286 



THE GEOLOGIST, 



Devonian on the evidence of their mutual relation with horizontal 

 and inclined quartzite are all of one formation; all contain the 

 same fossils, and all have the same relation to the quartzite in 

 different localities. See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xv-, p. 196, 

 &c. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



DIFFICULTIES OF DARWINISM. 



Sie, — In the article on Mr. Darwin's theory that I contributed to your maga- 

 zine in April and May last, I contented myself with stating the scientific argu- 

 ments both for and against it, as they presented themselves to me. I did not 

 touch on any of the points connected with theology, as I mistrusted my ability 

 to deal properly with them ; and now, if Mr. Grindley's attack had been directed 

 against myself alone, I should not have troubled you with any remarks on the 

 subject ; but as he has stated that this theory is opposed to the truths of Revealed 

 Religion, I feel that I ought to do my best to show that I believe such not to be 

 the case. 



In his first paragraph Mr. Grindley says that "its direct effect would be to 

 shut the Creator out of the world of His own creation, and to set up instead what 

 the Rev. Baden Powell calls the ' self-evolving powers of nature.' " Now in this I 

 cannot agree with him. They who speak of this theory as " shutting out the 

 Creator from the world of His own creation," seem to imagine that its advocates 

 dispense with the necessity of a Creator altogether ; and they talk of the " theory 

 of creation and the •' theory of development" as if the one were the exact con- 

 trary of the other. But the theory of development, or of natural selection, is 

 merely a theory of the way in vjhich the Creator has carried on His work of crea- 

 tion ; not a denial of a Creator, nor of creation. I cannot understand why natural 

 selection has been so often mistaken for a cause, when it is evidently the effect of 

 the " struggle for life" acting on variations in species, which variations are the 

 effects of an unknown law ordained and guided, without doubt, by an Intelligent 

 Cause " on a preconceived and definite plan." I have neither time nor space to 

 go into any of the proofs now, but I must refer Mr. Grindley to a most able 

 pamphlet called " Natural Selection not inconsistent with Natural Theology," by 

 Dr. Asa Gray, published in the " Atlantic Monthly" for July, August, and Octo- 

 ber, and reprinted in England by Trubner and Co., 60, Paternoster-row, which I 

 would also recommend to your other readers who take an interest in the subject. 



The second paragraph requires no notice. I leave it to your readers to judge 

 whether satisfactory answers have been, or can be, given to most of the state- 

 ments by any other hypothesis. 



With reference to the third paragraph, I must protest against Mr. Grindley 

 saying that I profess " to have answered the principal objections to the Darwinian 

 theory." If he looks at my article again, he will see that I merely state the 

 objections and the answers that have been given to them (the answer to No. 4 

 being the only original one), and leave it an open question. It is not until I have 

 stated the arguments in favour of the theory that I say that, on the whole, the 

 evidence seems to be in favour of it. He also puts four queries to me, upon 

 which I must make a few remarks. 



