466 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



" strips man of allliis moral attributes, and holds as of no account Hs origin and 

 place in the created world. A cold atheistical materialism pervades the senti- 

 ments of modern philosophy. The new doctrine is untrue and mischievous. 

 It is opposed to the obvious course of nature, and the very opposite of induc- 



*^^Why should it be considered atheistical to believe the laws of the Great 

 Perfection to be 'perfect. The inscrutable Eternal cannot err ; why then should 

 His laws be so defective and imperfect as to require repeated efforts of creative 

 energy? Is this world like an old watch so much out of order as to requii-e 

 contmual oilings and repeated repairs ? Why, too, should it be objectionable 

 to consider the laws He has given to nature as wortliily and incessantly sub- 

 servient to His will? Or why should it be thought irreligious to believe the 

 Maker of all things in His first designs should have foreseen the necessity of 

 future modifications to future altered conditions, and have provided accordingly 

 in His first type-plans for their future illimitable adaptations to the ever-chang- 

 ing scenes presented in the progress of our earth's ever-altering conditions? 

 "Why, indeed, may we not look around us and believe in the universal bowing 

 of ail nature hourly, daily, unceasingly to the unerring laws and sustaming power 

 of God? "Why should we not see in every change His presence and His will? 

 "Why should the high position of man be brought in on all occasions in our 

 natural history researches when we do not at present know of any link which 

 binds him to the brute creation ? 



If these remarks on our part seem strong, let it however be known that we are 

 not professedly defending Mr. Darwin's doctrines, but attemptmg to poui'tray as 

 forcibly as we can the unjustness and uncharitableness of such attacks upon a 

 new and well-studied theory. Let a new doctrine be always well and impar- 

 tially examined, and justly accepted or rejected according to our honest opinions 

 of its merits or failuigs. Mr. Darwin's theory briefly resolves itself into tliis. 



First. — There is a natural struggle for existence. — " Look," he says, " at a 

 plant in the midst of its range ; why does it not double or quadruple its num- 

 bers ? "Wc know that it can perfectly well withstand a little more heat or 

 cold, dampness or dryness, for else it ranges into slightly hotter or colder, 

 damjier or drier districts. In this case we can clearly see that if we wished in 

 imagination to give the plant the power of increasing its number, we should 

 give it some advantage over its competitors, or over the animals wliich preyed 

 on it. On the confines of its geo"'raphical range, a change of constitution 

 with respect to climate would cleany be an advantage to the plant: but we 

 have reason to beli(>ve that only a few plants or animals range so far that they 

 are destroyed by the rigour of the climate alone. Not until we reach the ex- 

 treme confines of life in the Arctic regions or on the borders of an utter desert 

 will competition cease. The land inav be extremely cold or dry, yet there will 

 be competition between some t^pccies, or between the individuals of the same 

 species, for the warmest or dampest spots. Hence, also, we can see that when 

 a plant, or animal is placed in a new country, among new competitors, though 

 the climate may he exactly the same as in its former home, yet the conditions 

 of its life will gradually be changed in an essential maimer. If we wished to 

 increase its average numbers in its new home, we should have to modify it m a 

 difierent M-ay to wliat we should have done in its native country ; for we should 

 have to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies. 

 It is good thus to try in om- imagination to give any form some advantage over 

 another. Probably in no snigle instance should we" know what to do so" as to 

 succeed. It will convince us of our ignorance on the mutual relations of all 

 organic bein":s ; a conviction as necessary as it seems difhcult to acquii-e. All 

 that wc can do is to keep steadily in mind that each organic being is striving to 

 increase at a geometrical ratio;* that at some period of its life, during some 



