426 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



At successive stages of development of the life-world, more 

 and perhaps higher intelligences might be required to direct 

 the main lines of variation in definite directions in accordance 

 with the general design to be w^orked out, and to guard against 

 a break in the particular line which alone could lead ultimately 

 to the production of the human form. Some such conception 

 as this — of delegated powers to beings of a very high, and to 

 others of a very low grade of life and intellect — seems to me 

 less grossly improbable than that the infinite Deity not only 

 designed the whole of the cosmos, but that himself alone is 

 the consciously acting power in every cell of every living thing 

 that is or ever has been upon the earth. 



What I should imagine the highest intelligence engaged in 

 the w^ork (and this not the Infinite) to have done would be 

 so to constitute the substance of our universe that it would 

 afford the materials and the best conditions for the development 

 of life ; and also, under the simple laws of variation, increase, 

 and survival, would automatically lead to the maximum of vari- 

 ety, beauty, and use for man, when the time came for his ap- 

 pearance ; and that all this should take place with the minimum 

 of guidance beyond that necessary for the actual working of the 

 life-machinery of all the organisms that were produced under 

 these laws. Some such conception seems to me to be in har- 

 mony with the universal teaching of nature — everyw^here an 

 almost infinite variety, not as a detailed design (as when it 

 was supposed that God made every valley and mountain, every 

 insect and every serpent), but as a foreseen result of the con- 

 stitution of the universe. The vast whole is therefore a mani- 

 festation of his powTr — perhaps of his very self — but by 

 the agency of his ministering angels through many descending 

 grades of intelligence and power. 



Diversify of Human Character 



Many people are disturbed by the now w-ell-established fact 

 that the effects of use, of training, or of education, are not 

 inherited; and that though innate mental as well as bodily 



