of Argyll, I proceed to notice one or two of those adduced in 

 an able and argumentative essay on the " Origin of Species " in the 

 July number of the 'North British Eeview.' The writer first 

 attempts to prove that there are strict limits to variation. When 

 we begin to select variations in any one direction, the process is 

 comparatively rapid, but after a considerable amount of change 

 has been effected it becomes slower and slower till at length its 

 limits are reached, and no care in breeding and selection can produce 

 any further advance. The race-horse is chosen as an example. 

 It is admitted that, with any ordinary lot of horses to begin 

 with, careful selection would in a few years make a great 

 improvement, and in a comparatively short time the standard 

 of our best racers might be reached. But that standard has 



