SOME DIFFICULTIES OF EVOLUTION. 



87 



the Creator, rightly or wrongly, endowing at His will the 

 primordial germ with power to rise to the next step in creation 

 per saltum or " mutation "; and this could be repeated by the 

 Divine will without intermediate types at all ; which would accord 

 with the geologic record, and redeem it from the reproach it has 

 so long unjustly laboured under. No one can, of course, say this 

 was the method, for we don't know ; but it is at least more feasible 

 than Darwin's " natural selection "; only it labours under the 

 fatal drawback of requiring a Creator or directing force with a 

 fixed purpose and power, which nowadays is asking rather too 

 much. The only mind of which science is officially aware is 

 man's. 



Professor Schafer points out that " supernatural intervention is 

 unscientific," a fact that has already struck us as obvious, but 

 which does not necessarily make it less true. A. E. Wallace, on 

 the other hand, in his unscientific way, says, " We must postulate 

 a mind as the source of all the forces of the whole material 

 universe." (" World of Life," p. 338.) 



I hope the Institute is not yet tired of the difficulties in evolu- 

 tion, for there are still a few most serious ones ahead. 



6. The ne:d dijficulty is about the 500,000 species of insects. 

 Insect life, indeed, seems expressly designed to strike despair 

 into the Darwinian's heart. It is certainly a terrible problem, 

 to conceive how an animal evolves, that begins life by crawling 

 on numerous legs, under a long, soft body, suddenly folds 

 itself up one day and dissolves into a creamy mass of cells, all 

 absolutely alike, where it lies without motion, or apparently life, 

 as a chrysalis for days or weeks; and then, miracle of miracles, 

 its dirty grey slime is transformed into the gauzy wings, gorgeous 

 body, and long attenuated legs of a dragon-fly, or into the 

 painted glories of a nectar-sipping butterfly, or maybe into the 

 polished scarabaeus of a blackbeetle. Where in this variegated 

 life, does natural selection carry on its beneficent task of evolu- 

 tion? Is it the worm, the quiescent corpse, or the horny consum- 

 mation that proves might is right? 



If, indeed, evolution by natural selection were the whole truth 

 about the universe, we could boldly say, " Never did such lowly 

 and inadequate means produce such magnificent and transcen- 

 dental results, as seen in the insectivora. " But this is another 

 difficulty. Is it true that any animal, however fit, has itself the 

 power to evolve either the repulsive horrors or the startling 

 beauties of the insect world ? Some stout-hearted believers still 

 say " yes." Most of us hov/ever, may envy, but cannot attain 

 to their faith. On the whole it seems easier, safer, and indeed 

 wi^er to take the simple path of believing the word of God. 



