466 
TUE GEOLOGIST. 
" strips man of all his moral att ributes, and holds as of no account his 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- 
tive truth." 
Why should it be considered atheistical to believe the laws of the Great 
Perfection to be perfect. Tiie iuscrutablc Eternal cannot err ; why then should 
His laws be so defective and imperfect as to require repeated effort s of creative 
energy? Is tliis world like au old watch so much out of order as to require 
continual oilings and repeated repairs ? Why, too, should it be objectionable 
to consider the laws He has given to nature as worthily and incessantly sub- 
servient to His will? Or why should it be thought irrcligio\is to believe the 
Maker of all things in His Jirxt designs should have foreseen the necessity of 
future modifications to future altered conditions, and have provided accordingly 
in Ji\s first type-plans for theii- 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 sustainnig power 
of God? Why should we not see in every change His presence and His wUl? 
Why should the high j)osition of man be brought in on all occasions in our 
natural history researches when we do not at present know of any liuk whicli 
binds him to the brute creation ? 
If these remarks on our part seem strong, let it however be kno^vn that we are 
not professedly defending Mr. Darwin's doctrines, but attempting to poui'tray as 
forcibly as we can the unjustness and uncharitablencss of such attacks iipou 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 opimons 
of it's merits or failings. Mr. Darwin's theory briefly resolves itself into this. 
First.— There is a natural striigcjle for existence. — " Look," he says, " at a 
plant in the midst of its range ; why does it not double or quadi-uple its num- 
bers ? We 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, 
damper 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 which preyed 
on it. On the confines of its geographical range, a change of constitution 
with respect to climate woiild cleany be an advantage to the plant : but we 
have reason to believe 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 
wUl competition cease. The land may be extremely cold or dry, yet there will 
be competition between some species, 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 wUl gradually be changed in an essential manner. If we wished to 
increase its average numbers in its new home, we should have to modify it in a 
difierent way to what we should have done in its native country ; for we should 
liave to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies. 
It is good thus to try in our imagination to give any form some advantage over 
another. Probably in no single 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 beings ; a conviction as necessary as it seems difficult to acquire. All 
that we 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 
