44 DARWINISM AND EVOLUTION. 



So much for evolution. Shall we, like the Fathers le Seur and 

 Jacquier, still cling to what is proved to be false, or have we 

 the courage to avow and to teach those things that we believe to 

 be true ? The soul of man, says Plato, is like a driver with two 

 horses ; one of them strenuous, docile, steadfast ; the other 

 turbulent, capricious, destructive, ungovernable. While our better 

 nature has been slowly and painfully evolved, we know that our 

 evil tendencies have been transmitted to us from primal and 

 carnal ancestors. And if any should exclaim like the queen- 

 mother, 



" Hamlet, thou hast cleft nay heart in twain," 



we may reply with him, 



" throw away the worser part of it, 



" And live the purer with the other half." 



ADDITUM. 



Tt was altogether outside the province of this paper to refer to 

 -*- a First Cause. When we try to penetrate into the mystery of 

 the origin of all things, one supreme difficulty meets us on the 

 threshold and arrests our search. We cannot escape from our 

 corporeity. The theologian and the philosopher speak of a First 

 Cause in terms of humanity, attributing to It intelligence, emotion 

 and will — states of which we know absolutely nothing except as 

 associated with the possessors of a nervous system. 



If the naturalist speaks of a first cause, it is, perhaps, in terms 

 of the two inseparables, matter and force ; and if he attributes to 

 it law and order it is with the full consciousness that his 

 knowledge of these relations is altogether drawn from his own 

 sensations. Hence anthropomorphism is a constant which we 

 cannot eliminate. It is certain, however, that there is nothing in 

 the Darwinian theory of evolution antagonistic to a teleological 

 conception of the universe, if only a first cause is not considered 



