262 



43. In support of his views he quotes Mr. Herbert Spencer's 

 article in the Fortnightly Review of May 1, 1870, p. 538, and 

 then he continues: "]No being could experience so complex 

 an emotion (that of religious devotion) until advanced in his 

 intellectual and moral faculties to at least a moderately high 

 level. Nevertheless, we see some distinct approach to this state 

 of mind in the deep love of a dog for its master associated with 

 complete submission, some fear,and perhaps some other feelings.'^ 



44. It will not be necessary for me to follow Mr. Darwin 

 over the gulf which separates the animal from man. I need 

 not dwell upon the fruitless effort to prove that reason has been 

 evolved from the lower psychical attributes of brutes, nor need 

 I stay to refute the theory that man^s consciousness, his 

 language, his spiritual nature, and his immortality, are the 

 result of natural selection^' and the "survival of the fittest.^^ 



45. There is perhaps nothing more astounding in the history 

 of the human mind and the literature of our time than the 

 fact that men of reputation and scholars can be found who hold 

 that a belief in such hypotheses as are included in Darwinism 

 and evolution are consistent with Christianity and the revela- 

 tion of Holy Scripture. 



46. The principal argument used by such men is that Mr. 

 Darwin^s critics do not understand Mr. Darwin. But this is a 

 poor subterfuge. The " Darwinian calculus is by no means a 

 difficult thing to solve. If Mr. Darwin has some arriere pensee, 

 which he merely foreshadows in ambiguous language, we shall, 

 no doubt, be enlightened by-and-by. In the meantime we must 

 remember that critics may themselves be deficient in the 

 necessary knowledge to form a sound opinion upon the writings 

 of Mr. Darwin^s opponents. 



47. Whether this be so or not, there can be no difficulty in 

 comprehension by the meanest capacity of the following passage, 

 which I requote : It is quite possible, as Mr. Tyler has clearly 

 shown, that dreams may have given rise to the notion of spirits, 

 and the belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the 

 belief in the existence of one or more gods.'' 



48. It is childish to tell us that such a passage can be mis- 

 understood, or mistaken for anything but a theory of the origin 

 of religion which it professes to be. Is it possible to hold such 

 opinions and to teach such doctrines consistently with a belief 

 in revelation or of natural theology ? 



49. With regard to the utterances of Mr. Darwin's followers 

 I will now make some quotations and remarks. How far the 

 evolution of the "formless to the formed; the inorganic to 

 the organic ; or blind force to conscious intellect and will," is 

 consistent with a belief in the Creator of the Bible, who, 



