The Naturalist, 



liunian life, ever see anything created ? Did any human being ever 

 know of anything being created 1 Can any human being even imagine 

 the process of creation "? Can any human being even take the slightest 

 step towards explanation of what creation means % Creation, then, is 

 no theory ; it is nothing more nor less than a confession of ignorance. 

 When a little boy asks me who made the tree, and I say God made 

 it ; how did he make it 1 and I say, by his wonderful power he made 

 it grow, — do I answer the child? Do I explain anything It is 

 another way (a specious, if a pious way) of letting the child see^that I 

 do not know anything about it. For the very question that is up for 

 discussion is — How? By what process"? Show me some force at work 

 that is adequate to produce these results. That is the question con- 

 cerning the world. 



What does Darwin answer '? Here it is only fair that I should say 

 that Darwin is not the first man who has guessed in this direction. To 

 find the first hints of a theory like this, we must consult Lucretius, 

 Democritus, and one and another of the Athenian philosophers ; but 

 the wisest of them were only guessing. They showed no force, no 

 law, that was capable of explaining the results. If we come down to 

 modern times, we must give to such men as Goethe, Lamarck, and 

 Saint Hilaire the honour of having been the morning stars of this sun- 

 rise represented by Darwin ; for they also found some indications that 

 looked in this direction. But the time was not yet ripe for them to 

 put their fingers to the fruit. They did not find the true cause, the 

 real force that could bring about the result. 



We are now rea,dy to understand just what Darwin did. He starts 

 with the well-known fact that in every department of life there are 

 hundreds and thousands, yea millions, of seeds and of young that 

 never grow to maturity. Step into a field, and, if you know what is 

 going on there, you will find thousands of little grass-blades starting 

 that do not find room to grow, and are crowded out and perish. It is 

 said that every cod-tish in the ocean lays so many eggs every year, 

 that if they were all hatched, and the young should live to grow up, it 

 would take only two or three years for the ocean to become solid full. 

 How many apple blossoms are seen to fall and come to nothing 1 So, 

 in every direction, Darwin recognised that which has come to be called 

 the "struggle for life" — everywhere on the part of these individuals 

 an attempt to grow. But only those comparatively few do grow which 

 are adapted to their conditions, which are capable of finding room, air, 

 food, light, dew, and rain. Those best fitted to live survive, and they 

 are the ones that propagate offspring, and become the progenitors of 

 those that follow. . 



